Toward An Open Internet?

The internet has transformed the lives of almost every human on the planet by enabling a free and open flow of ideas.

Robert E Kahn and Vint Cerf designed the TCP/IP protocols: the backbone of the internet. Vint Cerf spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations on internet freedom and foreign policy.

Controlling the internet

Control of the internet is in the hands of anyone who has the capacity to impact internet traffic. To impact internet traffic, any one or more capabilities must be available to:

* Censor

* Monitor

* Misdirect

* Attack

* Restrict

Governments are have the capacity to do all of the above at certain choke points. These choke points at which internet traffic is vulnerable to "third party access" include:

*The computer

* Wifi hotspot

* ISP internet service provider

* Internet gateway

* The undersea cable and/or satellite service.

Freedom of the Press

The capability to manipulate the internet has a direct impact on freedom of the press worldwide. Reporters sans frontières Reporters Without Borders annual press freedom index shows the state of press freedom globally.

uProxy.org

As an attempt at enabling bypassing potential internet choke points, Google Ideas seeded a peer to peer gateway: uProxy.

This web proxy, from Brave New Software and the University of Washington, though available on uProxy.org is already blocked in some of the "red" countries shown in the graphic from Reporters Without Borders.

A free internet means freedom of communication and, by extension freedom, of expression for everyone.

Then President Barack Obama on wrote in Medium, "When I was a candidate for this office, I made clear my commitment to a free and open Internet, and my commitment remains as strong as ever." His ideas include:

* No blocking.

If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business.

* No throttling.

Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called “throttling” — based on the type of service or your ISP’s preferences.

* Increased transparency.

The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called “last mile” — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. "So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet, " President Obama said.

* No paid prioritization.

Simply put: No service should be stuck in a “slow lane” because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. "So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect." he said.

Is this the way forward to an open internet?

What do you think?

The "sick BRIC"

China has over 700 million users, the world's largest web market. China's walled garden is also the world's largest controlled internet. The Great Firewall of China is the single largest elephant in the room for an open internet. George Orwell would call the Golden Shield Project a cousin of Big Brother.