[CWN-Summit] The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for Internet Freedom.

[Sascha Meinrath]

Hi all,

A couple folks asked that I send this out to this list also...

***

I just posted this on my own blog (saschameinrath.com) and on MuniWireless.com
-- thought I would send it out to the list for feedback.

--Sascha

With the San Francisco and Philadelphia wireless debates heating up, it's become
clear that there's been a lack of attention paid to the undermining of many of
the freedoms we've grown to expect (and perhaps take for granted) on the
Internet. With this in mind, my colleague, Victor Pickard, and I have been
thinking more and more about the interconnections between Internet Freedom and
Network Neutrality, and the inadequateness of current conceptualizations. Here's
an overview:

       An extraordinary debate has unfolded in recent months. Heated discussions
concerning “Net Neutrality” have spilled outside the policy power-centers of
congress and the eighth floor of the FCC. These debates have transcended their
normal boundaries of inside-the-beltway public interest circles to rage across
the Internet as well as the business and editorial pages of major media outlets.
Generally referring to nondiscriminatory interconnectedness between
communication networks allowing users’ to access and run the content, services,
applications and devices of their choice; net neutrality principles are the
critical foundation of the Internet’s relative openness. Increasingly, however,
telecommunications companies are motioning that within a newly “deregulated,”
post-Brand X climate, they are eager to create tiered Internet services more in
line with a cable television model. As congress debates whether net neutrality
protections should be written into current legislation, the battle lines have
been drawn between the big telecommunications companies who own the pipes, on
one side, and Internet content companies and public interest groups, on the other.

       The fact that people are paying attention to these crucial Internet
principles––and the policies that may undermine the public’s freedom of access
to information on the Internet––is something to be applauded. However, it is the
authors' contention that the ways in which net neutrality have been defined in
normative discourse thus far, with an emphasis on non-discriminating wires and
common carriage, are too limiting in their scope. We propose a far more
encompassing program for net neutrality provisions, one that we believe will
better enable the Internet to reach its democratic and participatory potentials.
Our new formulation of net neutrality goes beyond questions of open access to
consider the broader contours of Internet architecture, including software,
hardware, wireless infrastructure, economics, and open protocols and standards.

       Drawing from the research of Yochai Benkler, Mark Cooper, Lawrence
Lessig, Tim Wu, and others, we envision a more open and participatory Internet.
Frequently referred to as a commons-based approach to the management of
communications systems, this model emphasizes cooperation and innovation as
opposed to privatization and enclosure. Much of the recent discussions on net
neutrality implicitly relate to these precepts. However, we demonstrate that the
linkages among net neutrality and the more encompassing provisions of “open
architecture” need to be made more explicit. Understanding that all technology
is inscribed with social values that foreclose certain possibilities while
encouraging others, this project is necessary to better clarify what we mean
when we talk about “net neutrality” and, with eyes to the future, to situate
this debate within a larger vision of Internet openness and freedom.

       To summarize, our contribution will synthesize existing commons-based
models to create a more expansive standard of net neutrality that is conducive
to Internet openness. We propose a model that runs counter to U.S. phone and
cable companies’ plans, but also challenges the overly narrow constraints of
current public interest arguments. Using a theoretical framework based on
critical approaches to Internet technology and close analysis of news coverage
and policy briefs, our paper illuminates the current debate around net
neutrality, explicates limitations of this discourse, and proposes a set of
policy guidelines for a more open and participatory Internet.

Originally posted at: http://www.saschameinrath.com/node/363

-- 
Sascha Meinrath
Policy Analyst    *  Project Coordinator  *  President
Free Press       *** CUWiN               *** Acorn Active Media
www.freepress.net *  www.cuwireless.net   *  www.acornactivemedia.com