com125 assignment 12: net neutrality

Net neutrality is “a principle of equal treatment of traffic on the Internet” (Svensson, 2007). The current debate about this issue deals with how much control the companies that build and maintain the Internet (mostly telephone and cable companies) should have over the content that runs through them and whether or not they can force Internet content providers to pay for that privilege (Efrati, 2006). The Internet is set up so that users can access any legal web site or application and that all Internet traffic is treated equally. Unfortunately, downloading a two-hour video eats up far more bandwidth than sending an email. As a result, telephone and cable companies have suggested that they may start charging fees to Internet-content companies, like Google and Yahoo, whose content is clogging up large portions of their bandwidth. Companies that refuse to pay might find their content moving at slower speeds than those companies that do pay.

Since cable companies are acting as both Internet service providers and content creators, they have a financial interest in prioritizing their own content and threatening online speech and democracy (Efrati, 2006). Their objective is to keep file-sharing traffic from taking up too much bandwidth and affecting the Internet speeds of other subscribers. However, blocking certain uploads has repercussions in the global network of file sharing. Companies like BitTorrent, who rely entirely on peer-to-peer file sharing, will be directly affected by these restrictions. Those in favor of net neutrality worry that unless it is put into law, broadband providers will try to block or degrade Internet access for some content and services, particularly those that compete with the phone and cable companies (Efrati, 2006). Without some type of anti-discrimination law or standard, these companies could control users' access by “blocking content from competitors, favoring certain applications, charging higher rates to deliver information into people's homes and offices and failing to inform people of their capacity” (Jones, 2007).

I believe that Internet service providers should not be able to discriminate, block or impair their consumers' ability to send or receive legal content over the Internet. No one has the power to stop companies like Google and Yahoo from distributing content over the Internet. If we embraced an open access broadband policy and allowed for more competition among Internet service providers then we would see lower consumer prices along with better speed and service. Instead we have corporate giants who continue to further expand the digital divide within our own country. Currently, broadband services in America remain unavailable for many living in rural and poorer urban areas, and remain slow and expensive for those who do have access (Turner, 2008). We as a nation should want to be at the top of the ranks in terms of our broadband use; instead, we are continuing to fall further and further away.

Resources:
Efrati, A. (2006). A battle for control of the web. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://wsjclassroom.com/archive/06sep/htop_netneutrality.htm

Jones, K. C. (2007). Net neutrality debate remains contentious. InformationWeek. Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=198001557

Svensson, P. (2007). Comcast blocks some internet traffic. Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/19/financial/f061526D54.DTL&feed=rss.business

Turner, D. (2008). Free american broadband! Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://www.salon.com/src/pass/sitepass/spon/sitepass_website_refresh.html

com125 assignment 11: virtual worlds

World of Warcraft and Second Life are both very different and very similar. World of Warcraft is a game with a community that has formed around it, partly because certain goals in the game are unachievable without teamwork and a community spirit. While Second Life is a community that has built a game around it, where there are no goals and the community is part of the experience.

Second Life does not function as a game but as an extension of reality; it creates a social platform for users to interact an create their own content. Although it is free to join, the virtual world operates on real currency called Linden. This form of cyber-capitalism is the most apparent within Second Life where more than 10,000 people interact on a daily basis. The games designers give people all of the tools and virtual land they need to create their own unique online experience. People can create their own businesses where they can charge money for virtual accommodations such as a haircut or clothes. One user has even claimed that her Second Life property business has made her a real-world millionaire (Giles, 2007). Although World of Warcraft has a larger number of users, it is different in that it does not allow that free flow of US currency. The only money exchanged is the monthly subscription that is required by all users. In the Warcraft economy, gold and exotic armor and weaponry that players accumulate are given value and are traded amongst one another (Levy, 2008). Although the games content and graphics are meticulously detailed, there are only a small number of people that are actually creating the games content.

It seems as though the most popular economies that are created on the Internet tend to mirror real life. These virtual worlds show similarities to real life at the level of one-on-one social interactions, however, the risks taken online are much greater then the one’s people are willing to take in the real world. Last year one of my Visual Studies professors, Stephanie Rothenberg, got us involved in a project where she studied the economy of Second Life and virtual labor within its middle class. She was even asked to exhibit it at the Sundance Film Festival last year. What she did is she created a sweatshop in Second Life called Double Happiness Manufacturing where they made "designer" jeans. After making a Second Life recruitment video, she collected workers to work long hours at the factory for little pay and in return they received a small area to live on her land. At Sundance, she connected herself to the online factory and had people order jeans from the festival. Their orders were taken by the Second Life workers and then printed out onsite on fabric with an industrial printer and Stephanie and her friends assembled the jeans for the customer.


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References:
Giles, J. (2007). Life’s a game. Nature. Retrieved on November 1, 2008 from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/courses/1/200809_471918/content/_1019953_1/giles_2007_lifes_a_game.pdf?bsession=29081714&bsession_str=session_id=29081714,user_id_pk1=132593,user_id_sos_id_pk2=1,one_time_token=

Levy, S. (2008). World of warcraft: is it a game? MSNBC. Retrieved on November 1, 2008 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/