Net Neutrality

Forgot to mention - DId anyone catch Moyers on America last week on PBS? It was called "The Net at Risk", very informative. Starts off with what the phone and cable companies promised to do in the 90s with the fiber optic networks. Then proceeds into the net neutrality issue and a whole slew of metaphors to describe the internet and what the phone/cable companies / congress / fcc may do. Watch for free online! http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/index.html

This morning a co-worker placed an article from the July 2006 edition of Communications Engineering and Design Magazine entitled "Net neutrality legislation--my take on it" by Jeffrey Krauss, President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy. Net Neutrality is an important issue; pending legislation and changing business practices have the potential to dramatically change how we use the Internet. Below I have responded to some of the points Mr. Krauss brought up in the article. "There's an enormous coalition supporting net neutrality, hundreds of individuals and organizations and companies that I have never heard of. But if you follow the money, you find that it's really Google, Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo! that are behind this campaign." Yes, there is wide support for Net Neutrality and for good reason. I run several small websites (and am known to browse the web myself), and am happy that Google, Amazon.com, et al are behind the campaign and helping to pay for it. I don't have the money or resources to fight for Net Neutrality as well as they can, so I'm really glad that …read more