Voluntary Net Neutrality: Holy Grail or Total Hoax?
If net neutrality is what its supporters say it is – the best overall way of setting expectations and managing Internet service agreements, it should be expected to become self-executing at some point. I think we passed that point about ten years ago, but we will see what we will see.
Five Myths About Internet Privacy
Our web activity is tracked by “edge services” such as Google and Facebook even if we don’t go to their web sites. This is because they both operate tracking networks with the cooperation of web sites that carry their tracking code.
Senate Internet Hearings
As a technical matter, it is the case that the Internet is more like cable TV than the telephone network. While the Internet does support interpersonal communication, its primary role is publishing audio, video, pictures, and text. And like cable TV, it’s a platform in which advertising is a very important source of revenue.
Animating Rural Broadband
Subsidies aren’t going to alleviate rural America’s broadband woes all by themselves, but with a little planning and some new technology we can do a lot with a little.
Is Net Neutrality Doomed?
Net neutrality is doomed by history and technology regardless of who sits atop the FCC. Neutrality is forced modularity, a losing proposition in every long run. Our reverence for for forced modularity comes from a fluke of history.
Reimagining the FCC for the 21st Century
I read an intriguing article on Airbus’s plans for flying cars in Digital Trends. Before the end of the year, Europe’s aircraft maker will be testing both single-passenger and no-passenger flying…
Rural Broadband is the FCC’s Top Priority
The FCC needs a commissioner with close ties to Capitol Hill who can help the members of her party forge alliances with Republicans to address the rural broadband problem more effectively. Improving the rural economy is in everyone’s interest because that’s where our food comes from. Continued advances in high-tech ag depend to a great extent on connectivity, so rural broadband is more important than idling away the hours watching TV reruns can ever be.
Augmented Reality Drama
Augmented reality drama makes the viewer part of the action. This is new, so it’s going to take some fairly close coordination among all the vertical parts of the entertainment supply chain to make it happen quickly. If we stick to old ways, it may take hundreds of years to create a Holodeck. But I hope it doesn’t.
The Year of Augmented Reality
AR leap-frogged VR on the strength of Pokèmon Go, the app that showed millions what it’s all about. Rather than VR paving the way for AR, they’re both going to develop in parallel. Here are some devices and apps.
Landing Team Invades the Echo Chamber
Technology regulation is a gatekeeper with an enormous role in determining the kind of future we will enjoy. Engineers can create awesome new systems, but if we can’t get buy-in…