Obama expected to fight for “net neutrality” – So what the H does that mean?

The nation’s first “wired president” (term being used by some to describe Obama’s relative proficiency with technology) believes that net neutrality and access to broadband Internet connections in rural and poor areas will be a key to closing the economic gap in America.

What is net neutrality you ask? Google defines it as the “principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet.” As opposed to the notion that broadband carriers determine what content you have access to and the speed of that access. Of course, they propose that the information available to you and the speed at which is available, might have something to do with the almighty dollar.This is a hot political issue at the moment as the U.S considers new telecommunications laws. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, goes as far as to say that “Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight.”

On the other hand, people like Dan Hesse (CEO of Sprint Nextel) think of net neutrality as a solution in search of a problem. In other words, is the Internet really in danger? The argument sounds something like this – “The Internet keeps getting faster, we have more and more choices, where is the problem?”

What do you think? Not enough information to make an informed decision?

For more on arguments for net neutrality visit:

http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html
http://www.openinternetcoalition.com/
http://www.savetheinternet.com/

For more on arguments against net neutrality visit:

http://www.dontregulate.org/
http://www.handsoff.org/

One thought on “Obama expected to fight for “net neutrality” – So what the H does that mean?

  1. JesseAnn says:

    This seems to be a very interesting argument. I will have to read into it in more detail before I am able to take a side. At first I see Obamas argument, but I can also see the other side. I look forward to looking into the idea of “net neutrality” Thanks for the post, I hope to hear some follow up posts on how this issues progresses.

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