Net neutrality: Is the Internet about to change?
The FCC has applied ‘neutrality' to its oversight of the Internet: Everyone’s data reaches the same audience in the same way. But the Internet’s gatekeepers, such as Verizon and Comcast, have been trying to reshape the federal regulatory landscape.
The executive summary of the Federal Communications Commission‘s National Broadband Plan would never be mistaken for a Dan Brown page turner, but right at the top of the first page it makes a statement that is central to the future of the Internet in the United States.
The comment could easily be dismissed as bureaucratic hyperbole, but it raises an important point that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is even now struggling to resolve: Has the Internet become so vital to national welfare that it should be run for the public good, or is it just a business that can be run primarily for profit?
Phi Beta Iota: We need Open Source Everything — it is the only affordable, inter-operable, scalable approach to elevating humanity at a time when we have crashed into the wall in terms of both natural non-renewable resources, and the ability of industrial-era organizations to be responsive to public needs. An Autonomous Internet — one that cannot be censored, shut down, nor manipulated by any party, private or public, is an essential first step, and the technical foundation for Open Cloud and Open Spectrum.
See Also:
Autonomous Internet @ Phi Beta Iota
