12,600 votes
Ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral
The Internet is one of the most valuable technical resources in America. In order to continue the amazing growth and utility of the Internet, the CTO's policies should:
Improve accessibility in remote and depressed areas.
Maintain a carrier and content neutral network.
Foster a competitive and entrepreneurial business environment.
RbtShelton
To the list of bullet points, I'd add: "Employ Web 3.0 policy-enabled technologies" since this will make it possible to extend Internet technologies, and the productivity advances these enable, to confidential information (e.g., in health care). For this innovation to occur, an environment of trust must exist and users must be able to control who can and cannot see their personal information.
6 days ago
jerrad
Freedom, innovation, and opportunity are all important aspects of the Internet today. It is important that we act now to pass Net Neutrality legislation, and preserve the freedom of the Internet. These three values, freedom, innovation, opportunity, are at the foundation of American ideology. They are the core of what we, as Americans, believe in, and taking them away would be a travesty.
10 days ago
stingham
kinda off topic, but how exactly does this get approved, its obviously number one, do we get any feed back?
12 days ago
maryhutchings
How else can I keep up with the most current research in the science areas related to the brain disease afflicting my family? Access to science keeps hope alive.
15 days ago
maryhutchings
How else can I keep up with the most current research in the science areas related to the brain disease afflicting my family? Access to science keeps hope alive.
15 days ago
gloverette
The accessiblity and freedom of this tool is what has helped us and others thrive.
20 days ago
Ametrica
The Internet is already widely accessible and will expand further as both technology and funding increases. As our economy moves quickly into a depression it may be that most people will find it hard to pay for Internet service, especially broadband and Internet usage will drop. It won't be politics or technology that will restrict Internet usage, but the ability of the people to pay for it.
29 days ago
tymes
You want to give the uninformed non-internet people a voice? I would love that they learned something but we see lots of those red states happlessly mirroring stupid ideas, yet I believe we can teach poeple something eventually or perhaps enable sane people to deprogram all the silly god based education not founded on earth. Here on earth, man is better suited than god as this was made for us.
about 1 month ago
Tyson
Marianlibrarians comment is easily the most important here to me.
about 1 month ago
gaetanomarano - NewSpaceAgency.com
.
two good names for CTO are:
- Bill Gates
- Nicholas Negroponte
however, if the CTO staff wants good advices about Space they can take a look at my blog:
http://www.ghostNASA.com/
and my articles:
http://www.gaetanomarano.it/articles/articles.html
with very innovative ideas like the "Wind Energy Skyscrapers":
http://www.gaetanomarano.it/articles/028energy.html
.
about 1 month ago
vontrapp
ISPs can provide service any way they want, provided it is made plainly known in contract. They can even charge more for traffic that leaves their own domain (location based prioritization) so long as it's contractually clear. If video gets throttled and people want video, someone will provide it. Will it cost more? Sure. Is that because it is more expensive to deliver video? Of course.
about 1 month ago
vontrapp
I urge you all to be careful about this issue. I believe network neutrality is important. First of all, how is "ensure internet widely available" any better than all the other entitlement nonsense we see all around us?? Secondly, I propose that yes, the network be neutral, but that we leave ISPs alone. This will in some cases require separating the interests of ISP/network conglomerates.
about 1 month ago
ricster
The big media companies should have no greater say, control or rights over the publishing of creative content on the internet than the homegrown producer or small business. The internet represents an ideal open platform where content can be judged based solely on its own quality. New Media Creators must not be subjected to censorship, throttling or carrier charges in order to reach their audience.
about 1 month ago
gfb
90% of everything is Congress but it doesn't stop the President from introducing. I never understood why people think the President is the one with real power Congress Makes laws, President enforces. Still, a CTO would be a good move. The USG needs to be more flexible in this realm. We rely too much on industry.
about 1 month ago
OffGlobal
Clinton had been putting much of this in place through Digital Divide and NASA Education Outreach (addressing technical issues like the librarian above). Bush gutted this and put us in 8 years of the technology Dark Ages. Bring back and expand one-stop, transparent government.
about 1 month ago
jimtobias
There's another meaning for the word "accessibility" -- ICT should be accessible to people with disabilities. This facet of ICT policy is just as important as any other inclusive approach -- there are 30 million Americans who have difficulty using one or more forms of ICT.
about 1 month ago
Vogulus
Wow... I mean, there is a place for legislating this stuff, but come on.. two wars... failing economy... I'd be a lot more worried about losing my job and place of residence than worry about what the fucking CTO is going to do, the president has much more power to veto bills and push them through congress then any CTO will.
about 1 month ago
jps
Using the analog television spectrum and existing analog spectrum infrastructure per ScooperJay's suggestion below is much more important than an earlier transition to IPv6.
about 1 month ago
fms
I think that IPv6 is necessarily rolled into the idea of universal connectivity, so I don't understand why it is a separate proposal on this site.
Above it was suggested that there was a choice between internet and food. While it is true that connectivity is not a substitute for food, it is a growth enabler in the same way that the alphabet and language are, and we should fund it accordingly.
about 1 month ago
waldir
This appears to be in Obama's plan already: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/#open-internet
about 1 month ago
LauraGullett
I am all for keeping the Internet equal for all to use. I read the Net Neutrality information and always agree with freedom. The Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. I practically live there researching, studying, socializing, etc.
about 1 month ago
sshumaker
Unfortunately, the ISP business tends towards local monopolies because it runs over infrastructure that requires a high capital deployment cost, like cable. So there isn't really a free market here - your average user may have only one choice for broadband internet. It's therefore essential that you ensure unrestricted access.
about 1 month ago
marianlibrarian
(Librarian Geneva Alabama) 250 people just lost their jobs about 4 weeks ago. They made kevlar vests. Many of these employees don't have high school diplomas. Retail jobs require at least a GED. They come to our library to do job searches & study for GED.
Internet access was a luxury here before this economic mess. Now it is a choice between internet & food.
about 1 month ago
marianlibrarian
I am a library director in a rural town (Population 4300) - in Alabama. Our library has 5 public access computers. Last year they were checked out 3700 times. This year they were checked out 5700 times. These extra 2000 uses have really stressed our library. Our state funding dropped 5% in the first quarter. We anticipate an additional drop of 25% by 3rd Quarter.
about 1 month ago
serraguard
The internet only thrives because of freedom of access. Thanks, Pres. Obama, for taking this so seriously.
about 1 month ago
serraguard
It's not just about access, because we can rest assured that you will still be able to "see" all of the websites out there. However, will the high download speed be restricted to "premium" websites? Will certain domains require subscriber payment to our ISP? Will there be political motivations that decrease accessibility to some sites? What about the bandwidth throttling being done as we speak?
about 1 month ago
wy100101
josephsack, almost everything the executive branch does directing policy involves working with the legislative branch to pass laws. The whole point of this is too see what issues the people care about so they can effectively try to push for appropriate legislation.
about 1 month ago
HeckRuler
I wholeheartedly agree with this idea. But naysayers like kybernetikos have a point. I think that ISPs should have the freedom to sell whatever they want. However, anything less then unrestricted access should not be marketed as the internet, which makes the company something other then an Internet Service Provider.
about 1 month ago
Jakewk
It's time that we as a society realize that Internet access should be a public utility just like roads, water, etc... Leaving it in the hands of competitive markets ensures that it will be held back from the necessary expansion because of profit concerns. This is an area that needs to be invested in while maintaining the lowest cost to the public, which is exactly what the utility model does.
about 1 month ago
Stan314
Suggest also addressing limiting access for children:
One possibility is to provide liability protection to Internet providers so that they can provide effective limits.
about 1 month ago
josephsack
Wouldn't this issue be something for congress to legislate? While I agree with the principles of network neutrality, it seems out of the scope of what the executive branch could implement.
about 1 month ago
angelofchaos99
In theory I'd agree with kybernetikos that a contract which clearly states lower priority of specific data types should be okay. In practice, this doesn't work. It means all competitors would do the same thing - slowing down voice, video, p2p, and other data, because you simply wouldn't be able to find an ISP who didn't. If they are allowed to do it, ALL will do it, and there will be no choice.
about 1 month ago
kybernetikos
I don't believe that it's necessary for the end networks to be content unaware. e.g. I think it's fine for an ISP to prioritise voice or video packets, as long as that is clearly indicated when you buy their deal. What is important is that the carrier doesn't prioritise packets based on their origin or destination.
about 1 month ago
stingham
I believe we also need to get our broadband speeds up to date with modern world, as we are falling behind to almost every other first world country. It's time we replace all of our lines with fiber optics or something better
about 1 month ago
ScooperJay
Not to pigeon hole the scope, but leveraging the soon to be available analog television spectrum white space would be a great place to start. The key would be to provide the service at no charge. I'm sure implementation parallels could be drawn from President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System.
about 1 month ago
denb
The interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution is the perfect avenue for bringing such a change. Just like roads, network wires must belong to the people.
about 1 month ago
Max M.
I totally agree, everyone should have access to the internet and ALL of the information that is available through it. Also, I believe the way the government sees people who start small online businesses is very unfair, as the laws were not created with the knowledge there would be people making less than maybe $1000 a month with an online business...
about 1 month ago
jlaprise
Oh, and this kind of freedom of information is very much in the US's strategic interests.
about 1 month ago
jlaprise
Not just in the US but globally. Creating a global neutral infrastructure will circumvent national censorship initiatives.Wireless broadband does not respect borders. The great firewall of China is effective only so long as Chinese users are forced to use the Chinese servers of China's internet backbone. This should be global in scope.
about 1 month ago