Government of Uganda proposes Internet blacklist

The executive director of NITA proposed the implementation of an Internet blacklist during a presentation made at the Uganda Internet Governance Forum on Tuesday. He stated that his intention was only to start a discussion about the issue and did not indicate any plans to implement. According to the presentation, the system would initially block child pornography, copyright infringing sites, and terrorist content.

Given the potentially significant long-term impact a centralized Internet blacklist could have on this society, I feel it's important to spread the news.

Net Neutrality: Knee-Deep in the Internet

Orange (France Telecom) now offers free access to Wikipedia for mobile data users in 20 countries. It's not perfect; users only get free access to the mobile version of the site which lacks the functionality required to contribute, however a vast archive of human knowledge is now significantly more accessible to tens of millions of people. Excellent news indeed!

Or, is it? While free Wikipedia for the masses might sound like a good idea, I argue that it's a major threat to Net Neutrality; that it undermines one of the Internet's greatest benefits to society: the level playing-field.

The Internet allows people to easily pool resources, mass-communicate, and transact business on a global scale. Everyone gets fairly equal access to the same market and the same potential pool of resources. This is why Google was able to compete with Yahoo from a garage, and why Facebook was able to compete with MySpace from a university dorm room.

Before reading any further, you must first understand how the Internet works (watch the video):

 
You must also understand how Internet access is sold. Traditionally, all-you-can-eat monthly plans (differentiated by speed) were the norm. This is due to the fact that packets of data are not a scarce resource. There's a nearly infinite supply as they are generated by computers at almost no cost. The only constraint on supply is the transmission rate (i.e. the speed at which they can be sent and received).

Despite this, many Internet service providers have begun selling access in units of volume, otherwise known as data-cap bundles. Why? Because it creates new opportunities to make money. They can charge differently for every packet of data that crosses their network; they can charge for access to some websites and not others, offer tiered services (think of television's Bronze, Silver, and Gold packages), and give customers free access to related online businesses while charging for access to the competition.

When Internet service providers engage in this type of behavior, and offer their customers free access to sponsored services like Facebook or Wikipedia, they are unbalancing the level playing-field by allowing wealthy corporations to buy preferential access to the market. As this behavior becomes more prevalent, it will have an increasingly negative impact on start-up companies and new technologies who cannot afford preferential access; it will introduce a significant financial barrier to scale.

But don't just take my word for it; listen to Vint Cerf, inventor of the Internet:

So what does all of this mean for Uganda? We talk a lot about Internet penetration rates and World Bank statistics, but we don't talk about what kind of Internet we're deploying. What hope do Ugandan entrepreneurs and innovators have, even amongst themselves, if large (possibly foreign) corporations are allowed to monopolize and control access to the market? How will the next Facebook launch from Makerere, or the next Google from someone's pocket in Karamoja, if the Internet does not remain neutral?

IPv6: A 128-bit platform for innovation

Orange Uganda just announced the availability of IPv6 for their corporate customers.  While this is a huge step in the right direction, I'm here to report some even better news:

I asked the Orange executive team about their IPv6 plans during the press conference at last years Orange Expo. Aside from announcing their 2-year roll-out plan, they publicly stated that they intend to issue public IPv6 addresses to all mobile devices. I don't know how all of the journalists in the room missed this, but it didn't seem to get reported anywhere.

If Orange gives public IPv6 addresses to mobile phones, it means they can act as servers on the Internet. This could have a greater positive impact on the Internet and society than the advent of mobile Internet itself. Facebook was originally developed and hosted in a college dorm room. If mobile devices get public IPv6 addresses, the next iteration could be developed and hosted in someone's pocket in Karamoja.

That's assuming, of course, that the Internet remains neutral...

You have yourself a deal, sir.

I've always been a big fan of robbing people blind, so I'm happy to announce that I've discovered a bug in Skyrim which allows the player to attain an extremely large amount of gold by doing just that.

The bug appears during the Blood on the Ice quest-line once the player has acquired the Strange Amulet from Hjerim in Windhelm. To exploit the bug, simply sell the amulet to Calixto Corrium then pickpocket it back -- then sell it to him (again), then pickpocket it back (again) -- over, and over, and over. He'll give you 500 gold each time.

So I've decided to write a blog...

I'd like to thank Ashis Brahma and the Marabou Stork that crapped all over me a few moments ago for inspiring me to create this blog.