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I'm clear: I'm on the side of network neutrality people. I think the Internet as we know it is in serious jeapordy.

I've been an Internet user since 1996, when I worked at BBN in Cambridge (back before BBN got broken up into Genuity, etc.). BBN was one of the companies who helped build what we know as the Internet today, by suppling network gear and operating one of the early networks that made up the network-of-networks. Since then, I've seen how the ability of anybody to connect anything to this network has created things beyond what I could have imagined in 1996. Even beyond what I imagined in 2003, when I wrote an “Internet futures” report for Forrester Research, where I was an analyst.

Technorati Tags: Internet, Net Neutrality

So to me, the lobbying of companies like Verizon is worrisome. See this article describing some of their recent lobbying.

Telephone companies and cable companies aren't used to a simple, non-value-added open pipe, which is what the Internet is at its best. They're trying to layer on important-sounding things like “Quality of service” as a way to add value. But what I do not want them to do is to start to de-prioritize “normal” traffic. What I fear is this: If you don't pay every freakin' ISP out there for “quality of service” access to their network, they begin to slow your bits down. Or, cut off certain functionality saying “we can't support that because we can't guarantee the quality of service for it.” This is bad.

Here's what a non-neutral network could mean for you, a Chirp user. Future releases of Chirp are likely to use new protocols for interaction between your Chirp software and our server. One example is the Session Initiation Protocol (known as “SIP” - see www.sipforum.org, an organization for which I'm currently Managing Director.) Phone companies are building new voice over IP services using SIP. They could decide that only their SIP traffic should go across their network. If they did this, it could affect Plum Canary's ability to offer you new advanced Chirp services across the public Internet. This is bad.

I'm sympathetic, to a degree, to the difficulty in bringing in governmental regulation to handle this. On one hand, I think that as long as there are only 1-2 fast-pipes coming into your home or business, I'm not convinced that a free-market competition approach will guarantee the open network I want, and regulation will be required. On the other hand, regulation can be done so badly, and it can happen so slowly, and be so influenced by parties that I do not want to have influence, that I'm worried regulation will be worse than the problem.

So I'm not sure of the solution; I just know what I want: an unencumbered, open network. That's fast. And I'll pay for that. Just don't get in my way.

Note sure what Net Neutrality is? Here are a few references (courtesy of the Nathan's Rambling's blog:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html
A humerous take on what Net Neutrality is…

Posted by Jay Batson at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been going to Interop since -- gee, 1992 (I think). I've seen it go from a show full of IP network rable-rousers, to a merger with the Novell world (to create Networld+Interop), to a disappearance of the Novell influence (renamed Interop). And last week, I had a chance to go see what it's like today. It was kind of sad....

Not to criticize the show operators - CMP knows how to create a quality set of things happening. I was asked to teach an all-day class on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), and despite it being on Friday, I had upwards of 20 people listening. There were lots of other quality “sessions,” too.

But the show floor itself was a different story. While being of reasonable size, the nature of the exhibitors really showed the maturation of the networking industry. There were a few big router/switch companies (Cisco, Juniper, Foundry, ...), a couple of big telecoms (Alcatel), one or two misc. box suppliers (Ixia), and virtually everything else seemed to be small, edge businesses, most of which sold some kind of network management or monitoring software. The asian manufacturers were there trying to push in with low-cost devices, but low-cost doesn't matter; channel matters, and the big guys have the channel locked.

So, the IP networking hardware ride -- as far as a general IP networking show -- is over. Interop is only good for the classes, not the show floor now.

Oh, and let me say - I don't like Vegas. It's the pinnacle of all the things this wonderful country does wrong.

Posted by Jay Batson at 03:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been going to Interop since -- gee, 1992 (I think). I've seen it go from a show full of IP network rable-rousers, to a merger with the Novell world (to create Networld+Interop), to a disappearance of the Novell influence (renamed Interop). And last week, I had a chance to go see what it's like today. It was kind of sad....

Not to criticize the show operators - CMP knows how to create a quality set of things happening. I was asked to teach an all-day class on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), and despite it being on Friday, I had upwards of 20 people listening. There were lots of other quality “sessions,” too.

But the show floor itself was a different story. While being of reasonable size, the nature of the exhibitors really showed the maturation of the networking industry. There were a few big router/switch companies (Cisco, Juniper, Foundry, ...), a couple of big telecoms (Alcatel), one or two misc. box suppliers (Ixia), and virtually everything else seemed to be small, edge businesses, most of which sold some kind of network management or monitoring software. The asian manufacturers were there trying to push in with low-cost devices, but low-cost doesn't matter; channel matters, and the big guys have the channel locked.

So, the IP networking hardware ride -- as far as a general IP networking show -- is over. Interop is only good for the classes, not the show floor now.

Oh, and let me say - I don't like Vegas. It's the pinnacle of all the things this wonderful country does wrong.

Posted by Jay Batson at 03:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)