The role of technology and policy in transforming online culture – chronicled by David Ellis
gatekeeping
Netizens united to stop Big Content & the SOPA insanity
19 days
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The anti-Internet bills in Congress are not just an American problem. Imagine a world in which the Domain Name System gets the Mickey Mouse treatment from Hollywood, Rupert Murdoch and the music industry. For some background, see my 2 previous posts.
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WordPress joins today’s Web-wide strike
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Wikipedia: learn more about why the US Congress is a threat to an open Internet – everywhere
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Read more from the Electronic Frontier Foundation… New York Times… Michael Geist… Pete Nowak… Techdirt… Ars Technica…
Get yer grimy paws off my Netflix: the scam, continued
233 days
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(Updated Sunday, June 19)
This post and the one prior are devoted to a critique of the CRTC’s OTT proceeding, oops, fact-finding exercise – and the role of the Online 
Broadcasting Working Group (OBWG). Of its 11 publicly announced members, I’m looking at 5 in order to illustrate just how far removed from a “factual” exercise this circus will be. They are ACTRA and SOCAN (covered last time), plus Astral, the CMPA and Peter Grant.
Exhibit F – Astral: “The objective is … that we maintain a level playing field within the system—a system that is a very positive and strong element in terms of our Canadian culture, identity and the Canadian economy.” André Bureau, Chair, Astral Media, April 14. OBWG member.
Whenever you hear a Canadian media mogul saying all he wants is a level playing field, while draping himself in the flag, run for cover. Astral owns 22 TV services, including US “wraparounds” like HBO Canada. They have lots to lose in the OTT wave. I wonder what they’ll say to the OBWG and the Commission… Competition? Bring it on!
The old guard will continue to find lawyers who will continue to argue that every “new media” innovation is just another form of broadcasting, and therefore has to be regulated – meaning they, the moguls, have to be protected from anything that might compete with them. Since our moguls couldn’t innovate their way out of a wet paper bag, they harbor much fear and loathing for innovators like Netflix, because innovators are smarter and their business models have legs – unlike, say, being a subsidized, highly protected reseller of US TV shows with no Plan B for the digital age.
Get yer grimy paws off my Netflix: Ottawa’s big OTT scam
235 days
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Canada’s (“frightened,” “alarmed”) media gatekeepers go on a rampage, led by the regulator
So… the CRTC holds sub rosa meetings in March with a roomful of interested parties about the growing “threat” of over-the-top (OTT) Web content. The same 
week, the Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage issues its report on “…The Move Towards New Viewing Platforms,” a compendium of witness statements all arguing new viewing platforms are a threat to Canadians. Shaw e.g. warns (p.5) that “by consuming valuable capacity, over-the-top providers threaten to undermine our significant network investments and impact the quality of service offered to our ISP customers. Finally, consumers will ultimately suffer, with fewer Canadian choices.”
Many of the patriots who showed up for the Standing Committee hearings then become members of the OTT Working Group, alleged to comprise some 35 “industry executives” – we don’t know for sure since their activities and membership are secret, even though they are operating with the sanction of the regulator. They subsequently change their name to the Online Broadcasting Working Group (OBWG) – and with a stroke of the pen ensure that no one will construe OTT content for anything but broadcasting (what they call begging the question, i.e. assuming what is to be proved).
On May 25, the CRTC “responds to Netflix critics” (Wire Report headline) by issuing a notice of consultation – structured not as a formal “proceeding” but a “fact-finding mission” – a nuance with important implications, especially for Ottawa’s tiny consumer advocacy community. Now that the Netflix critics have got their official “fact-finding” exercise, the OBWG does us all a favor on June 6 by revealing who the group’s members are. (more…)
The Cancon Cabal: Rescuing Consumers from the Scourge of Netflix
286 days
by David Ellis
in data caps, gatekeeping, Heritage Committee, innovation, Internet, Netflix, TV, UBB
by David Ellis + Alexandra Birukova
(Get in on the fun while cutting your reading time by 40%: check out the abridged version of this story posted at the Wire Report on April 26. Any similarity to real life entirely intentional.)
Let’s say for the sake of argument you have near-monopoly control of Internet access in millions of homes. All your retail rates are deregulated, because the regulator has identified a force that faithfully eliminates any market distortion: vigorous competition. And yet, paradoxically, you can use your market power to eliminate competitors on the application layer of your network, since the regulator isn’t sure what unjust discrimination and undue preference might look like. You can also cap customer bandwidth any old way you prefer, which not only drives out competition but adds a nice chunk of change to your bottom line from the overage charges that none of your subs could possibly understand, especially after reading the formulas some math nerd provided in your online FAQ.
Recently renovated office of CRTC Chair, with series of tubes (on left) providing connectivity to global series of tubes. Meter not shown.
Why are incumbents so afraid of being truthful? (part 1)
669 days
The Novatel U998 wireless modem "Up to" 21 Mbps
Passive eyeballs staring blankly at the TV screen from potato-like, humanoid forms draped across the couch are part of the cool business models no longer. Welcome to the Age of the User Experience. Unless you happen to be an ISP.
The other day I got another piece of junk unsolicited mail from Bell, this one promoting its Novatel U998 wireless modem, aka the Turbo Stick. (Apparently you are deemed by Canada Post to have “solicited” a piece of mail as long as it’s addressed to you as “The Resident.”)
The front of the card talks excitedly about “One extra-large, super-fast, anytime, anywhere connection – to go.” The back of the card then throws the Legal Dept’s wet blanket all over the deal, in nearly 200 words of fine print – enough for a short blog post. Just in case you actually read all the footnotes (which among other things make it clear the Stick does not work anywhere), take heart. Sign up now and you’ll get a $20 Starbucks Gift Card – free! (more…)
Imagining the Internet (10): the end-to-end principle
752 days
And the end of the Pew futures questionnaire for this year…
Q.10 – Will the internet still be dominated by the end-to-end principle?
A. In the years between now and 2020, the internet will mostly remain a technology based on the end-to-end principle that was envisioned by the internet’s founders. Most disagreements over the way information flows online will be resolved in favor of a minimum number of restrictions over the information available online and the methods by which people access it.
B. In the years between now and 2020, the internet will mostly become a technology where intermediary institutions that control the architecture and significant amounts of content will be successful in gaining the right to manage information and the method by which people access and share it.
[my answer: A]
Please explain your choice, note organizations you expect to be most likely to influence the future of the internet and share your view of the effects of this between now and 2020.
[elaboration]
“By 2020, the Internet will still be dominated by the end-to-end principle. But general adherence to the principle doesn’t mean gatekeeping will disappear. The big development will be much more visibility for the dozen or so Tier 1 network operators, who collectively provide access to every part of the Internet on the basis of their settlement-free peering relationships. (more…)
Imagining the Internet (9): takeoff technologies
754 days
A great question for science fiction writers.
Q.9 – Are the next takeoff technologies evident now?
A. The hot gadgets and applications that will capture the imagination of users in 2020 are pretty evident today and will not take many of today’s savviest innovators by surprise.
B. The hot gadgets and applications that will capture the imagination of users in 2020 will often come “out of the blue” and not have been anticipated by many of today’s savviest innovators.
[my answer: A]
Please explain your choice and share your view of its implications for the future. What do you think will be the hot gadgets, applications, technology tools in 2020?
[elaboration]
“Some of 2020’s hot new gadgets are bound to come out of the blue. But for North Americans, I think the Next Big Thing will be an exponential jump in a well-known commodity: bandwidth. Residential bandwidth scarcity in both Canada and the US has held back the availability of immersive environments for personal messaging and multi-player online gaming, not to mention telemedicine, telecommuting, real hi-def entertainment and distance learning. Most of us are still stuck with a single-digit Mbit/s connection; highly asymmetric downlink/uplink architectures; high prices; and very few choices in service provider. If we can get, say, 30% of North American homes on a last mile of 50 megs down and 20 megs up by 2020, we’ll experience a sea-change in our online lives. This development will become especially important as more and more devices become networked, up to and including our kitchen appliances. (more…)
