Saturday, February 15, 2014
Article: http://gigaom.com/2014/01/15/marc-andreessen-talks-about-the-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality-and-the-need-for-innovation/
Summary: This article from Gigaom was written by Marc Andreeseen on February 15, 2014. In a Twitter discussion about the recent court decision striking down Net Neutrality entrepreneur-turned-VC Marc Andreeseen talked about the need for massive investment in new network technologies and how to balance that with the desire for an open internet. He discussed about net neutrality, the need for continued innovation on the internet and the best way to ensure that it happens. The bottom line, the Andreeseen Horowitz founder said, that he would like to see the network remain open to all but also would like to see massive investment in new technologies and the challenge is how to make both of those things happen at same time. Andreeseen states that massive investments will be needed in existing and new networks for decades to come. He also states that the status quo will not be sufficient to support all the applications and services that the society requires. According to him, the issue is that if carriers like Verizon are spending $20 billion or so on their networks every year they need a certain return on that investment in order to continue to do so.
Opinion: The pros are that there is no restrictions on what parts of the internet that people can access, except for what local governments decide. For example, no restrictions or preferences over emailing, file sharing, podcasts, blogs, video conferences, etc. There is also no throttling. Currently, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot change the download or upload transfer rates depending on what people are accessing. Besides, there is no censorship and no restrictions on what or how much anyone can upload or download besides connection rates. I believe that Net Neutrality promotes a level playing field for competing companies and allows start-ups easier access to new potential customers. Therefore, Net Neutrality is equated to a free market.
The cons against Net Neutrality is that ISPs, in addition to governments, can decide what parts of the internet people can access and what parts are blocked. For instance ISPs could block peer to peer file transfers. Additionally, IPSs could censor criticism against themselves, other companies or politicians that they favor. Also ISPs can decide what type of services have prefer transfer rates. For instance, Google's gmail account could be faster while their competitors Microsoft's Hotmail could be slower, depending on how much both companies pay their internet service providers. Besides, there is already a lot of monitoring on the internet. However, without Net Neutrality, ISPs could literally monitor everything that their customers do on the internet and sell or use that information as they choose.
Reference: Andreessen, M. (2014, January 15) Marc Andreeseen talks about the pros and cons of net neutrality and the need for innovation Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/2014/01/15/marc-andreessen-talks-about-the-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality-and-the-need-for-innovation/
Discussion: 1- What do you think are the pros and cons of Net Neutrality?
2- Who determines methods of profit, customers or government regulators?
3- Is Marc Andreeseen right about the need for massive investment in new network technologies?
Article: http://gigaom.com/2014/01/15/marc-andreessen-talks-about-the-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality-and-the-need-for-innovation/
Summary: This article from Gigaom was written by Marc Andreeseen on February 15, 2014. In a Twitter discussion about the recent court decision striking down Net Neutrality entrepreneur-turned-VC Marc Andreeseen talked about the need for massive investment in new network technologies and how to balance that with the desire for an open internet. He discussed about net neutrality, the need for continued innovation on the internet and the best way to ensure that it happens. The bottom line, the Andreeseen Horowitz founder said, that he would like to see the network remain open to all but also would like to see massive investment in new technologies and the challenge is how to make both of those things happen at same time. Andreeseen states that massive investments will be needed in existing and new networks for decades to come. He also states that the status quo will not be sufficient to support all the applications and services that the society requires. According to him, the issue is that if carriers like Verizon are spending $20 billion or so on their networks every year they need a certain return on that investment in order to continue to do so.
Opinion: The pros are that there is no restrictions on what parts of the internet that people can access, except for what local governments decide. For example, no restrictions or preferences over emailing, file sharing, podcasts, blogs, video conferences, etc. There is also no throttling. Currently, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot change the download or upload transfer rates depending on what people are accessing. Besides, there is no censorship and no restrictions on what or how much anyone can upload or download besides connection rates. I believe that Net Neutrality promotes a level playing field for competing companies and allows start-ups easier access to new potential customers. Therefore, Net Neutrality is equated to a free market.
The cons against Net Neutrality is that ISPs, in addition to governments, can decide what parts of the internet people can access and what parts are blocked. For instance ISPs could block peer to peer file transfers. Additionally, IPSs could censor criticism against themselves, other companies or politicians that they favor. Also ISPs can decide what type of services have prefer transfer rates. For instance, Google's gmail account could be faster while their competitors Microsoft's Hotmail could be slower, depending on how much both companies pay their internet service providers. Besides, there is already a lot of monitoring on the internet. However, without Net Neutrality, ISPs could literally monitor everything that their customers do on the internet and sell or use that information as they choose.
Reference: Andreessen, M. (2014, January 15) Marc Andreeseen talks about the pros and cons of net neutrality and the need for innovation Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/2014/01/15/marc-andreessen-talks-about-the-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality-and-the-need-for-innovation/
Discussion: 1- What do you think are the pros and cons of Net Neutrality?
2- Who determines methods of profit, customers or government regulators?
3- Is Marc Andreeseen right about the need for massive investment in new network technologies?
Seems crazy that I pay so much for internet and yet they still don't have enough to support the infrastructure! Just speaking on a personal level I am interested to hear that net neutrality could actually BENEFIT small internet startups. That's good to hear! Will we loose the ability to file share? Is that so bad? I guess it depends on what files you are sharing.
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