A Series of Tubes: The Internet's Backbone and Network Neutrality

February 10

The late Senator Ted Stevens famously said in a 2006 committee meeting that the “Internet is not something that you just dump something on; it’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes.” While he was ridiculed widely at the time, Senator Stevens’s remarks actually reveal an interesting hortatory description of what the Internet should be (though given the rest of his comments, apparently not one that he intended). What Stevens’s metaphor suggests is that the physical conduits of the Internet should act like nothing more than non-judgmental conduits of the rest of the world’s traffic. We will see this week, however, that this is not a true reflection of how the tubes work, and we have strong debates as to what the government's role should be in ensuring that large enough "tubes" reach all those who would like to be online. The big questions for this week: What are the “tubes” of the Internet? Should the tubes have a role in controlling the throughput content? What is the role of government when it comes to developing and regulating our Internet conduits?

Readings

Connectivity

• The Berkman Center, How Do We Connect To The Internet? (about 7 mins., watch all)

• Yochai Benkler et al., Next Generation Connectivity (executive summary and introduction only)

• Susan Crawford, remarks at the 2013 National Conference on Media Reform

• White House Report - Community Based Broadband Solutions: The Benefits of Competition and Choice for Community Development and Highspeed Internet Access (p. 5-19)

Network Neutrality

• Marvin Ammori, The Net Neutrality Battle Has Been Lost, But Now We Can Finally Win the War

• Wikipedia, Net Neutrality

• NYT: Obama Asks FCC to Adopt Tough Net Neutrality Rules

• Obama's Gone Old School Net Neutrality: A Tim Wu Q&A

• Daniel Solove, Interview with Dawn Nunziato on her book Virtual Freedom

• Adam Thierer, More Confusion about Internet “Freedom” (Tech Liberation)

Optional Readings

• Berin Szoka and Geoffrey Manne, The Feds Lost on Net Neutrality, But Won Control of the Internet

• Sam Biddle, How to Destroy the Internet (Gizmodo)

• Ethan Zuckerman & Andrew McLaughlin, Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions

• Rob Faris and Rebekah Heacock, Measuring Internet Activity: a (Selective) Review of Methods and Metrics (pages 3-9)

• Ed Felten, Taking Ted Stevens Seriously

• Jim Cowie, The New Threat: Targeted Internet Traffic Misdirection

• Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Net Neutrality

Assignment 1

Assignment 1 is due before class today (i.e., February 10th before 5:30pm ET). You can submit the assignment here.

Class Discussion

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