Net Neutrality

When I started the Media Studies class, I didn't really think Facebook as medium. I thought media is like news on television or the morning paper. However, media is changing, better or worse (that's a WHOLE different topic that I will cover soon) with the innovative technological advancements. If television was revolutionary decades ago, then internet, according to Postman is "television on stereoids". With internet we communicate with people freely, without the contraint of time or place (as we can simply write someone an email or write on his/her wall anytime, anywhere with any sort of internet connection).

Realizing how internet really changes how we perceive information in the current world, I became more facinated with information technology. Then, I ran into an interview of Tim Wu on The New Yorker, who is a current professor at the Law School in Columbia University. Apparently he is the inventor of the word net neutrality. The basic idea of net neutrality is that all the contents online gets treated equally, that they will all work in the same speed, servers not favoring subject versus another. For example, Bill Gates isn't going to receive his email any faster than me downloading music on itunes such beause he is more important and rich than I am. (story of my life)

Well, isn't that just great? We are ALL EQUAL ONLINE. How jolly.
However, this is might change with the drastic change in our communication technology.
Let's think about iphones/itouch/droids/etc. The apps that we use are mostly connected through internet. All all apps treated equally? Well according to Tim Wu, the information technologies guru, all apps might not be treated equally. The example he gave out was the fact that we can all use skype on our smart phones and never have to use the actual phone part, which will eventually bankrupt the phone service part of the smart phones. Because of this, the phone companies can disrupt the connections with certain apps, such as Skype. Is this illegal? Well not yet. The congress is trying to decide on this idea of net neutrality now - although the internet's been around for about thirty years now, the idea of net neutrality is just getting taken cared of now, wow.

So I guess the debate is, should we allow net neutrality or should we not? What is fair? Should everyone get the equality that we have always had our internet speeds? Well, I think we should, if we are not trying to make internet another object of monopoly. If the idea of net neutrality is broken and someone's information will be favored another according to importance or how much the service was, then internet cost would sky rocket. Just look at some people buying every generation of iphones. People are crazy about faster and improved communication, and are willing to pay a lot of money in exchange for communication advantages. Also, we don't need to form a new form of social status through internet by having particular 'packets of information' be treated better and faster. That is just so far from the ideals of democracy, but ironically too close to capitalism at best.

Here is the interview with Tim  Wu. He is a brilliant guy, and his ideas are quiet fascinating:
interview of Tim Wu about information technology on The New Yorker