[governance] Re: What is Network Neutrality

[McTim]

On 1/13/09, Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>
> I am forwarding the response of Steve Anderson who leads the
> Save-Our-Internet campaign in Canada, and to whom my original email in
> this long and interesting thread was addressed. He replied with cc to
> IGC list, but since he is not a member I am forwarding it to the list. I
> also wanted to share how civil society actors involved in democratic
> media issues look at the problem

We are all "civil society actors involved in democratic media issues".

, since I think the views in the present
> discussion on the list have been, if I may say so, dominated by a
> (unadulterated)  free market based economic framework.
>

You may say it, but you would be incorrect.  What Milton, Ralf and I
have been saying is that the Internet is not egalitarian in some of the
ways that you seem to think it is.

Google offers a definition that I think we can adopt in our work going forward:

"Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in
control of what content they view and what applications they use on
the Internet."

This definition doesn't open the can of worms (what is ok and what is
not), as Google does here:

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-do-we-mean-by-net-neutrality.html


>  From Steve's response, it looks like that the NN advocacy position I
> have been trying to formulate is not so obscure after all, as is made
> out by much of the discussion on this list.

Not obscure, just too specific.

On the other hand, everyone
> does realize that the whole area is quite complex, and evolving.
> However, from an action oriented advocacy point of view, which is what
> we are trying to do vis a vis the IGF, one needs to formulate advocacy
> positions as we go along based on our basic political and ethical
> convictions. One cannot just keep waiting for a danger to completely,
> and often irrevocably, envelop us, before thinking about doing anything.
>
> And, as we all know, not doing anything is an important political position.
>
> It is my humble opinion that this is what is happening in many quarters
> vis-a-vis price-differentiated content transmission over the Internet
> which is the most direct violation of the original and the fundamental
> NN principle. To this extent, merely (and only) talking

What do you realistically expect the IGF to do besides talk?


-- 
Cheers,

McTim
http://stateoftheinternetin.ug
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