[governance] What is Network Neutrality

[Carlos Afonso]

Regarding the growing drive for doing ever more complex analyses under
the "net neutrality" umbrella, I would recommend Sandvig's article
(unfortunately, the English version is available for a price at
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/272/2007/00000009/F0020002/art00012),
which we have just published in Portuguese in our magazine poliTICs
(www.politics.org.br). If you can manage Portuguese, please download the
PDF version under a CC licence from the site.

In reading the recent contributions (including Sandvig's), I feel most
if not all of them do not take the user approach to NN in consideration.
I mean, I am sitting at a home in X city in Y state in Z country using
XXX ADSL operator and such and such things which seem to reveal packet
manipulation of some sort on the part of the XXX operator is happening.
How do I deal with it, what are the legal/regulatory handles (or lack
thereof) I can use to protect myself against such manipulation, what
political involvement I should consider to change this (thinking of the
brainers who try and write action-oriented papers) and so on.

However, in any case and whatever the approach, I insist in considering
NN (whatever the name you wish to choose for it) a key topic for IGF.

frt rgds

--c.a.

Parminder wrote:
> 
>>>they may own the networks, but the Internet is ours'.
> 
>> It's more like "I own my network, you own yours, they own theirs, but
>> collectively, the Internet is greater than the sum of it's constituent
>> parts"
> 
> McTim
> 
> You are saying the same thing, just much less elegantly :-).
> We may own 'our' networks, but what is 'essentially' the Internet is not
> what anyone of us privately owns, but outside and beyond it. That is why
> we are saying that 'publicness' is Internet's essential character.
> But we need not stay in vague theoretical areas, and should strive to
> connect the above to real issues at hand.
>>> ..we think that greater conceptual clarity on 'what is NN' is
>>> required before we
>>> can move forward in this area.. .
> 
>> http://www.circleid.com/posts/20081228_meanings_of_network_neutrality/
> 
> Thanks a lot for posting this link that starts with a link to Prof Ed
> Felten's article on 'three flavours of NN'
> (
> http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/three-flavors-net-neutrality
> ) . I am very pleased to note that Ed describes the two main current
> conceptions of NN almost exactly as I did. (the third ' flavour' is the
> narrow technical principle which as i mentioned i have deliberately
> ignored).
> 
> (Milton,  since you said my NN typology is ' framed poorly', you may
> want to take notice)
> 
> McTim, since you forwarded this link to me, I would like to know whether
> you see NN as - using Ed's terms - an economic principle of non
> exclusive deals, or a free speech principle implying no content
> discrimination. Thats the real issue here.
> 
> Parminder
> 
> McTim wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
>> wrote:
>> <snip>
>>
>>  
>>> 'they may own the networks, but the Internet is ours'.
>>>     
>>
>> It's more like "I own my network, you own yours, they own theirs, but
>> collectively, the Internet is greater than the sum of it's constituent
>> parts"
>>
>>  
>>> I agree that it is a crucial and a difficult time for global public
>>> interest
>>> advocates interested in 'saving the Internet' in its original open,
>>> public
>>> and egalitarian conception. For this purpose we need to be strategic
>>> in our
>>> advocacy plans and make all necessary alliances. It is for this
>>> reason that
>>> I mentioned in my original email in this thread that though I/ we
>>> have some
>>> problems with the way the term Network Neutrality is being used by
>>> many, it
>>> is still one of the most appropriate 'umbrella' for us to to be working
>>> under.
>>>
>>> However, after the recent Wall Street Journal article attracted our
>>> attention towards important nuances (though, as will be argued, they are
>>> hardly 'nuances') in the network neutrality (NN) debates and
>>> advocacy, we
>>> think that greater conceptual clarity on 'what is NN' is required
>>> before we
>>> can move forward in this area..
>>>     
>>
>> http://www.circleid.com/posts/20081228_meanings_of_network_neutrality/
>>
>>   
> 

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