The Master Switch, Net Neutrality…and again with the Millenials…

March 8, 2015

The Master Switch, Net Neutrality…and again with the Millenials…

I spend much of my time on evenings and weekends reading. The current book I am reading is “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” by Tim Wu. This book is five years old, and Wu coined the term “Net Neutrality” A review of his book can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/books/review/Leonhardt-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 and you can get your own copy here http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Switch-Information-Empires/dp/0307390993 or here http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-master-switch-tim-wu/1116998797?ean=9780307594655.  I’m going to try to be “neutral” and not say everything can be got from Amazon, but clearly it can. In Wu’s book, he describes the rise of telephony and media in the 20th century in the U.S. and then discusses the move by government and business to collude to make “universal access” services. In the beginning, it all seems well and good. Everyone is getting fair and equal treatment under the law… Sounds great, right, well the best of intentions, with not the best of outcomes. Luckily for us, technology continues to march, so the old phone barons now give way to the wireless and broadband providers. You want a free and open Internet, then pay attention and read Tim Wu’s book. The roll of the government is not to pick winners and losers, but to set up the conditions for fair and open competition. The more we allow the “sweet heart” deals between the government and the information providers, the more quickly we get less for more money. Anyway, if you hear Net Neutrality and think it’s a good thing, it is in principle. Like Universal Health Care – sounds great until you try it… Open market solutions with reasonable regulation is the solution, not government control.

Again with the Millennials… This article by Alan Murray just dropped and I am guessing if you want to make a Millennial happy, there you go…

Millenials Best Companies: http://fortune.com/2015/03/05/millenials-best-companies/

I’ve stopped asking Baby Boomers approval a long time ago, so why start now????

schraderblog

Culture, Technology

3 responses to “The Master Switch, Net Neutrality…and again with the Millenials…”

bohemiaspeaks

March 8, 2015

but the internet fundamentally draws its value from the uninhibited ability to access information. introducing connectivity biases would turn the internet into a purely commercial medium instead of allowing it to grow into something that has much more social value.

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denise

March 9, 2015

I take exception to grouping all baby boomers in one category. Baby boomers range from 1946 to 1964. That’s 18 years. From the eldest to the youngest is one generation. You are only 7 months from the youngest boomer.

It sounds like Google is going to be a great competitor in the broad band market. In KC, MO where Google exist the old timers Comcast and AT&T are scrambling to keep their market share. As long as technology can advance its all good. But lets take rural areas like Northern MO and most of Kansas those companies are not competing for any thing. this is the FCC report from Sept 2014 http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/09/most-of-the-us-has-no-broadband-competition-at-25mbps-fcc-chair-says/

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1. schaderblog
  
  March 9, 2015
  
  Yes, it’s a generalization,but in that 7 months I have a different musical taste than someone one to two years prior and my college experience was in the early-mid 80s so The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Back to the Future and the first Alternative music came to be in that time which marks the GenX generation. I am definitely early in the generation and do not subscribe to all of it, but there are clear differences too.
  
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