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This is a computer network. See the network run. See it run better without regulation.
That's the underlying message of a Washington policy group's new Net primer for the next president.
"What is the Internet?" is the first in a series of Internet papers designed to brief Y2K presidential candidates on the ways and means of the Net. It was released Monday by the Internet Policy Institute.
The first installment is mostly about where the Net came from and how its pipes carry digital water.
"It is tempting to view it merely as a collection of networks and computers," the paper cautions. "However, the authors designed the Internet as an architecture that provided for both communications capabilities and information services."
The paper is authored by two technical founding fathers of the Net, Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, who created the TCP/IP protocol that serves as the foundation for the Internet's pioneering packet-based data flow.
Other subjects covered in the paper include the history of the Internet, its basic architecture, the evolution of the domain name system, and its management. It also looks at future paths the Internet could take, and debates the best role for the Internet in 21st century communications.
The authors deliver more than nuts and bolts, however, adding cautionary material that highlights what the group says are the most important public policy issues affecting its future.
"Governments are passing legislation pertaining to the Internet without ever specifying to what the law applies and to what it does not apply," Kahn and Cerf wrote. "In US telecommunications law, distinctions are made between cable, satellite broadcast, and common carrier services. These and many other distinctions all blur in the backdrop of the Internet."
There is even a set of ready-made policy framework for policies the institute says foster open growth of the system.
The authors say they feel strongly that efforts should be made at top policy levels to define the Internet.
"Should broadcast stations be viewed as Internet service providers when their programming is made available in the Internet environment? Is use of cellular telephones considered part of the Internet and, if so, under what conditions? This area is badly in need of clarification."
The Internet Policy Institute calls itself the first independent, nonprofit think tank for objective analysis and research on Net issues. The goal: advance understanding of the Internet, its effects on society, and the implications of alternative governmental policies.
Board members come from Net mainstay companies and organizations, as well as politics. They include Jim Barksdale, the former CEO of Netscape; Wayne Clough, president of Georgia Institute of Technology; Michael Daniels, chairman of Network Solutions; Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings and interim chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers; Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House; and Bob Herbold, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Microsoft.
The 12 monthly briefing papers written from now through next November will be compiled in a book, Briefing the President: What the Next President of the United States Needs to Know About the Internet and Its Transformative Impact on Society.
