[governance] Fwd: [AFCN Members] The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for Internet Freedom.

[Garth Graham]

May be of interest here...

Garth Graham
Telecommunities Canada


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
> Date: April 6, 2006 10:59:22 AM PDT
> To: Members at afcn.org
> Subject: [AFCN Members] The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for  
> Internet Freedom.
>
> Hi all,
>
> Michael Maranda suggested I should send this along to folks.  I  
> just posted this
> on my own blog (saschameinrath.com) and on MuniWireless.com --  
> thought I would
> send it out to the list for feedback.
>
> --Sascha
>
> With the San Francisco and Philadelphia wireless debates heating  
> up, it's become
> clear that there's been a lack of attention paid to the undermining  
> of many of
> the freedoms we've grown to expect (and perhaps take for granted)  
> on the
> Internet. With this in mind, my colleague, Victor Pickard, and I  
> have been
> thinking more and more about the interconnections between Internet  
> Freedom and
> Network Neutrality, and the inadequateness of current  
> conceptualizations. Here's
> an overview:
>
>        An extraordinary debate has unfolded in recent months.  
> Heated discussions
> concerning “Net Neutrality” have spilled outside the policy power- 
> centers of
> congress and the eighth floor of the FCC. These debates have  
> transcended their
> normal boundaries of inside-the-beltway public interest circles to  
> rage across
> the Internet as well as the business and editorial pages of major  
> media outlets.
> Generally referring to nondiscriminatory interconnectedness between
> communication networks allowing users’ to access and run the  
> content, services,
> applications and devices of their choice; net neutrality principles  
> are the
> critical foundation of the Internet’s relative openness.  
> Increasingly, however,
> telecommunications companies are motioning that within a newly  
> “deregulated,”
> post-Brand X climate, they are eager to create tiered Internet  
> services more in
> line with a cable television model. As congress debates whether net  
> neutrality
> protections should be written into current legislation, the battle  
> lines have
> been drawn between the big telecommunications companies who own the  
> pipes, on
> one side, and Internet content companies and public interest  
> groups, on the other.
>
>        The fact that people are paying attention to these crucial  
> Internet
> principles––and the policies that may undermine the public’s  
> freedom of access
> to information on the Internet––is something to be applauded.  
> However, it is the
> authors' contention that the ways in which net neutrality have been  
> defined in
> normative discourse thus far, with an emphasis on non- 
> discriminating wires and
> common carriage, are too limiting in their scope. We propose a far  
> more
> encompassing program for net neutrality provisions, one that we  
> believe will
> better enable the Internet to reach its democratic and  
> participatory potentials.
> Our new formulation of net neutrality goes beyond questions of open  
> access to
> consider the broader contours of Internet architecture, including  
> software,
> hardware, wireless infrastructure, economics, and open protocols  
> and standards.
>
>        Drawing from the research of Yochai Benkler, Mark Cooper,  
> Lawrence
> Lessig, Tim Wu, and others, we envision a more open and  
> participatory Internet.
> Frequently referred to as a commons-based approach to the  
> management of
> communications systems, this model emphasizes cooperation and  
> innovation as
> opposed to privatization and enclosure. Much of the recent  
> discussions on net
> neutrality implicitly relate to these precepts. However, we  
> demonstrate that the
> linkages among net neutrality and the more encompassing provisions  
> of “open
> architecture” need to be made more explicit. Understanding that all  
> technology
> is inscribed with social values that foreclose certain  
> possibilities while
> encouraging others, this project is necessary to better clarify  
> what we mean
> when we talk about “net neutrality” and, with eyes to the future,  
> to situate
> this debate within a larger vision of Internet openness and freedom.
>
>        To summarize, our contribution will synthesize existing  
> commons-based
> models to create a more expansive standard of net neutrality that  
> is conducive
> to Internet openness. We propose a model that runs counter to U.S.  
> phone and
> cable companies’ plans, but also challenges the overly narrow  
> constraints of
> current public interest arguments. Using a theoretical framework  
> based on
> critical approaches to Internet technology and close analysis of  
> news coverage
> and policy briefs, our paper illuminates the current debate around net
> neutrality, explicates limitations of this discourse, and proposes  
> a set of
> policy guidelines for a more open and participatory Internet.
>
> Originally posted at: http://www.saschameinrath.com/node/363
>
> -- 
> Sascha Meinrath
> Policy Analyst    *  Project Coordinator  *  President
> Free Press       *** CUWiN               *** Acorn Active Media
> www.freepress.net *  www.cuwireless.net   *  www.acornactivemedia.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Members mailing list
> Members at afcn.org
> http://afcn.org/mailman/listinfo/members_afcn.org


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