Charging for air . . .

I am spending this week at Said School of Business at Oxford University as part of their annual Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event. Much more on this entire experience later.

Right now, however, I am in the midst of 50 MBA students from around the world who are being led through a fascinating process by innovation and creativity consultants Synectics to brainstorm and collaboratively problem-solve.

I was asked to pose the problem to be tackled by this eager group. I called upon these bright minds to arm the "good guys" in the Net neutrality debate with a metaphor/analogy/catchphrase which will help the masses quickly and painlessly understand the importance of an open and neutral Net. Up until now, the efforts of Google and its many allies on this issue have not succeeded in making this realm one around which the average layperson can wrap their head.

Nevertheless, it is vital that non-technical Net users understand the stakes here and be empowered to ask their representatives to protect the Internet. Similarly, the lawmakers themselves could no doubt benefit from concrete illustrations to help grasp the underlying concepts (look no further than the "Series of Tubes").

All told, this has been an exhilirating, eye-opening, and frankly inspiring session. The student body here at Said is wildy international and the diverse perspectives have been nothing short of moving.

Just a moment ago, one student, hailing from the developing world, said with all sincerity, "Charging for Google is like charging for air." Wow. A sentiment soon echoed across this room by students from the far reaches of the globe as they recalled life without the Internet and Google. Tales from Kazakhstan, India, and from across Africa each charged with such compelling energy and passion. The Internet is an escape, a laugh, an education, a weapon, it is medicine, it is family, it is resistance to oppression.

I need to jump back into the fray and work over some of these ideas with the students, but in the meantime, this is one of those days that reminds me of how lucky I am, and how lucky we all are. The Internet is nothing short of a gift.

Comments

[Gaurav Kishore Bahri]

Dear Chris,

It was great working on resolving a problem, which I must admit I wasn't even aware of. Internet has become a 'given' in our lives today, and this debate leaves a lot of room for introspection and possible outcomes and solutions.

Thanks for coming to Oxford. It has been a learning experience.

[Sunil]

Dear Chris,

Thanks so much for mentioning about me in your blog. It's a pleasure to be noticed by a high profile strategist like you, that too from my dream company Google. I keep saying to my friends at the biz school that, if I ever have to work for free that would be for Google.

Keep the good work goin...

Many Thanks,
Sunil

[Brian Duffy]

One small problem... people are selling air:

http://www.failedsuccess.com/index.php?/weblog/comments/canned_oxygen_flavored_air/

I'm not sure how many people are paying $70 for flavored air... but if the number is greater than 1 we're in trouble.

[Gaurav Kishore Bahri]

I just read that you are an Associate Fellow at Said Business School Business. That makes us colleagues :)

All The Best with your protest to maintain status quo on free and neutral internet.

Gaurav Bahri
MBA Student (2006-07)
gaurav.k.bahri@gmail.com

[HMTKSteve]

Google==Air?

That's a very bad analogy. If Google is free in that way then couldn't the same argument be used to say that Google should offer all of it's services for free as well? Would Google be willing to allow people to use AdWords for free? I mean, if Google is air then wouldn't it stand to reason that AdWords is equal to shouting into the air?
All this story does is illustrate the naivety of college students.

[Paul Van Hoesen]

The battle for the neutrality of the net is taking some interesting forms beyond just the legal forums - its happening in the streets!

I am heading up a regional non-profit community networking initiative in south Texas that we hope will be a model for how communities can ensure that all networks have equal access to resources like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and others, in addition to the free, uninhibited exchange of internet traffic.

We are experimenting with a regional network model that by its very nature will make it very unattractive for carriers to create non-neutral dikes in the network. There will be an immediate competitive disadvantage and market penalty if they do - that's a stick they understand. This battle will never be won in Washington.

The Internet was born free and there is an entire generation, as Chris notes above, that knows nothing but that environment.

From what I'm seeing out here, the market, and by extension the net, will flow around those who would build non-neutral Internet dams. God help us if we have to rely on Washington to save us...

PVH

[joe]

I am not an expert on the internet but I do use it most days.

For me, this debate is very interesting although I do not follow it closely. Seems to me, a better analogy than air, is the electricity generation and distribution business.

Back in the day, public investment and scientific advancement developed our "grid". Over time, we allowed our grid to become the province of the semi governmental(sometimes completely private) beauracracies which, together, have taken alot of our money and allowed a great resource to become the fragile skeleton you see today.

Let us work together to make sure this does not happen with the internet. I do not need AOL nor Microsoft to access the internet. Of course, I do not need PG&E for my electricity either.

[Holden]

interesting debate - have you read this?

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/349881.shtml

net neutrality is extremely important.

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