Amidst all the fanfare of the inauguration of the 44th president, I’m sure that the same things on my mind are very similar to those on America’s: how is the new President going to implement or change Information Technology policy in the White House? After all, the White House has been a significant vehicle for change in the way society deals with IT ever since the founding fathers forgot to include freedom of the Internet in the constitution. Instead they left it to our first President to declare a Proclamation of [Network] Neutrality in 1793 to stop Europe from embroiling America in its [standardization] wars. From the Pony Express and the Telegraph to Email and Twitter, the administration’s most important decisions have always revolved around the creation and influence of information policy.
But with this historic election, America now has its first Google president, breaking the glass ceiling that has left social networks as second rate applications. Now any child, anywhere in this great country can grow up thinking to themselves: “I too can become president, if I leverage the Internet to provide a campaign strategy that is inclusive of all”. Ok- maybe that’s not what America is thinking about, but it is certainly one aspect of this inauguration that can’t be ignored.
Take for instance a widely reported news item concerning the inauguration: cell phone providers had to set up mobile towers in order to ensure network availability to the large crowds in the mall. This seemingly innocuous tidbit that is really meant to highlight the size of the crowd in D.C. really serves as a reminder at the importance of technology in the Obama campaign from start to president elect. YouTube presidential addresses, Twitter election results accurately predicting outcomes in states, 25% of Obama voters belonging to one of the many Obama social networks, Blackberries in the White House- what does this all mean? It means, that for the first time, America has an administration that can effectively use the tools of the Internet for social and political means, and hopefully that will bring an increased focus to the need for policy that governs the Internet.
Right now the Internet is the wild wild west. Its a great place, full of new and exciting things, and pioneers are flocking to the Gold Rush of millions of users and instant connectivity. The Internet has provided a platform of opportunity that is unprecedented in America, and it embodies the American dream- anyone can come, from nothing, and make something of themselves on the Internet. Unfortunately there are also bandits that make the Internet unsafe: privacy invasion, internet crime, and all manner of lowlife from spyware to spam. There are even inequalities and injustices that occur on the Internet: censorship, data gathering, and all manner of discrimination from bandwidth restrictions to the high entry costs of being connected. We now have a President who appears to understand these things, and we need the U.S. Marshals to come and create peace (but not the U.S. Army Cavalry!)
As the first 100 days begin, here is a list of the few things that I would like to see happen with Internet Policy:
The Emancipation Proclamation of the Internet:
The Internet should be free from ownership by anyone. Certainly it shouldn’t be controlled by any one company, and it shouldn’t be censored by any government.
Peace in the Middle East’s DNS Server:
Secretary Clinton: There is no UN commission on the Internet, but it brings the world closer than ever before; if freedom of speech is an unalienable human right, then so is the freedom to use the Internet.
Bandwidth for All:
In the 1920s there was the rural electrification project to bring electricity to the whole of America, now we need a rural connectivication project to ensure that everyone has high bandwidth access to the internet
An IEC: Internet Exchanges Commission:
We need to regulate wall street- we also need to regulate network providers, so that dirty dealing doesn’t hurt the little guy trapped in a two year contract…
The 11th Right: The Right to Privacy
Obviously this is a philosophical point that needs much discussion, and probably several supreme court cases, but there would be no such cases if we weren’t constitutionally given the right to privacy.
Specific Laws for Internet Crime:
Right now if you commit a crime on the Internet, it is usually a “misuse of computers”. We need to define exactly what is criminal on the Internet, child pornography should not be charged as simply child abuse, it is worse, but we don’t have the means to define what is done on the Internet as crimes. Also, who has jurisdiction, and where? Important questions that need to be answered.
These are just a few things that highlight just how much thought we must put into our use of computers in the future. We have a President who has proved his familiarity with these problems, and I’m looking forward to being tweeted with his solutions!
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