Presentation on Net neutrality in Gainesville, Fla. (late)

Posted on 15 November 2007
Filed under Florida, Gainesville, Internet, Net neutrality, Personal, Telecom
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I failed to post an announcement in advance, but better late than never:

I gave a presentation on Net neutrality on 13 November to the Association of Information Technology Professionals, North Central Florida Chapter in Gainesville, Fla. The slides are available here, largely derived from my earlier presentation at the Florida Media Reform Conference.

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Presentation on Net neutrality at Florida Media Reform Conference

Posted on 8 October 2007
Filed under Net neutrality, Telecom
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On Saturday, 6 October, I gave a presentation on Net neutrality at the Florida Media Reform Conference.

The slides aren’t beautiful, but the presentation seemed to be effective. I’d thought a lot about how to present the topic. “Surely the attendees will have heard about Net neutrality before,” I figured, “but they may not know much about what it actually is.” A lot of the public framing of the issue, while effective at getting the public to pay attention, tended to miss the point. Much public discussion would center on who and how the telcos should be able to charge, rather than the (admittedly abstract but fundamental) effect of neutrality as a network design.

By now, everyone in the media reform community is aware of Net neutrality, and most support it, largely due to the issue’s framing and the alignment of groups in the debate. But most, in my estimation, skipped the understanding phase. Unfortunately, Net neutrality isn’t going away as a policy issue, so it’s time to plan for the long haul. It’s time for a deeper level of education, which will allow more people to speak cogently about the issue.

The first time I really got Net neutrality was reading Lessig’s The Future of Ideas, talking about the end-to-end principle. I tried to take a similar approach here.

The slides are available here. Update: Now posted. In addition, the conference was video recorded; if/when the video is posted online, I’ll link to it as well.

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