[governance] a very grounded and divergent perspective on Net Neutrality

[Milton L Mueller]

Parminder:

Happy holidays, all. Sorry for the slow response. 

 

It seems that we have had this conversation before, and you always have
to agree that I am right but it never seems to make an impression on
your political rhetoric. So I will try again (because
I am just as persistent as you, and will not allow policies or
principles that are incorrect to be established simply because someone
keeps repeating them.

 

We need to develop and anchor such basic principles that maximize the
possibilities of the Internet as a new revolutionary network - whose
central characteristics (mentioned in social rather than technical
terms) should be that

 

1.   In terms of ownership - it is public

 

As I have explained numerous times, the essential characteristic of the
internet is NOT that it is public; the networks and most of the
investment are private. The STANDARDS are open and nonproprietary, but
they are useful only because they allow any and all private networks and
privately owned equipment to be interconnected. It is, in other words,
the correct mixture of private and public elements, in their respective
roles (to quote the TA) that makes it a success. The open protocols
allow private initiative to flourish, and enable people to offer content
and services without asking the public for permission. So the critical
feature of the internet is in many ways precisely the opposite of what
you are asserting.

 

I know that this does not conform to your ideology, but it's a fact. 

 

2.   and in terms of its key purpose, and orientation - it is
egalitarian (definition of 'egalitarian' from The American Heritage
Dictionary - "Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal
political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people")

 

Again I think you've got it wrong. 

Strictly speaking, the internet protocols do not have a "purpose" other
than to establish compatible data communications among any and all
networks. However, because the TCP/IP protocol suite's ability to
connect networks initially outstripped the understanding and capacity of
governments to regulate, one could say that its effect was more
libertarian than egalitarian. But its uniform, open nature did indeed
level the playing field and afford those interested in communicating
more equal rights than they have ever had before. 

 

Once we agree to these highest level principles as those most essential
to what we call as the Internet - their contextual elaborations can
always be done, in different circumstances and as related to different
issues and aspects. No doubts, such elaboration will itself be a
political process, subject to political trade-offs. The question is, are
we as a world community - and to start with as a group of progressive
civil society - able to agree to these (or any other) social and
political principles to be the highest constitutive principles for the
Internet. 

 

I can agree on principles when they are articulated with a full,
exacting respect for the technical and historical facts. 

 

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