OneWebDay.org

The success and popularity of the Internet is owed to the ideals promoted by OneWebDay:

  1. The End-to-End Principle – the principle that allows any application on any user’s machine to directly connect and interact with any application on any other user’s machine, without hindrance.
  2. Open Internetworking – Openness is the overarching principle that has ensured the success and growth of the Internet to date. User access, choice and transparency are critical to the success of the Internet and must be incorporated as central features of current and future policy frameworks for the Internet.
  3. The Internet model -The Internet is successful in large part due to its unique model: shared global ownership, development based on open standards, and freely accessible processes for technology and policy development. The Internet model is open, transparent, and collaborative. The model relies on processes and products that are local, bottom-up, and accessible to users around the world.

Why the world needs an open Internet.

With a closed Internet, you can forget about hearing stories about innovation. Remember the two guys who started a search company in their dorm and turned the enterprise into a billion-dollar company? Wouldn’t happen. There are thousands of startups in the world that owe their success (and some, their continued existence) to the open Internet.

Big businesses would love to control the Internet for themselves or join forces with large carriers in that pursuit. The Internet is the single most important resource we have for innovation and commerce today and if we give up the fight to keep it open, then we can fully expect the carriers will close it for us.

The open Internet wouldn’t die because some recording artist proclaimed it was over. It would die because the carriers (willingly) and government (unknowingly) killed it and because Internet users just like you and me didn’t do anything about it. Sure we have OneWebDay, OpenMedia.ca, SavetheInternet.com telling us about the dangers of a closed Internet, but it’s easier to assume that the smart people will figure it out, isn’t it? That’s the danger.

Don’t forget, the anti-net-neutrality people (ps: they don’t call themselves that!) have smart people on their side too.