It's the Internet Stupid

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson () RealMeasures dyndns org>
Date: June 7, 2009 2:37:09 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: It's the Internet Stupid
Reply-To: seth.johnson () RealMeasures dyndns org


Hello Dave - for IP, if you wish . . .


Seth Johnson
(In my individual capacity)


> http://itstheinternetstupid.com/


It’s The Internet Stupid

A Comment on Notice of Inquiry, FCC GN Docket No. 09-51


Comments on A National Broadband Plan For Our Future,

Notice of Inquiry, FCC GN Docket No. 09-51.


The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) aims at building a
new economic foundation for the United States by providing, “job
preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy
efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed,” et cetera. As
one step towards these goals, the ARRA mandates that the FCC deliver a
National Broadband Plan to Congress by February 17, 2010.

The National Broadband Plan mandated in Section 6001(k)(2) of the ARRA
makes clear that its objectives are for, “all people of the United
States . . . the public . . . [for] advancing consumer welfare, civic
participation, public safety and homeland security, community
development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency,
education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial
activity, job creation and economic growth, and other national
purposes.” It would be impossible to achieve most of these benefits
without the Internet. The most direct, most immediate way to reach
these objectives is via broadband connections to the Internet.

Broadband has other uses, to be sure. It is used for cellular
backhaul, in cable TV systems, for proprietary financial transaction
networks and for other proprietary enterprise networks. While cellcos,
cablecos and enterprises may need better broadband technologies for
their own proprietary purposes, these uses don’t rise to the level
that would require a National Broadband Plan for “all people of the
United States.” The people of the United States already have
reasonable telephone and television services; they need faster, more
affordable, more ubiquitous, more reliable connections to the
Internet.

Broadband is not the Internet. Broadband is shorthand for a diverse
class of wired and wireless digital transmission technologies. The
Internet, in contrast, is a set of public protocols for
inter-networking systems that specifies how data packets are
structured and processed. Broadband technologies, at their essence,
are high-capacity and always-on. The essence of the Internet is (a)
that it carries all packets that follow its protocols regardless of
what kinds of data the packets carry, (b) that it can interconnect all
networks that follow those protocols, and (c) its protocols are
defined via well-established public processes.

There’s risk in confusing broadband and Internet. If the National
Broadband Plan starts from the premise that the U.S. needs the
innovation, increased productivity, new ideas and freedoms of
expression that the Internet affords, then the Plan will be shaped
around the Internet. If, instead, the Plan is premised on a need for
broadband, it fails to address the ARRA’s mandated objectives
directly. More importantly, the premise that broadband is the primary
goal entertains the remaking of the Internet in ways that could put
its benefits at risk. The primary goal of the Plan should be broadband
connections to the Internet.

The FCC’s Internet Policy Statement of 2005 is a first attempt to
codify important aspects of the Internet independent of access
technology. It advocates end-user access to content, and end-user
choice of applications, services and devices. It says that Internet
users are, “entitled to competition,” but it does not spell out the
entitlement to the benefits of competition, such as increased choice,
lower price and diversity of offers. It fails to provide for
information about whether advertised services perform as specified. It
doesn’t address packet inspection, packet discrimination, data
collection or end-user privacy. It is not clear that all of these are
within the FCC’s purview, but it is abundantly clear that all of these
factors should be critical to a National Broadband Plan that addresses
broadband connections to the Internet.

Therefore, we urge that the FCC’s National Broadband Plan emphasize
that broadband connection to the Internet is the primary goal. In
addition, we strongly suggest that the Plan incorporate the FCC
Internet Policy Statement of 2005 and extend it to (a) include
consumer information that meaningfully specifies connection
performance and identifies any throttling, filtering, packet
inspection, data collection, et cetera, that the provider imposes upon
the connection, (b) prohibit discriminatory or preferential treatment
of packets based on sender, recipient or packet contents. Finally, we
suggest that the Internet is such a critical infrastructure that
enforcement of mandated behavior should be accompanied by penalties
severe enough to deter those behaviors.


Signatories

John Perry Barlow, co-founder Electronic Frontier Foundation,
barlow () eff org

Scott Bradner, University Technology Security Officer, Harvard
University, sob () harvard edu

Dave Burstein, Editor, DSL Prime, daveb () dslprime com

Robin Chase, Meadow Networks, rchase () alum mit edu

Judi Clark, independent consultant, judic () manymedia com

Gordon Cook, Editor & Publisher, Cook Report on Internet Protocol,
cook () cookreport com

Steve Crocker, Author RFC #1, CEO Shinkuro, steve () shinkuro com

Susan Estrada, President, FirstMile.US, susan () firstmile us

Harold Feld, blogger http://wetmachine.com, haroldjfeld () gmail com

Tom Freeburg, CTO Memorylink, tom () memorylink com

Dewayne Hendricks, CEO Tetherless Access, dewayne () tetherless com

David S. Isenberg, isen.com, LLC & F2C:Freedom to Connect,
isen () isen com

Jeff Jarvis,  City University of New York Graduate School of
Journalism; Author of What Would Google Do, jeff () buzzmachine com

Mitch Kapor, co-founder Electronic Frontier Foundation,
mitch () kapor com

Larry Lessig, Professor at Harvard Law School & Director of Harvard
University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics,
lessig () pobox com

Sascha Meinrath, Open Technology Initiative, New America Foundation,
meinrath () newamerica net

Jerry Michalski, independent consultant, jerry () sociate com

Elliott Noss, CEO Tucows, enoss () tucows com

Leslie Nulty, Principal, Focal Point Advisory Services/Project
Coordinator, East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network Project; and
Treasurer, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility,
nulty_leslie () yahoo com

Tim Nulty, CEO, East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network Project
t_nulty () yahoo com

Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, tim () oreilly com

Andrew Rasiej, Personal Democracy Forum, andrew () fon com

David P. Reed, early contributor to the Internet architecture, MIT
Media Laboratory, dpreed () reed com

Howard Rheingold, Author of The Virtual Community and Smart Mobs,
howard () rheingold com

Roy Russell, GoLoco, Inc., roy () alum mit edu

Doc Searls, Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society,
dsearls () cyber law harvard edu

Micah L. Sifry, Personal Democracy Forum, msifry () gmail com

Dana Spiegel, Executive Director, NYCwireless, Dana () NYCwireless net

Aaron Swartz, Co-Founder, BoldProgressives.org, me () aaronsw com

Katrin Verclas, Co-Founder, MobileActive.org, katrinverclas () gmail com

David Weinberger, Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society,
self () evident com

Stanton Williams, Board Chair, ValleyNet, stan.williams () valley net

Brian Worobey, CEO, openairboston.net, brian () openairboston net

Esme Vos Yu, founder of Muniwireless.com, esme () muniwireless com





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