Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Future of the Internet to be Decided at Upcoming G8 Summit

The controversial issue of regulating the Internet will be decided at the upcoming G8 summit on May 26-27, 2011. This is such an important issue, in fact, that you could even say that the future of the Internet will be decided at this event.

Before the summit, however, a two-day forum between tech leaders from the world's most powerful internet and media companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will take place in Paris. The decisions reached at this pow-wow will then be presented at the summit.

So what are we, the masses, to make of all this? Should we even care? Well, let's not get into that right now!

On the one hand, this would be the first time in history that the (future of the) Internet is discussed in what we hope would be an open and fair way by the leaders of the wealthiest nations of the world. So, that's pretty cool! I'll give you that. On the other hand, when I think about what is at stake (net neutrality), I must admit, I start to worry.

As an advocate of net neutrality, I have a bit of a problem with President Sarkozy, who clearly has a soft-spot for the opposition, "moderating" the two-day forum. Perhaps "moderating" is not the right word, but that's how it comes across to me. The bottom line is, how can somebody with a bias be counted on to present a fair and balanced view to the world leaders at the summit? Isn't is more likely that President Sarkozy will inject some of his own biases? Time will tell, I suppose. Until then, we wait.

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