Re: read -- Logic Lost In Google Flu Flap

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: November 17, 2008 9:21:37 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Logic Lost In Google Flu Flap


Dave,

Since I view the note I'm replying to as essentially a personal
attack in a public forum, I trust you'll forward this reply to IP.
I don't much care what Brett Glass thinks these days -- his private
messages, which I wish decorum would allow me to share -- have
helped assure that position.  But I do care what you think.
I'd like to get a few facts onto the table.

It is not true that I don't give ISPs positive credit when so
deserved.  In fact, ironically enough, I frequently attempt to give
Brett himself public credit -- including right here in IP! -- for
business practices that are admirable and would well serve the ISP
industry at large.  And I've frequently suggested that small ISPs
should be *exempt* from much or all of the regulatory structure that
I increasingly believe should be considered for the ISP industry as a
whole.  This nearly always triggers dismissive criticism from Brett,
but that's his problem, not yours or mine.

I'm not an adherent to any particular ideology, but I do have a
philosophy.  Within the bounds of propriety (and occasional
non-disclosure agreements) I've always tried to call things as I see
them, even knowing how this will upset one side or another (or
sometimes both) on any given issue.

This may have served me well from a karmic standpoint, but certainly
has done me no good financially.  Much of the time people don't want
to hear the truth, and the surest way to have a report deep-sixed is
to say what your contracting entity didn't want to hear.  So be it.

I point this out to make it clear that I have no current significant
financial stake in these controversial topics under discussion.
Occasionally an observer incorrectly assumes that I have a financial
motive for my stance on issues... but nothing could be farther from
the truth.  I live hand to mouth and don't have the sales skills
that might have allowed me to benefit from the dot-com boom.
Oh well, them's the breaks.  The tiny bit of stock I own was
essentially worthless before the current economic implosion.  But
you can't lose what you don't have.

Does this mean that I'm not looking for gainful employment in tough
times?  Just the opposite -- I'm always open to work that will help
me keep the lights on.  I keep my own projects and systems running
these days on the resources equivalent of a wing and a prayer.

But no matter what work I'm doing or whom I may be doing it for in
the future, one thing for sure will stay the same -- just like right
now, I won't tell lies for anybody.

I am a student of history as well as technology.  History teaches us
to look at trends at least as much as the current moment.  I'm less
worried about where we'll be tomorrow or next year, than where we'll
be 10 or 20 or even 50 years from now.  Watching the ARPANET and then
Internet grow from nothing over the last few decades has given many
of us an object lesson in how early decisions can have dramatic and
widespread impacts for very long periods of time.

As for Google and ISPs...  By the trend lines I see, Google is moving
in a positive direction vis-a-vis the issues of most concern to me,
particularly in the privacy realm.  They have farther to go, but
they are still a relatively young enterprise, and the associated trends
look better all the time.

I see the opposite trends with the ISP industry as a whole (there are
certainly individual exceptions, as noted earlier).  I see them doing,
having done, or having a history of:

  - various disingenuous statements and behaviors over many years

  - interfering with users' Web and other data traffic in unacceptable
    and unreasonable manners

  - suggesting that backbone data should be monitored for the
    benefit of particular intellectual property holders

  - wiretapping users without affirmative permission for
    commercial purposes (Phorm, NebuAd, etc.)

  - capping bandwidth in arbitrary manners without clear justification
    and in ways that suggest high levels of anticompetitive content
    risk

  - fighting any attempt at even minimal levels of regulatory scrutiny
    and related transparency

And all of this in an Internet access environment that is distinctly
anticompetive in the basic sense of the word, as has been explained
here in IP many times in the past.

In other words, I see the ISP trend line as distinctly negative in
character.

Does this all mean that everything Google does is great and everything
that any ISP does is terrible?  Of course not.  But again, the trends
are what matter most over time, and I've tried to be absolutely honest
in my analysis of those trends and what impacts I believe they will
have on us all.

While I may not always be as free to speak on any subject as I am
these days, I will always tell the truth to the best of my ability.

And with that, I rest my case.

Dave, thanks always for IP.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

- - -




> He has a point djf
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>
> Date: November 17, 2008 7:24:05 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: lauren () vortex com
> Subject: Re: [IP] Logic Lost In Google Flu Flap
>
> At 05:04 PM 11/17/2008, Lauren Weinstein wrote:
>
> > I noted how for companies like Google, it seems impossible to avoid
> > ideologically-based criticisms even when performing obvious and
> > valuable public services.
>
> Ironically, you do not seem to be willing to acknowledge that this is
> true of ISPs.
>
> --Brett Glass
>
>
>
>
>
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