[governance] FW: Towards the Internet as a Global Public Good: A Seasonal Wish to One and All:

[Michael Leibrandt]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the link. I'm not sure if the terminus technicus "public good" actually fits to the Internet. Without digging into a decade-long debate among economists, public goods are usually characterized by being non-excludible as well as non-rivalrous (the Wikipedia article you linked rightly points this out). Even if bandwith continues to grow, it will - technically speaking - never be unlimited. And as we know, bandwith demand usually grows parallel to bandwith supply. So I don't see a chance for Internet usage becoming non-rivalrous. And I also believe that it will always be possible to practically exclude somebody from using the Internet (contrary to public defense, which is often used as an example for being a public good). The important issue about applying the term public good to the Internet is, that public goods - according to mainstream economics - usually come with market failure and the need for governments to step in. To my knowledge, that was the case in the very early days of the Internet when outside of the US government and academia not many - and especially not the telecom industry - believed in the concept of a package-switched network. But today, I don't see market failure with regard to Internet supply. Of course, we are stick lacking Internet supply in developing countries, which is bad enough. But this is based on the low return on private investments, not on the two criteria mentioned above. 

Michael, Berlin   


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: michael gurstein 
  To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
  Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 6:46 PM
  Subject: [governance] FW: Towards the Internet as a Global Public Good: A Seasonal Wish to One and All:


  http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/towards-the-internet-as-a-global-public-good/

   

  With my very best for the season and looking forward to a just and inclusive new year.

   

  M



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