charles brownstein, cnri, new directions in internet policy, ga. tech, atlanta, february 15, 2002...

Charles Brownstein, CNRI, New Directions in Internet Policy, Ga. Tech, Atlanta, February 15, 2002

Strategic Position

• last speaker• fresh from relaxing day flying• low blood sugar• in way of reception


Disclosure 1. Political Science in dim past

- stopped in 1972

2. Been a happy bureaucrat• No problems with technical elitism;• Know firsthand Al Gore’s and Dubya’s Dad’s

contribution to the net

3. Prefer Democracy and Capitalism and Like competition and regulation

at CNRI set up industry consortia and do research (DARPA/NSF)


What are these?

A B


As Technical and/or Social Construct

Technical “Pure” architecture (IP, distributed resources) Structures and functions

- Physical and logical entities “Open” protocols

Social Open entry and access

- Various economic models Distributed cooperative control

- Minimal function in the middle Intelligence and real action at the edges Collaboration and trust (more or less)


What is your net?

1. Transport?2. Services?3. Applications?4. Impacts?

1 = easy 4 = hard


Extended View• Platform for:

– S&T+E communications and resource sharing

– Open communications and expression– Open (entry into) service provision– Information process efficiencies– Technical and social innovation– Anything


Grander Issues

• Civil Liberties• Democratic

Governance• Security• The Public Interest


Topics• Global Governance: Will "Small Government" Become

Sandwiched Between Private Industry And Civil Society Supra-National Governance

• National Security • E-Business • Broadband• US and European Union Response to “Cyberthreats “• Community Technology• Civil Liberties • The Control of Scientific Publishing• Government Collection and Use of Citizen Information


Wait- There’s More!

• Intellectual Property• Computer Security• Privacy• Taxation• Computing R&D • Voting• Accounting?

• Convergence• Spam• Entry• Anti-trust• Standards• Libraries• National Security (also:

NATIONAL SECURITY, National security, national Security)


Issues in the Good old Days

• Public issues– Protocols – Permission to use– Appropriate use– “human factors”– Commercial use– Advertising

• Stealth issues– Research versus

infrastructure– Intra/inter agency

collaboration– Protocols – “human factors”– Commercialization– Competition– Impacts on R&D


PM* Headache• Scope

– Oceans to boil (many fish die to make a snack)

• Jurisdiction: – most sins predate Internet and are already

covered– geography and sovereignty intervene

• Clue– Scarce resource (esp. re technology and its limits

to in solving social scale ills) <add rant here>

• Relevance– Technical change to confront– Economics rules resource allocation

*policy making


Policy?

rules, strategies, plans courses of action, procedures

Effective Private actions - hard

Effective Public actions - almost impossible


What private factors most affect today’s net?

• Industry Structure: Closed systems Limiting diversity (walled Gardens)

• Mistrust due to behavior (failures of privacy, security,

• Poor performance unreliability and expectation failures) Technical Realities (Bottlenecks,

• Complexity (of distributed network management of computing for the public

• Content confusion - IP, business greed• Structural Inequalities: Asymmetry in the last mile,

access; Topographic boundaries; economically disadvantaged

• Treats to Innovation legacy behavior and economics (see: IPv6)

• “Freeze-in" technology (monopolists in particular).• Individual Choice


What Public Action has Best Affected the Net?

• Whatever drives down the cost of technology and access to it – Leadership re technology (the vision thing

convening and promoting, R&D funding)– Regulatory reform (needs constant

attention)competition and anti trust

– good spectrum management– national planning and consistency– Clueful behavior


What public policies most affect today’s net?

• Failure to promote or enforce rules for competition

- raising rents and killing innovation• Excesses re intellectual property

- DCMA, patent and copyright • Failure to institutionalize privacy and security

protections - allowing trust rot


What I know for sure• The ‘net (and it’s benefit) thrives on

competition• Restricting competition kills innovation and

performance • The less competition there is the more

regulation there needs to be and visa versa• The digital divide is at its weakest point in

internet history (it’s the economics)• Restricting liberty is more costly than not

restricting liberty


Summary1. The power derives from the architecture2. The technology won’t stop changing because of

13. The applications and impacts won’t stop

advancing if 1 and 2 are protected4. Commercial competition drives cost down and

performance up5. Competition and regulation are direct tradeoffs6. Action that preserves or follows the architecture

is good7. Anyone using the Internet as a Rhorshack test

should a) have their head/motives/authority examined; b) be removed from public office


some is goodsome is necessary

less is better

charles brownstein, cnri, new directions in internet policy, ga. tech, atlanta, february 15, 2002...

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