Photos & Curiosities

Helsinki by Bike: Bicycles are the best way to explore a new city. In August, Erica and I met in Helsinki and rented a pair of Jopos. Markets, picnics, monuments, getting lost and making good use of maps. An unbelievable day.

Video

Tree of leaves

Photos

Digital Textbooks and Open Educational Resources

Lisa Guernsey of the New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative and I recently wrote a piece titled: Making ‘E-Textbooks’ Real — and Really Accessible — in Public School.

From iPads to the Espresso print-on-demand, the publishing world is changing, and textbooks are no different. For example, not only do publishing giants like Pearson and McGraw-Hill have digital offerings, and the new formats allow for the purchase of individual chapters, and more “choose-your-own-adventure” education.

Mobile Devices are Increasingly Locked Down and Controlled by the Carriers

How Cell Phone “Customization” Undermines End-Users by Redefining Ownership

1968 was a landmark year for communication in the United States. The same year when HAL 9000, the psychotic computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, famously said “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” consumers were suddenly freed to connect any phone or devices to their telephone lines. In the seminal “Carterfone” Supreme Court case, the nation’s highest court ruled that a carrier did not have the right to restrict an end user’s ability to add devices to the network. This decision is what made everything from answering machines to the dial-up modem legal, the foundation for the modern Internet.

Why Europe Needs Community Level Network Neutrality

Last week, I led a submission to the European Commission on why Network Neutrality rules are needed at the Community level, a common regulatory framework for the European Union. The full submission and listed authors is available here.

The debates surrounding network neutrality and the open Internet begin with debates on network architecture and network management, but their implications are far-reaching. The Internet is not a direct private link between two end-points but a common pool resource created from the interconnection of tens of thousands of autonomous networks. The value of the Internet, to those who build it, use it, and build on top of it, is not created by any one network or operator, but depends on access to all endpoints being available on a neutral basis to all. If not carefully restrained, the traffic management practices of each inpidual network can influence, fragment, or foreclose the opportunities the Internet provides for innovation, democracy, and free expression.