I’d like to draw your attention to a very disturbing video. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World-Wide Web of Computer Internetting, has apparently been captured by terrorists. I say this because the Net Neutrality video clip (proprietary format only, Linux need not apply) on his MIT blog looks like one of those “captured soldier recants” kind of things we occasionally get from the war zones. He’s reading a script, his eyes are flying around wildly, and there seems to be a distinct lack of conviction in his voice. More than anything, it reminds me of little Elian Gonzalez denouncing his father before they were reunited and returned to Cuba.
Can we collect some money and pay the ransom for Sir Tim before he’s tortured again? Web 3.0 won’t be possible without his invaluable contribution.
Power to the people, dude.
How strange. Photocopying currency? Wha?
Without Tim’s great work we wouldn’t be where we are today. But we need to imagine a future that might depart from the past. And, we need to be clear what the “Internet” is. Richard points out, importantly, that it is a set of agreements between private networks. That’s a lot of pipes and they didn’t appear out of the ether.
I do believe Tim’s heart is in the right place and he believes in the importance of a best-effort network. Nothing wrong with that, I don’t doubt it will continue so long as folks want it. But we can’t pass laws against alternatives.
Like Tim BL says, Net neutrality doesn’t say we shouldn’t pay more for higher quality of service or less for less quality of service because we always have and always will. That does it, we can say bye-bye to Markey and Snowe-Dorgan. Thank you Tim for setting us straight.