Last week Cringely had an interesting column on the issue of network neutrality. Personally I believe network neutrality is critical to innovation in much the same ways open APIs and interfaces and the openness of open source and the commons are.
The telcos seem to be bent on returning us to a simple central controlled broadcast-information society instead of that which the internet has evolved into. The reality is that decentralisation and participation (peer to peer in its broadest sense) is what the internet is all about today. And it’s reasonable to see that changing substantially without net neutrality.
I really like Cringely’s use of the phrase “billable event.” It really summarises what the telcos want and need in order to drive growth and increases in profit. They aren’t content to be the conduits that they are.
The interesting twist I see in this is that while the opponents of opensource and the commons like to dismiss these as socialist or communist pipe dreams, a concept like community funded infrastruture allows the infrastructure to sustain a proper marketplace instead of the infrastructure sustaining a centralised, command economy which is what the telcos have had and want to consolidate.