I'm fundraising for another billboard, this time for FCC. Save Net Neutrality | Hacker News Reader

I'm fundraising for another billboard, this time for FCC. Save Net Neutrality

crowdtilt.com

57 pointskn0thing15 comments

While I think this is a great cause I think it is analogous to things like security by trust v. security by design and the teach a man to fish principle. Let me explain.

It is pretty obvious that eventually companies like planetLabs are going to drive down the cost of Satellites to the point where they are deployed at such capacity that internet is ubiquitous. The "too cheap to meter" of Eisenhower IS coming to internet, however, in the interim we will have a battle.

I think the smartest way to outflank the ISPs is to focus on paying hardware hackers and developers to create a hardware solution so that we can create city wide subnets. Then these can either buy bandwith from Cogent-esqu companies or ISPs. This will greatly increase our collective bargaining power.

I see this functioning like roman city states or like the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government. Distributing power across a broad enough playingfeild to allow things to get done (not really true in American Gov't anymore) while limiting any individuals power.

IDK just a concept I have been working on.

Spot on.

As far as a quick layman's glance has shown, the problem is specific to the 'last mile' bit of data connection, which is run by Comcast, Verizon, etc...

The backbone pipelines are run by companies like Level3 and Cogent, which are not of concern for this debate.

'Last mile' wires tend to be one company per city, so we're stuck trying to prevent relatively small-scale monopolies from extracting rents via regulation. The better solution is competition.

Enter Google Fiber, spurring competition: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/04/21/4973046/att-may-bring-g...

I've heard a little chatter about the subnet idea, but it'd be tricky to do 'underground' with regards to city regulation and trickier to get approval for.

Basically it would be analgous to everyone opening their router and daisy chaining them all together. That would be "last mile". It would be like connect to Linksys.LosAngeles and then backbones connect you up to San Fran. That way either content providers could locate in cities and push locally, or ISPs would have to come to the table.

Cool, any recommendations for further reading? I seem to recall Nick Merrill of Calyx being interested in this sort of thing for SF.

Sounds great... eventually. But in the short term, there absolutely needs to be a community response to this policy. It will begin to affect everyone far sooner than a complete overhaul of last-mile net infrastructure.

Comment on the proposed regulations:

http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/proceeding/view?name=14-28

Is this the correct one? I've been pointing people to the FCC page: http://www.fcc.gov/page/fcc-establishes-new-inbox-open-inter...

They might be posting comments received by <openinternet@fcc.gov> on ECFS. The posted comments look like emails. This website allows you to read comments, not just post them.

The Electronic Comment Filing System, or ECFS, "serves as the repository for official records in the FCC's docketed proceedings and rulemakings". The ECFS docket for this (14-28, "Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet") has about 500 filings in the last 30 days, and about 15,000 since the FCC announced it on February 19th:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/new-docket-established-address-...

Why not collect for a donation to key congress figures instead.

It's the promise of continual donations to future campaigns that gives power. An organization that can only make a one-time donation then has no money also has no political influence. There are no repercussions to not voting their way after receiving the single crowdfunded donation.

Because this isn't a legislative issue, but rather a regulatory one. Bureaucrats aren't the most responsive to public pressure, in contrast with elected officials.

That said, right now, we're in an awareness building phase, so I can support this crowdtilt (rhetorically, I am a starving founder after all!). Think pre-American Censorship Day on SOPA, not the run-up to the blackout.

But I recommend everyone write strong, well-reasoned comments here: http://www.fcc.gov/page/fcc-establishes-new-inbox-open-inter...

I'm (PolitiHacks) coordinating with Engine and Free Press to serve as a focal point for converting founder anger here into effective political metrics. Would there be interest in calling in or G+ Hangout for 15-30 minutes early next week with one of the activists to lay out the political strategy for the leading up to May 15?

It can absolutely be solved with legislation though. FCC has authority to re-classify the internet as Title II, but they get that authority because Congress has delegated it to them.

Congress is elected by you and me, and in sufficient numbers we can affect what they do. The FCC is not elected by us, and they really have no responsibility to us. I think they are already aware that this would be bad for consumers, but they clearly don't care unless some other power pressures them otherwise.

You're completely right. Reclassification can be done through the legislative process (see: Markey bill, http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/02/03/senator-ed...). That's a positive fix.

That said, at this point the first step is to prevent the negative regulation from coming into effect. One way to do that is to ask your Representatives and Senators to submit a letter of opposition to the FCC.

That's what we did here with Crowdfunding: http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-06-13/s70613-370.pdf

Will you setup and publish BTC/DOGE donation addresses?

Yes! The awesome DogecoinFoundation Shibes hooked this up!

http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/24cqlo/lets_fund_a...

If you'd like to donate using Dogecoin, you can do so here: D5gFxHPMRz4W6xYs8moWhgPMPoUycCABBa (over 10,020 DOGE raised so far!)

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