[powerpress]

This special podcast is the audio portion of  a webcast with three special guests that deserve the title of Internet Pioneers: Tom Evslin, the founder of ITXC, the first company to transport phone calls over the Internet and owner of the outstanding Fractals of Change blog; John Day, the author of Patterns in Network Architecture and the manager of the team that created the layered OSI model of network architecture; and Barry Shein, founder of The World, the first commercial ISP and one of the 11 People Who Made the Internet Possible.

We discuss the issues at stake in the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom docket that proposes to unwind the 2015 FCC classification of the Internet under regulations designed for the common carrier telephone network.

Here are some of the reactions from Twitter while the webcast was in progress.

Tom explained the difference between telephone call routing and Internet packet routing:

"Packets fly all over the place" – part of the strength/capacity of Internet: no single 'call path' @HighTechForum #TitleII #techpolicy

— Politic365 (@Politic365) August 15, 2017

Barry and John discussed the value of zero-rating for lowering barriers to Internet participation in developing countries:

Discussion of #zerorating important convo in context of #TitleII debate @HighTechForum @iPolicy #techpolicy

— InnovationGeneration (@IG_Online) August 15, 2017

Tom pointed out that regulating non-monopoly businesses as if they were monopolies prevents innovation:

Monopoly #TitleII regulations almost guaranteed public switch telephone networks would be innovation free via @HighTechForum #techpolicy

— Politic365 (@Politic365) August 15, 2017

We all broke down the difference between the circuit-switched telephone network and the packet switched Internet in some depth:

Listening to @tevslin, @world_leader, John Day, and @iPolicy on network architectures right now, and so far it has been a great discussion.

— Will Rinehart (@WillRinehart) August 15, 2017

Tom stressed the importance of light regulatory touch for stimulating network innovation as well as application innovation:

Light regulatory touch that internet enjoyed from its inception until 2015 helped promote innovation #TitleII #techpolicy @HighTechForum

— Politic365 (@Politic365) August 15, 2017

John mentioned the Internet is missing two layers of architecture compared to other packet switched networks and the advocates of Title II don’t know it. Barry pointed out that the ability to commit mischief isn’t limited to ISPs:

#NetNeutrality proponents missing multitude of layers ppl w/ money can exploit to gain advantage cc: @HighTechForum #TitleII #techpolicy

— InnovationGeneration (@IG_Online) August 15, 2017

I opined that net neutrality is more of an incumbency protection racket than a stimulant to innovation:

"Incumbents don't want internet to change – they want all the innovation in the applications" via @HighTechForum #TitleII #techpolicy

— Politic365 (@Politic365) August 15, 2017

As much as we may pretend, the Internet is far from perfect and still needs a lot of work:

.@iPolicy: Part of the emotional drive behind #netneutrality debate is idea that the network is nearly perfect as is #TitleII #techpolicy

— Kristal High Taylor (@KristalHigh) August 15, 2017

Tom explained that heavy regulation on any industry helps incumbents more than upstarts:

.@HighTechForum: Co's like @Google @amazon @facebook own & are advantaged by their networks but not regulated like ISPs #TitleII #techpolicy

— InnovationGeneration (@IG_Online) August 15, 2017

And the climax was Barry’s comparison of the Title II debate to the Game of Thrones:

YES! The moment I've been waiting for – comparison of #TitleII #netneutrality debate to #GameOfThrones @HighTechForum #techpolicy pic.twitter.com/B5pHvuF4i5

— Kristal High Taylor (@KristalHigh) August 15, 2017

You can see the video on our Facebook page and on YouTube now.