While I agree that we have responsibilities to understand the net/corporate
environment and take our small stands, the more core issue is simply the
network itself.
Unfortunately, it is not easily managed by the private sector. The cellular
network is not mobile .. you cannot take your verizon phone to europe, it is
CDMA rather than GSM. Europe decided cellular technology was a core resource
and thus regulated it from the start, in particular creating the GSM standards
body to insure all carriers were interoperable.
The internet is similar: it is just not well matched to the private sector.
Services ON the internet are, but not the internet itself. It must be
interoperable everywhere, worldwide, and it must have clear rights of way.
Lawrence Lessig got it right in his books about Code is Law.
Its frightening to think of .. but I think the internet should be like water, a
public utility. And likely best managed by smaller governmental units like the
county.
Bullies are bullies and are likely to try to control local utilities, but there
is evidence that local governments do succeed in managing utilities of various
kinds. I think they could handle internet.
-- Owen
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