Successful Blog

Net Neutrality 5-30-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Two sides of net neutrality … Sir Tim vs Bram Cohen

What is more troubling are things like this BBC interview with Bram Cohen—

Bram Cohen, the ‘ubergeek’ who gave us BitTorrent, is right up there in the pantheon of Internet gods. But unlike such luminaries as Shawn Fanning and Tim Berners Lee, Bram still hopes to make money from the fruits of his intellect. To which end he’s done a deal with Warner Brothers to help them to distribute their movies on BitTorrent. . . .

Bram, for all his kudos for creating BitTorrent, has more of an interest in earning money than keeping the Internet open and free. With his deal with Warner Brothers he now has a real incentive to have a multi-tiered Internet. A multi-tier Internet would allow Warner Brothers content to flow faster while the rest of us wait for our e-mail to arrive.

I think that there is a significant opportunity for an enterprising country to set up an free-Internet zone where displaced American businesses could thrive. A place where the world’s Internet traffic could be routed to. Maybe place like Canada. What do you think Mr Harper? Game for Canada to take the lead on the Internet and kick start a whole Canadian tech sector?

The Democratic Web Has Always Been An Illusion

The problem with the democratic web ideal is that no one really owns their own press — not me, not the rest of the blogosphere, not Yahoo, not Google.

Why? Because none of us owns our own internet access. . . .

Whatever democracy there is on the web exists because the ISPs allow it. Now that the ISPs want to take it away, everyone cries out in horror, running to congress to legislate our right to a democratic web.

Let me be clear — I’m a proponent of net neutrality, from the perspective of the public good — but even if the Web is a public good that should provide unfettered access, that doesn’t resolve the issue of who should pay for bandwidth, which is not an unlimited resource.

I pay for electricity, so I should be able to use as much as I want for whatever I want, right? But there’s a reason why I can’t plug a large industrial machine into my wall socket — the infrastructure can’t handle it.

So much for voltage neutrality.

The Web — Not Democratic but open

In any case, I would disagree with Scott’s premise: it’s not so much about democracy as it is about open access — and the telecoms are quite used to dealing with such things, since the telephone network was effectively treated as a public good through “common carrier” legislation. All the net neutrality folks are talking about is doing the same thing for the Internet. If that requires treating the Internet like a utility, then so be it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Pass the Word

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So Everyone Knows

smiley liz

Successful-Blog is moving servers today.

The plan is to move between 2pm and 3pm Chicago time.

It shouldn’t take long, and it shouldn’t hurt at all.

So don’t worry. 🙂

UPDATE: THE SERVER MOVE IS OVER

That didn’t hurt. Now did it?

Liz

Net Neutrality 5-29-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

A Long Way From Done

Coming Soon: The Web Toll from Popular Science;

“Welcome to the brave new Web, brought to you by Verizon, Bell South, AT&T and the other telecommunications giants (including PopSci’s parent company, Time Warner) that are now lobbying Congress to block laws that would prevent a two-tiered Internet, with a fast lane for Web sites able to afford it and a slow lane for everyone else.‿

In a thought process straight from “the tunnel‿ Christopher Yoo, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, argues that “consumers should be willing to pay for faster delivery of content on the Internet, just as many FedEx customers willingly shell out extra for overnight delivery. ‘A regulatory approach that allows companies to pursue a strategy like FedEx’s makes sense,’ he says.‿ Of course he, along with so many others, have yet to answer the “charges‿ that the consumer HAS ALREADY PAID!!!

Adam Cohen drinks the Kool Aid

The New York Times isn’t what it used to be. Rocked by scandal over the made-up reporting of Jayson Blair, torn apart by the dramatic ouster of Howell Raines, and shaken-up by Judith Miller’s megaphoning the Bush Administration’s fantasies about Iraq’s nuclear program, it increasingly relies on sensationalized, drama-queen reporting and opinion to hold on to a piece of market share. The most recent example of the Times’ descent into rank hysteria is a column today by Adam Cohen on the pending destruction of the World Wide Web:

Save Free Speech on the Web from Corporate Greed

And here in America, the greed of the big corporations is just as likely to stifle true democracy and freedom as it is to encourage it. As has been pointed out, for example, a free press is only free to those who can afford to own the press. We’ve all witnessed the growing lack of diversity of opinion in the broadcast media, where one or two large corporations, like Channel One, have bought up most of the smaller, once independent radio stations across the nation. Local programming has fallen and so has the rich mix of different voices and divergent opinions that was once the hallmark of local radio.

Now, the Internet also is being threatened, as this article in today’s New York Times shows. The telecommunications conglomerates want to start charging fees for use of the Web. By charging fees, they would be creating a tiered system that would favor large commercial sites that could afford steep fees while marginalizing smaller, independent sites. Those who couldn’t afford the pricey fees would have access only to lower speeds or perhaps no access at all.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Jeremy Wright, SOB Coming and Going

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What Jeremy Has

Jeremy Wright has plenty to do.
He has his own blog, a whole blog network to run, and THE book on blog marketing.
He has plenty of email.
He has plenty of jobs.
He has plenty of people who need plenty of things from him — even on weekends and holidays.

Yet he manages to have plenty of patience, spirit, and competence.

He helps move mountains and then says what he did was simple. Maybe it is sometimes, but that is always his attitude. It’s hard to find a better guy than Jeremy Wright. Don’t bother trying. I know.

I left for last, this other things he has . . .

He has the respect of everyone who knows him.

To Jeremy, the SOB

Jeremy,

It’s about time I called you an SOB. You truly are a Successful and Outstanding Blogger and a Successful and Outstanding Human Being. I guess that makes you an SOB coming and going.

Purple SOB Button

You make us all better. I’ve learned so much just by watching you.

Thanks, Jeremy, for everything.

Liz

Net Neutrality 5-28-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Open Email to Bob Cringley about Google

Hi Bob,

We’ve corresponded in the past about our respective blogs.

Just had a thought that I wanted to share with you: What if the real reason that Google is vying against the ISPs on network neutrality is that it wants to leverage those super-powered hardware boxes it has been dropping into its dark fiber for the past few years as accelerators for paying customers? Similar to what Akamai is already doing…

Preserving Net Neutrality

For people who innovate in the area of technology and those who enjoy those innovations, this free and open access to the internet has been a boon. New applications are being developed every hour and are able to be instantly distributed on the web. These new applications coupled with new content, such as broadband television, have the potential to offer a new array of choices to consumers.

Unfortunately, some telecommunications companies have a different vision for the internet. They have floated the idea of charging websites for access. Those who pay will get faster and more reliable delivery of their content to web surfers. Those who do not will see the delivery of their content degraded.

In the interests of openness, I frankly acknowledge that I am a recent convert to this point of view. A few years ago, I publicly expressed my view that regulation to stop impediments to net neutrality was a solution in search of a problem. At that point, I was aware of no telecommunications company that had expressed a desire to do so. That has clearly changed. — John Conyers

Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination

Columbia University law professor Tim Wu coined the term “net neutrality� in a paper he published in the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law. The paper is an interesting read because it’s sharply opposed to the regulations adopted by the House Judiciary Committee this week, so I’d encourage anyone who wants to have a neutral Internet to go read it. Some of Wu’s more interesting observations follow.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Thanks to Week 31 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

alexander-t logo

allkindsofwriting_blogspot_com

I Got News for You

Life of a Belly Dancer WannaBe

manage to change

Neat Living

popurls

Random Acts of Sillyness

Student PR

Why My Blog Stinks

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this badge’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss