Kevin Fitchard previews panel on future of the Internet
Kevin Fitchard, formerly of Giga Om, discussed with RCR Wireless News how the Internet could philosophically change as private interests foster more accessibility, particularly to underserved populations.
Fitchard previewed a panel discussion that also included Micha Benoliel, CEO and co-founder of Open Garden; Gutam Chanda of Opera Software; and Chris Weasler, Facebook’s global head of spectrum policy and connectivity planning.
“We’re kind of exploring some of the new technologies that are kind of expanding access and the scope of the Internet all over the world,” Fitchard said.
For instance, he pointed to Open Garden’s peer-to-peer communications platform FireChat, which was instrumental in the planning of recent protests in Hong Kong.
“We’re going to explore some larger philosophical issues like whether or not the Internet today is really doing what the Internet promised to be. … People were afraid the government would basically shut down access to communications,” Fitchard said in reference to FireChat, which connects to devices using Bluetooth technology.
He also singled out Internet.org, spearheaded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg, which provides free access, but only to some apps like Facebook and Wikipedia.
But, Fitchard pointed out the conflict between the concept of net neutrality recently memorialized by the Federal Communications Commission and the ambitions of Internet.org, which provides selective access.
“A lot of these tools that people are using kind of go against the principles of Internet neutrality that were kind of laid out in the new FCC guidelines,” he said. “We value this concept of net neutrality where nothing should be discriminated against. The pipe is open and we should be free. … That’s a great guideline but, I mean, if you’re in a country that has 5% Internet penetration and all of a sudden an organization comes along and says I’ll give you free access to Facebook, I’ll give you free access to Google, you know, but just these particular apps that will encourage millions of your users who have never used the Internet … to actually go online. You take that deal, right? But that kind of program would probably be banned under the net neutrality rules because it favors one application over another. It’s kind of a form of Internet discrimination. What is the greater good, so to speak?”
