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March 31, 2003
Networks and Government
This article from Slashdot got me thinking this weekend.
Many of the rights we enjoy as citizens (and residents) of the United States are based on the assumption that access is unrestricted. The rights to freedom of assembly, voting, justice, participation in government and more are based on the assumption that people can get to the places where those rights are exercised.
This assumption can be justified because the access to public buildings is facilitated by publicly-owned and regulated streets and roads. Citizens can be assured that they can get access, with minimal or no cost, to participate in their government and with each other.
It's been talked about for decades that the network would eventually replace some or all of the in-person interaction we have with each other and with our government. E-government is all the rage now; broadband networks proclaim the future of telepresence.
The majority of network are privately owned. What obligation or incentive do those companies have to ensure that the Constitutional rights of their users are upheld? Are they obligated to ensure that their users can vote or participate electronically in a town meeting? What's to prevent the network owner from indirectly impeding citizen participation through subtle means, such as not addressing a performance issue that affects voting, or not responding quickly to a network failure during a critical public meeting?
To some extent some of these indirect actions are happening now. Carriers are not aggressively deploying broadband residential access, often for largely political reasons. Broadband providers restrict what users can and can't do on their networks. National networks won't peer on a regional level to enable high-speed network applications within a community.
Community networks may be part of the answer, since they are citizen-owned they can be assumed to be aligned with the needs of the citizens in that community. Many are built with e-government as an expected use.
Undoubtably, regulation will be another part of the answer. I am not aware of any regulations of this type yet, but e-government and broadband are both quite new. As they both become more pervasive, it's possible that broadband providers will be regulated to some extent to ensure that citizens have unbiased and unrestricted access to their government through the network.
Posted by pete at March 31, 2003 10:20 AM
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