Paul Kapustka's Blog
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June 13, 2006
Let the 'transparency' debate begin -- and can Google help?
Finally, more people are picking up on statistical transparency as something that may help us move to the root of the network neutrality debate. As I've said before, just knowing exactly what is happening on the network could go a long way toward keeping service providers honest. Good to see that Russell Shaw has picked up the thread and advanced it a bit, too.
In a sort of argument with fellow ZDnetter George Ou, Russell notes that both agree that having a clear look into the network would ease a lot of the pain net neutrality rules are trying to solve:
George then makes the point that he believes these potential abuses can be best addressed by mandating that all ISPs disclose all network traffic metrics to the public. As a matter of fact, one of the most frustrating things about Internet Service providers is getting honest metrics and downtime statistics out of them. Forcing them to disclose their performance metrics, backhaul to last mile throughput ratios, QoS policies, and other pertinent data would shed light on any suspicious behavior or incompetence.I for one, would support such disclosures. They would, at the least, provide substantive documentation that would be useful in discussing any untoward favoritism.
One idea I kicked around a bit at this past weekend's Vloggercon (in no small agreement with fellow blogger Matt Sherman, who is about 179 degrees away from me on most net neutrality matters) was the idea of Google (or Microsoft, anyone with buckets of folding money and a desire to get into online apps) buying or building an online application that would show anyone who wants to use it exactly what's happening to their packets as they course to and fro.
Sure, that's a simplistic view but it's the consumer version of what all the self-proclaimed net wizards are talking about when they tell you how to "ping" a server. Why not use some of that Google cash, some of the otherwise wasted programming talent chasing Web 2.0 dreams (how many social network/hookup/map mashups do we need, anyway?) and build something we'd all like to see -- a desktop dashboard that could flash red when an ISP tries to block or degrade service, or starts narrowing the pipe for Skype?
I've seen all the flashy demos from the equipment providers who are mining enterprise dollars in this territory, so I know it's possible. Maybe not easy, but one little app -- call it the Google Desktop Bandwidth Detector (tm) -- could go a long way to keeping Big Ed and his pipes honest and open.
Posted by paul at June 13, 2006 10:08 PM