Computer scientist Vint Cerf speaks at an internet conference in Hong Kong on February 21, 2011.
It’s no secret the role of the internet is changing. Even as it connects more computers, people, and ideas every day, governments and companies around the globe are becoming concerned that too much freedom isn’t such a good thing. Bills keep coming from all directions, designed to impose more governmental controls on the internet – readers from the U.S. may remember the SOPA firestorm of early this year. For zealous defenders of the free and open internet, it’s nothing short of war.
Vinton Cerf, Google’s “Chief Internet Evangelist” and one of the men sometimes referred to as a “father of the internet,” has a piece out in CNN about why he thinks that maintaining the free and open internet is vital to the future of humanity. It’s a primarily economic argument, though philosophy certainly has its place here. Here’s a little bit:
According to a new OECD study, the net already accounts of 13% of American business output, impacting every industry, from communications to cars, and restaurants to retail. Not since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, or Alexander Graham Bell the telephone, has a human invention empowered so many and offered so much possibility for benefiting humankind.
Today, this free and open net is under threat. Some 42 countries filter and censor content out of the 72 studied by the Open Net Initiative. This doesn't even count serial offenders such as North Korea and Cuba. Over the past two years, Freedom House says governments have enacted 19 new laws threatening online free expression.
It’s no surprise that Cerf and Google favor the open internet – Google’s raison d'etre is organizing the vast stream of information that an unfettered internet makes available. It begins to look like a very different – and less important – company if governments enact large-scale controls on the internet. But corporate interests aside, Cerf’s argument is a strong one. In a way, it approaches libertarian capitalism by espousing the idea that no government is the best government. It’s interesting to think of the Internet as one of the few places where those ideas can actually be tested. He closes by reminding us that new technology is always feared.
The net's future is far from assured and history offers much warning. Within a few decades of Gutenberg's creation, princes and priests moved to restrict the right to print books.
