Catch-Up: INTERNET & NET NEUTRALITY

(The explanation of "Catch-Up" is here.)

INTERNET & NET NEUTRALITY

• The Non-Uses of History, Digital Society, 27 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Net Neutrality – comments on the FCC’s lack of interest in its experience with the Open Video Systems concept or in other lessons from regulatory history. Breaking the Piñata, Digital Society, 22 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Net Neutrality as a gift to the DC communications bar.
• A Market Working! What Will They Think of Next! Digital Society, 20 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Net Neutrality –anyone who creates demanded content can force the ISPs to pay them rather the reverse. So why a major ISP tick off its customers by cutting them off from desired content?
• Net Neutrality, the Internet & Electronic Funds Transfer Networks, Digital Society, 17 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Looks at core similarities between the issues created by the Durbin Amendment on Electronic Funds Transfer networks the net neutrality issues.
• Danger! Kibitzers at Work, Digital Society, 14 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Net Neutrality – none of the 82 organizations that endorsed more Internet openness actually do anything to make the Internet work or to deliver content.
• Network Nation, Digital Society, 13 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Links to Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications, and to a presentation by the author.
• Net Neutrality & the Fifth Amendment, Digital Society, 6 Dec. 2010 (Blog). Links to Virtual Takings: The Coming Fifth Amendment Challenge to Net Neutrality Regulation, by Daniel Lyons of BC Law School.

• Telecom Symposium, Digital Society, 29 Nov. 2010 (Blog). Interesting telecom session.
• Comment in response to Department of Commerce, Inquiry on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Internet Economy, filed Nov. 19, 2010, James DeLong on behalf of Digital Society. Comment was requested on “the challenges of protecting copyrighted works online and the relationship between copyright law and innovation in the Internet economy.”
• Internet Policy Task Force – Internet Inquiry, Digital Society, 19 Nov. 2010 (Blog). Link to the Digital Society comments filed with the DOC.
• EU & Net Neutrality, Digital Society, 13 Nov. 2010 (Blog). Nellie Kroes says: “We should allow network operators and services and content providers to explore innovative business models.”
• Tech Regulation, Digital Society, 26 Oct. 2010 (Blog). Links to my 2008 piece on Avoiding a Tech Train Wreck (growing older, but not losing relevance).
• Streaming Video & Net Neutrality, Digital Society, 21 Oct. 2010 (Blog). Net Neutrality and Netflix.
• Grant Application, Digital Society, 7 Oct. 2010 (Blog). Why Digital Society deserves a Ford Foundation grant (and will never get one).
• Recycled – How to Think About Net Neutrality, Digital Society, 19 Oct. 2010 (Blog). A 2009 article on the topic is reprinted.
• Your Right to Pay Less for Cable, Digital Society, 16 Oct. 2010 (Blog). VTEL says customers have such a right – and plans to spend federal money to do it.
• Wireless: It’s a Tsunami, Digital Society, 21 Sept. 2010 (Blog). Projections of bandwidth use, and regulatory implications.
• Net Neutrality — Just the Facts, Please, Digital Society, 21 Sept. 2010 (Blog). A problem with the debate over Net Neutrality is its continuing focus on high level abstractions, not on specific practices and their consequences.
• Netflix Neutrality, Digital Society, 16 Sept. 2010 (Blog). Is the US Post Office favoring Netflix? Interesting info on how Netflix does it, too.
• History of Net Neutrality, Digital Society, 31 Aug. 2010 (Blog). The latest news from 1875, about the telegraph.
• Net Neutrality: Let’s Hold a Hearing! Digital Society, 17 Aug. 2010 (Blog). Why markets are superior to administrative processes.
• Verizon-Google: Of Common Carriers & Contract Carriers, Digital Society, 14 Aug. 2010 (Blog). One way of looking at the recent Verizon-Google Legislative Framework Proposal is that the companies are arguing for an Internet structure that is a hybrid between “common carriers” and “contract carriers.”
• Net Neutrality: Getting Down to Cases, Digital Society, 12 Aug. 2010 (Blog). My problem is one that is endemic to the whole NN debate – the debate is conducted at a high level of abstraction, rarely getting down to cases on the question “what are the particular problems that Net Neutrality is designed to solve or the particular practices that it is needed to prevent?”
• Net Neutrality, VZ, GOOG, & RegNeg, Digital Society, 10 Aug. 2010 (Blog). The idea that parties affected by rules should negotiate with the agency and with each other, and should even reach binding agreements, and that this will improve both the process and the final product, has an extensive and thoughtful history. The concept of RegNeg is even enshrined in the one of the better-kept secrets in the United States Code.
• Writing on Telecom’s Wall, Digital Society, 28 June 2010 (Blog). Electronic Funds Transfer industry as an omen of government willingness to meddle in complex network industries.
• Net Neutrality: History Lesson, Digital Society, 9 July 2010 (Blog). The utility industry in the 1930s.
• Adding Value on the Internet, Digital Society, 8 June 2010 (Blog). Economist/columnist/blogger/ex-TreasuryGuyBruce Bartlett has started Bartlett’s Notations.
• Tiered Pricing & the Free Press, Digital Society, 3 June 2010 (Blog). Flip-flopping.
• Telecom & Dynamic Pricing, Digital Society, 18 May 2010 (Blog). Demo of new capabilities that enable operators to use pricing to modify subscriber behavior and reduce their impact on network capacity based on time-of-day or location-based parameters.
• Finance, Telecom, Tech & the Interconnectedness of All Things, 14 May 2010 (Blog). Populist anger is like a flash mob in that it can be diverted to the wrong targets. An interesting dimension of the movement in support of net neutrality is that the proponents are rather skillfully trying to focus the Populist anger that is boiling over out there beyond the beltway on telecom companies and ISPs, and in favor of — Big Government.