Supporting an Open Internet » The Kickstarter Blog. Kickstarter was built on the foundation of an open Internet.
We — like Twitter, Wikipedia, and everything awesome on the Web — would not exist without it. The more than 65,000 (and counting!) Creative ideas that have been brought to life with Kickstarter depend on a free and open Internet. On Sunday I wrote a Washington Post opinion piece sharing Kickstarter's thoughts on how important Net Neutrality is to the future of the Internet, and today we filed an official comment with the FCC. As citizens of the Internet and believers in innovation, we’re proud for Kickstarter to wave this flag. It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae and cynicism of the Net Neutrality debate. As John Oliver so brilliantly implored us to do, we can all share our feelings with the FCC directly on their site, or through the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s tool. The Internet as we know it depends on an open Web with equal access for all. What is network neutrality? - Everything you need to know about network neutrality.
While network neutrality regulation has been the focus of Internet policy debates over the last decade, it is not the only way to promote an open Internet.
Here are some alternative strategies. Unbundle the last mile: The most expensive part of any broadband network is the "last mile" — the glass or copper cable that connects your house to the nearest ISP facility. This part of the network is expensive because it requires tearing up streets and lawns all over town. Because the process is so expensive, it's difficult to convince multiple companies to build cables to a customer's home. Unbundling is a policy that forces companies that have already built cables in a neighborhood — usually your local phone or cable company — to lease this part of their network to competitors at regulated rates. The United States tried unbundling during the Clinton Administration. Google is considering expanding its fiber network to almost a dozen other metropolitan areas. Without net neutrality. Entrepreneur: I plan to launch a better streaming music service.
It leverages the data on what you and your friends currently listen to, combines that with the schedule of new music launches and acts that are touring in your city in the coming months and creates playlists of music that you should be listening to in order to find new acts to listen to and go see live. VC: Well since Spotify, Beats, and Apple have paid all the telcos so that their services are free on the mobile networks, we are concerned that new music services like yours will have a hard time getting new users to use them because the data plan is so expensive.
We like you and the idea very much, but we are going to have to pass. Entrepreneur: I plan to launch a service that curates the funniest videos from all across the internet and packages them up in a 30 minute daily video show that people will watch on their phones as they are commuting to work on the subway. It’s called SubHumor. This is Internet 3.0.
How it should be. But... They lobby for Net Neutrality. Others' curations on NN & Misc.