FCC Commissioner: "Engineers solve engineering problems"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: David P. Reed [dpreed () reed com]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 4:18 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: ip
Subject: Re: [IP] FCC Commissioner: "Engineers solve engineering problems"

As the engineer who testified the commissioners, including Commissioner
McDowell, that Comcast did not bring its solution before the engineering
community, I would point out that Commissioner McDowell does not explain
how the engineering community is supposed to examine Comcast's actions.

On the contrary, Comcast kept its activity secret, while denying
repeatedly they were doing what they were doing in the face of actual
*evidence* to the contrary,

Thus, we have the situation that the "engineers" who should be solving
these problems were treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed
manure.

I would also note that Comcast has not *yet* shared with the Internet
community any evidence of the problem they claimed, much less completely
explained the details of the proposed *solution* that will replace the
still-active blocking of selective protocols.

Commissioner McDowell's formula would be my preferred formula, but it
has a precondition.  That precondition is that companies that
participate in oligopolies supported by our government not be allowed to
play games in secret.

Sunshine *is* the best disinfectant. If any member of the Internet
eingineering community could walk into Comcast's network operations and
verify that Comcast were merely forwarding packets, that would empower
the engineers.

Otherwise, since there are reasonable reasons why Comcast might not want
people poking and probing in its rackspace, we do need laws and
penalties.  This is just commonsense, except for those who think
business is *always* honest, open, and focused on benevolent service to
its customers.





David Farber wrote:
> ________________________________________
> From: Richard Bennett [richard () bennett com]
> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 1:56 PM
> To: David Farber
> Subject: FCC Commissioner: "Engineers solve engineering problems"
>
> Commissioner McDowell's Op-Ed in the Washington Post today demonstrates great clarity and insight into the way 
> Internet governance has worked for the last 20 years. I hope it's widely read, because it's correct.
>
> Who Should Solve This Internet Crisis?
>
> By Robert M. McDowell
> Monday, July 28, 2008; A17
>
> The Internet was in crisis. Its electronic "pipes" were clogged with new bandwidth-hogging software. Engineers faced 
> a choice: Allow the Net to succumb to fatal gridlock or find a solution.
>
> The year was 1987. About 35,000 people, mainly academics and some government employees, used the Internet.
>
> This story, of course, had a happy ending. The loosely knit Internet engineering community rallied to improve an 
> automated data "traffic cop" that prioritized applications and content needing "real time" delivery over those that 
> would not suffer from delay. Their efforts unclogged the Internet and laid the foundation for what has become the 
> greatest deregulatory success story of all time.
>
> The Internet has since weathered several such crises. Each time, engineers, academics, software developers, Web 
> infrastructure builders and others have worked together to fix the problems. Over the years, some groups have become 
> more formalized -- such as the Internet Society, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Architecture 
> Board. They have remained largely self-governing, self-funded and nonprofit, with volunteers acting on their own and 
> not on behalf of their employers. No government owns or regulates them.
>
> The Internet has flourished because it has operated under the principle that engineers, not politicians or 
> bureaucrats, should solve engineering problems.
>
> (Read the whole thing at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/27/AR2008072701172.html )
>
> RB
>
>
>
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