Net Neutrality Links
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‘Neutrality’ Is New Challenge for Internet Pioneer andnterview By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: September 27, 2006
SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE was a software programmer working at the CERN physics research laboratory in Switzerland in the 1980ââ¬â¢s when he proposed the idea of a project based on hypertext ââ¬â linking documents with software pointers.
The World Wide Web went online in 1991 and rapidly grew beyond the physics community. In 1994, Sir Tim founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to promote open standards on the Internet. Earlier this year, he began speaking out in favor of ââ¬ÅNet neutrality.ââ¬Â The term describes one side in the debate in the United States over whether Internet service providers should be able to control the order in which they route packets of data ââ¬â or even be able to reject those packets ââ¬â or whether they should be required to be neutral on the matter. For example, in some cases I.S.P.ââ¬â¢s have restricted the routing of services provided by competitors like Internet phone calls.
He answered questions earlier this month by telephone from Cambridge, Mass.
Q. Do you think you would be able to invent the Web today, given the barriers that are emerging?
A. You have to imagine the Net without the Web. I think I would be able to invent it today, but if we lose Net neutrality, then imagine a world in which itââ¬â¢s much more difficult to invent the Web.
Q. Is your view that the anti-Net neutrality infrastructure actually threatens political democracy? Does it go beyond just the technical structure of the Internet?
A. Net neutrality is one of those principles, social principles, certainly now much more than a technical principle, which is very fundamental. When you break it, then it really depends how far you let things go. But certainly I think that the neutrality of the Net is a medium essential for democracy, yes ââ¬â if there is democracy and the way people inform themselves is to go onto the Web.
MORE TOMORROW . . .
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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