[kictanet] The Future of the Internet

[Grace Bomu]

Interesting analysis from The Economist on the future of the Internet and
Internet Governance. Food for thought for us.....
http://www.economist.com/node/16941635
In part:
(on fragmentation of the net)
But China is by no means the only country erecting borders in cyberspace.
The Australian government plans to build a firewall to block material
showing the sexual abuse of children and other criminal or offensive
content........

(on net neutrality)
........Whether such preferential treatment becomes more widespread, and
even extortionary, will probably depend on the market and how it is
regulated. It is telling that net neutrality has become far more politically
controversial in America than it has elsewhere. This is a reflection of the
relative lack of competition in America’s broadband market. In Europe and
Japan, “open access” rules require network operators to lease parts of their
networks to other firms on a wholesale basis, thus boosting competition. A
study comparing broadband markets, published in 2009 by Harvard University’s
Berkman Centre for Internet & Society, found that countries with such rules
enjoy faster, cheaper broadband service than America, because the barrier to
entry for new entrants is much lower. And if any access provider starts
limiting what customers can do, they will defect to another.

-- 
Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu)
 Kenya
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20100905/12ef23ec/attachment.htm>