Vanlug Monthly Meeting: Monday, June 20, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011 between 7:30pm and 10:00pm
Come early if you like.
The location is:
Room 7000, The Earl & Jennie Lohn Policy Room
SFU, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street.
This is one block south of the Waterfront SkyTrain Station.
Our subject this month is Net Neutrality.
INTERNET REPORT SLAMS CABLE-TELCO DUOPOLY
Canada's Internet is in decline relative to other industrialized
countries. We pay too much for inferior service. This is
principally due to our existing Internet "Duopoly" of telephone
and cable corporations - a system that avoids both competition
and regulation.
The Canadian Internet serves both the cultural needs of citizens
and the requirements of businesses. A national Internet strategy
should prioritize these needs. Instead, the Duopoly has a
"shareholders first" philosophy. Recent proposals to change both
the economic and technical shape of the Canadian Internet have
met with a considerable public backlash on the issues of traffic
shaping and usage based billing. Hundreds of thousands of
Canadians have signed petitions opposing these changes, catching
the CRTC off guard.
"Casting An Open Net" is a recent report written by OpenMedia.ca
to evaluate the Canadian Internet. It shines the cold hard
light of fact and detail on the arguments put forward by cable
and telephone companies in their pursuit of a restructured
Internet. By comparing the Canadian experience with that of
other countries, "Casting An Open Net" provides a technical
analysis of the companies' claims, and reveals them to be
self-serving myths. It looks at global best practises and puts
forward a series of recommendations for an upgrade to Canadian
Internet strategies, based on the principles of openness and
net neutrality.
Our meeting this month will feature a lecture and discussion by
OpenMedia.ca Communications Manager Lindsey Pinto and Operations
Manager Shea Sinnott based on "Casting An Open Net". Their focus
will be the general importance of Internet openness, and
specifically the principles of net neutrality and fair pricing
practices as they relate to proposed usage based billing and the
Internet service provider market.
"Casting An Open Net" can be found at: http://openmedia.ca/plan