A Collection of Thoughts & Discoveries


Technology, Business, Giving, Etc.

  • “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemmingway
  • “Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” Robert Louis Stevenson
  • “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Gandhi
  • “Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.” Blaise Pascal
  • “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” Ayn Rand
  • “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” John D. Rockefeller
  • “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” Thomas Jefferson
  • “Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.” William Penn
  • “There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use.” Freeman Dyson
  • “You don't know what you can learn until you try to learn.” Ronald Coase
  • “Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” Mark Twain
  • “Create more value than you capture.” Tim O'Reilly

Net Neutrality: An Important, but Complicated Topic

Today, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to pass an order setting-up rules to prevent ISPs from blocking certain content dependent upon the type of device used to access it—in other words, to make it unlawful, for example, to discriminate against users of mobile telephones in comparison to those accessing content via different devices or connection types. It’s obvious that legal challenges remain, and rather than attempt to analyze this whole thing I’ll simply post some links that are worth a read as we all try to decipher this. More information will be forthcoming once the full order is available in a few days.

The fact that people on all sides are mostly quite concerned about this is cause to stay engaged. Silence on this issue, leaving it to the government to figure out, is likely not in the best interest of the internet.

FCC's Net Neutrality Vote Hit from Both Sides

A Net Neutrality Timeline: How We Got Here

FCC's Next Net Neutrality Proposal: What to Watch For

Why You Need to Care About Net Neutrality

Was it Google and Verizon, or the FCC?

Presumably, there will be meaningful analysis from various sources, and hopefully intelligent dialogue, once the ruling is fully exposed.end of article icon

UPDATE: I was going to post an update with some of the info that is surfacing regarding the ruling, but Fred Wilson has done a good job of summarizing some of the details. His article includes a link to a post by Barbara van Schewick, Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, and a leading academic voice in the Net Neutrality debate. You can visit Fred’s blog post HERE.

There’s also a good breakdown on GigaOM today, by Stacey Higginbothem. View it here.

Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 in Technology • Politics •

Comments

1. Posted by Dale on December 24, 2010

The FCC has now released the full document outlining the ruling. It’s available here as a PDF.

2. Posted by Richard on December 28, 2010

I’m less concerned about descrimination based on hardware (cell phone vs computer) and more interested in the giving and taking of bandwidth based on payola. No doubt this is already happening behind the scenes.

As we move from cable/DSL to cell or sattelite for primary connectivity this stuff will really become important.

3. Posted by Dale Allyn on December 28, 2010

Richard,

It’s a bit messy, in my opinion. I don’t want there to be a different fee for accessing material from a different device (other than the normal subscriber fees for each), but like you (if I understand your comment correctly) I don’t want to see metered bandwidth as has been done outside of the U.S. and is slowly fading away. Further, BigCos should not be able to buy their way into controlling bandwidth by throwing boatloads of payola at it. There is no “neutrality” in that. I want small and innovative companies and individuals participating as well.

Those providing content and access must profit or the process ends, but fair and equitable access must be universal in my view. Whatever the cost, there should be one cost to connect and access material so that all may benefit.

4. Posted by Dale Allyn on January 21, 2011

The Washington Post has an article by Rob Pegoraro which describes the new lawsuit launched against the FCC by telecom giant, Verizon.

And Ars Technica has added a post on the topic, including a chart comparing the original Verizion/Google proposal and the current FCC rules.

Both were a look.

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