Net Neutrality
Here’s the laymen’s version of what is becoming a hot topic among the Geeks and what may finally be solved by a combination of efforts from the FCC and Congress.
Since the beginning, the Internet has always been open turf. Anyone could provide content and everyone would get equal access to that content.
For a while now, the large telecommunications and cable companies who provide the technical “backbone” of the internet, have been fighting to try to restrict some of the content on their networks.
It was announced that the FCC is going to make a ruling supporting keeping the Internet open and fair for all. What this means, is that if you want to keep posting on your Facebook and I want to keep writing here, neither one of us could end up arbitrarily restricted by any one corporation.
To my knowledge, this is the first time in a while that any agency in the Federal Government has given big business the regulatory middle finger. Three cheers for the FCC and the Obama Administration and those Congressmen who are drafting legislation to write Net Neutrality in Concrete.
Personally, I have been a web master on the Internet since 12 days after things went “public.” None of us were doing anything that could be called Earth Shattering, unless you want to consider a whole new evolution of communication to be Earth Shattering.
I use the word evolution, because ALL of us had been participating in a communication system called RBBS prior to the Internet. RBBS was a relay messaging system, operated by a set of technicians all across the county. You would log in to a system in your town, and it would get relayed all across the country. The Internet Email System beats that because it only relays the message to a specific address but it still travels through multiple machines to get there.
I love the neutrality of the Internet. It allows small companies like mine to have equal footing with large corporations. That’s something that does not happen anywhere else, because in all other arena’s the company with the most dollars ALWAYS wins.
So, the next time you log into a Social Networking site, or set up a web page, you might want to thank those of us who fought for Net Neutrality for the last few years. Then call, up your Congressman and encourage them to support and vote for any good solid Net Neutrality legislation.
Keep the Internet an Equal and Open place for all.