WNU Editor: First things first .... a little background on what I know about the internet, and the hardware that drives it. To begin .... I still remember my first modem .... a 2400 baud box, which was then followed by the 4800 baud modem .... which I did not buy because I knew was it was going to be quickly followed by the introduction of 9600 baud modems. This was then followed with 14.4Kpbs modems, a 28.9Kbps modem, and then the holiest of all modems ..... U.S. Robotics and their 56k modem. There was no turning back then. The first stock that I invested in was Northern Telecom .... around 1995-1996 .... because I knew that their products would be in demand as the internet became more known and accessible. Ditto with Cisco. And did these companies fly until they crashed in 2000 (I bailed out in 1999). But even though these companies disappeared .... new companies emerged that made the web faster, efficient, and easier to use. Ditto with the explosion of websites and projects on the web .... starting with Netscape (around 1994-1995 if I am correct) .... to where we are today. In my own case .... I started a computer hardware company with some friends in the mid 1990s in Canada, as well as starting a number of web projects. We even had a project that bought the domain names of major companies (before they realized the value of these web addresses).... knowing too well that they would be wanting to make a deal with us to get those domain names back. And yes .... each and everyone of these companies did come to us. I also backed my cousin's husband who started with his friends an internet service provider in Moscow .... as well as web projects .... including an amateur attempt to do a YouTube type of project .... but we were ahead of our time .... the bandwidth/storage/and technology to do this was not available. But that is the point .... with time companies saw this limitation as an opportunity, and eventually they did develop the technologies that made these opportunities possible. As for governments .... aside from a U.S. agency that assumed the role of determining who owned their web address .... during this time their involvement on the web was minimal, if not non-existent.
A personal experience made me realize that this golden age of the web was coming to an end ... and it happened in Russia when the Russian government made the decision to regulate the web like a utility with its own version of "Net Neutrality". Not surprising ... that brief explosion of innovation and excitement in Russia died when these rules became enforced .... and the reason why is simple .... we all knew that we could not make money in an industry that was regulated by the Kremlin, because we knew that they would only favor the big web companies and their friends. This was followed by Y2K, hacking scares, network vulnerabilities and how important these networks are to keep the economy humming .... yup .... everything started to change then, and yes .... governments started to position themselves to play a bigger role.
Flash forward to today ... the debate on what should be the role of government in regulating how the web should be managed is raging. From my own long personal and business experience .... I can say unequivocally that the web grew and developed because market forces were at play. I learned in the 1990s that for new technologies and ideas to be developed for the web by risk takers and entrepreneurs .... they need to operate in an unregulated environment, because if it is not there .... like in Russia when it imposed their rules .... they will go elsewhere. Unfortunately .... with today's FCC vote .... the media in the U.S. and elsewhere is not focused on what I am saying. It is focused on the premise that companies will not act fairly, and that users will be punished. And I understand that point .... a dozen years ago a Canadian communications company blocked one of their union's website during a strike. But that example also proved that if a company does behave like this .... there will be a backlash, and in this case the company in question .... Telus .... was condemned in public, in the media, and in government. Talk about bad publicity. But this is an exception to the rule .... not the rule.
Where do we go from here? This debate is not over. The Silicon Valley giants want the web to be regulated and controlled .... Here's how tech's responding to the net neutrality vote (CNet), and they have the money, resources, and patience to revisit this issue in the future. And this issue will be revisited.
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