Net Neutrality Revisited 2007

On this Blog I wrote about Congressional action related to Net Neutrality on September 5 and again on November 9, right after the 2006 election. New information is now becoming available about an expected push for the new Congress to resume efforts to reintroduce bills related to preserving Net Neutrality.

A January 2, 2007, article by Ann Broache, CNET News.com explains that Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., plans to reintroduce his bill from last year titled the Network Neutrality Act. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., hopes to reintroduce his Net Neutrality Bill, and Sen. Olympia Snow, R-Maine, and Sen Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., plan to introduce the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

On December 29, 2006, Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.com wrote that AT&T one of the major corporations that has been lobbying against Net Neutrality, agreed to pledge to abide by a series of antidiscrimination principles supported by Net Neutrality supporters for a two year period. This decision provided the incentive for the Federal Communications Commission to approve the $86 Billion megamerger between AT&T and BellSouth.

Net Neutrality and the new Congress

It seems very likely that new U.S. House of Representatives and Senate will reconsider actions taken in the recent past concerning "Net Neutrality" and other technology related legislation. This is a positive turn for the opportunity for individuals and organizations to continue to develop Social and Community Networking applications related to natural resource and ecosystem projects.

"What the Democrats' win means for tech," written by Declan McCallagh and Anne Broache for CNET News.com today, notes that "the outlook for technology-related legislation has changed dramatically overnight. On a wealth of topics--Net neutrality, digital copyright, merger approval, data retention, Internet censorship--a Capitol Hill controlled by Democrats should yield a shift in priorities on technology-related legislation."

New announcements taking place now at the Web 2.0 Conference (renamed Summit) are very interesting. Rafe Needleman, CNet News.com Web 2.0 Blog has listed links to thirteen "Launch Pad" products and companies selected as "The official start-ups of Web 2.0."

I will write more about some of these in the future as I have time to explore.

Net Neutrality & Social Networking

The current dialogue and future congressional action on the issue of "Net Neutrality" may affect the functionality of Social Networking and Web 2. applications in the future. At stake is the possibility that public access to web sites and applications may be dramatically altered in the future compared to the past up to now. Please study this issue and let your views be known to your elected representatives now.

Proponents of Net Neutrality and good descriptions of their views include, Save The Internet.com, and It'sOurNet. Google Help Center also has a "Guide to Net Neutrality for Google Users."

Critics of Net Neutrality, including an article published in Knowledge@Wharton titled "Getting a Fix on Network Neutrality" argue that legislation is not necessary yet, because it is uncertain what the future will be regarding this issue. Even though major corporations like AT&T, Verizon, etc., argue that they need to be able to charge a "toll" for the required development of future Internet resources, and this toll will be a fair charge, some people are uncertain about the true outcomes of an upcoming congressional vote which could go against the concept of Net Neutrality.