Net Neutrality

The Net Neutrality issue, shorter for Network Neutrality, raises the question to know whether it is more neutral to allow all Internet users to access whatever content they want, equally; or to let Internet Service Providers (ISP) discriminate in order to make more money. Different views oppose in this national concern. Some preach for the status quo on the Internet, whereas others ask for a regulated Internet. Finally, a third view is to let ISP charge websites so they have a larger bandwidth, and thus a better visibility on the web. The Net Neutrality debate raises financial, legal, and social questions.

The Telephone Companies (Telco) want to use their direct access to the cable or fibber that brings Internet to our houses to limit the speed at which we can load a page of a big bandwidth hog (Google, Yahoo, Amazon to name but a few) on our Internet browser. And to have a more acceptable bandwidth a website (let’s say Amazon.com) would have to pay a fee to the Telephone Companies, which already receive a monthly fee from the individuals using its services. The ISPs claim that they need more money to develop the networks. They argue that a protection of Net Neutrality would ‘inhibit their ability to co-ordinate traffic flows and guarantee quality of service’ (Business week). It is true that 71% of the Americans are using the Internet (S. Biagi, Media/Impact: an introduction to mass media), and with the apparition of video websites like YouTube (youtube.com) or the explosion of social networks like FaceBook (Facebook.com), which has more than 200M members, the ISP are solicited more than ever to grant a perfect access to the users.

The Defenders of the Net Neutrality are of two sorts though. On the one hand, we can find the Giants of the Web, Google for instance, that are fighting for their own interests, and the ones of their users, on the other hand, stand those ‘hostile to market based approaches’ (Armed & Dangerous) who are opposed to ISP, collecting money from both sides of the pipes, the users, and the content providers. Google, on a dedicated webpage of its Help Center, explain that the lack of Net Neutrality would forbid people to freely reach any content they want on the Internet. It would therefore penalize both the users and the company, which would have to pay to provide its content with a satisfying quality. Those companies want an act to be voted by the government to protect the Net Neutrality, basis on which Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. But at the same time, besides some statements coming from the Telco in which they emit the idea of controlling the bandwidth, there is no proven evidence of a market failure, nor that a bill would solve all the problems. Moreover, determining whether the FCC can regulate the control of data transfer would make jurisprudence, and it could be a reason why the Internet Freedom Preservation Act 2008, designed by Republican and Democrats senators to protect the Net Neutrality, has not been voted by the House of Representatives yet (opencongress.org). Some would rather see no governmental intervention on the Net Neutrality issue. Internet Protocol (IP) co-founder states that a law, regulating the Net Neutrality, would interfere with the work of developer, and limit the innovation that could appear on the web (theregister.co.uk). Meanwhile, associations, like savetheinternet.com, are leading actions to prevent the rights of the consumers.

I would define myself as a partisan of the Net Neutrality. I see the web as a free place to access to whatever I want, whenever, and wherever. I think the Net Neutrality debate is first of all a financial concern for the different actors of the Internet. The Telco want to make more money by taxing the users on both side of the fibber. At the Q1 of 2009, AT&T earned more than $3B, so do they really need more money to improve their facilities? At the same time, the giants such as Google don’t want to lower their revenue by paying something they’ve always had (no charge for providing content), while they’ve earned some $5.5B during the Q1 of 2009. Google by not paying this hypothetical fee to the Telco would probably see their frequentation decrease. It would then be a windfall, for let’s say Yahoo! who by paying the fee would still provide a good quality service and attract the frustrated former Google users. But the smaller websites, with lower amount of cash, would be those who would suffer from this. That echoes to the Payola story, in which the biggest music major would pay radio DJs to have their latest hits played more often, here the biggest companies would pay to keep their audience. It also reminds of the model used by Cable TV, in which the user only pays for the channels he wants to see. Could the Internet use such a model? ‘Oh, I just paid for Google access this month; I don’t ‘watch’ Yahoo! that much!’ Not even imaginable. The strength of the Internet resides in the diversity and the democracy it offers.

The Telco are trying to cool down the debate right now. They pretend that they won’t do anything, because as AT&T CEO, E. Whitacre, explains, by blocking access to content, an ISP is inviting customers to find another provider (ZDNet.com). Nevertheless, a status quo would leave time to the telecommunication giants to coordinate their actions; as an alliance, or an agreement between them cannot be excluded on the policy to follow (just as did the three French Mobile operators by defining a common policy for the prices in the late 1990’s). Actions must be taken to protect the weakest: the consumers, and the smallest web content contributors. But the major concern is still for the Internet users. By blocking or limiting the access to websites, the ISP could have the opportunity to decide which content a user can access. At long, it would be a risk for opinion diversity. And it would more likely enhance the current trend of media conglomerates. Time Warner, which owns AOL (Internet Service Provider), and CNN.com (one of the most read news blog) won’t have any difficulty keeping its ‘web customers’. But the web consumers may lack a balancing point of view. Or, as Tim Wu, the first to use ‘Net Neutrality’ as an expression suggests on Slate.com, how to transform the meritocratic land that is Internet into a discriminatory (cyber)space.

IMS is #1!

My great grandfather used to manage one of the most famous store in the 1950's in Marseille: la maison Raphaël. They were selling phonographs and the old vinyl records that go with them. Things are quiet different nowadays!

Apple Inc. and the Itunes Music Store, launched in 2004, have sold more than 8 billion songs. According to Le Figaro, Apple Inc. is the number one selling company in the USA with some 25% of market share.

Not only is it the number one for online selling, far beyond Amazon and its 9% of market share in the USA, but it is also selling more than Walmart and Best Buy put together. This is a sign of a new way to consume. Goodbye physical support, hello digital. Nothing new from the last years, but Apple Inc. is planning on increasing its influence on music. Indeed, a keynote (with or without Steve Jobs?) will be held in San Francisco, and the only topic tackled will be music according to french website Mac4ever.

A new version of Itunes should be released (the 9th!), with some 'social content', making easier to share music with friends, to tweet about the latest music you're listenning to. A new way to confirm its rank of number one.

Meeting next September for more details.

Media failure / Solidarity Success #Marseille

An important fire burnt some 1,300 hectares at the East of Marseille (my hometown in the South-East of France). Marseille is the second biggest French town, with almost 900,000 inhabitants, surrounded by hills and 40km of coast. It is expending right now, with many important projects for its development. Marseille has been chosen to become the European Capital of Culture in 2013 (www.marseille-provence2013.fr). The World Water Forum 2012 will be held in Marseille. So Marseille is attractive, developing at a good pace despite the world crisis, but stays really traditional in some ways.

Yesterday night and this morning (from 11pm to 6am) during the fire, nor LCM (the local television), nor La Provence (the main newspaper) were able to provide information about the neighborhood evacuated or the zones threatened by the fire. Only the solidarity between the inhabitants has allowed to share news. Once more, the chats, and the different social networks have been the ones where to find some news. Many of my facebook friends have given precious information. People were uploading and sharing pictures of the fire, while the newspaper, on its well-followed website was not posting anything. On Twitter the hastag #Marseille has become the one to follow. Many tweets were RT (retweeted) to spread the word of the places evacuated. Have a look at this graph showing how much the word 'Marseille' was used the past week:

La Provence posted an article today (in French) explaining how they provided news to the population all-night long, praising its real-time (sic) sharing of the news, creating many reactions from the readers. Nevertheless, let's hope this tragic event will help the local journalists realize how much we depend on them, and let's hope we'll have a more performant news chain, using the modern tools of media.

#moonfruit & Twitter Promotion

You must have seen #moonfruit in the Twitter trending topics on July 1st, and wondered what the heck it was. This all about Twitter Promotion. Moonfruit, a UK company, allows to create your own blog or website, and wants to make the buzz. Twitter with it's growing frequentation, accentuated with the recent events in Iran, or the death of Michael Jackson, also attracts business companies. Recently, Dell was declaring to make $3 Million from Twitter-Related sales (article from the NY Times here)

As a consequence Moonfruit has decided to get involved on Twitter. But how they got on the trending topics, which are the most tweeted words? It's pretty easy. They paid for it; not cash but Apple MacBook Pro. Check out on their website. A computer everyday, for ten days, to random people tweeting about #moonfruit. Pretty smart idea, or great way to attract the attention of everyone. To know more about moonfruit, you can follow them on Twitter, obviously. They are @moontweet. And if you want to understand why a word or an expression is appearing in the trending topics, you can read this website: http://www.whatthetrend.com/

And for the story, no I'm not writing about moonfruit to get a free computer! I'm a free and independent blogger!

#moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit...

Bethpage Black, or how to take advantage of new media and technology for a tournament.

US open Golf Tournament has just seen the victory of American Lucas Glover. It his first victory in a major golf championship. It is not the only 'first time' in this tournament. Indeed, the 109th US Open has seen the introduction of technology, not to improve the irons or putters used by Woods and co. but to improve the communication with the audience and accentuate the buzz around the tournament.

First, the United States Golf Association, in association with IBM, has created an iPhone application. People can easily follow what's going on with the latest news updates, and watch live video of the tournament. The fans can also follow the real-time scoring updates of the golfers and the tee times, useful to know who will make the cut or when your favorite player will start his round. You can also have a course overview, to know why the 15th is such a difficult whole on Bethpage Black, or read a quick biography of the 100+ players.

The initiative doesn't stop here. Indeed, the organisators have created a twitter page in addition of the official website. By following, @usopengolf you have the weather broadcast expected on the course, or any last minute change for the tee times. It has been very helpful this weekend, because of the heavy rains that felt on Long Island. The Twitterer posted pictures, of Tiger putting for a birdie, or the crowd following Phil on the 9th. A true insight of the tournament.

It is not the only insight you could have. Ian Poulter, an English golfer, has also created a Twitter, and informs people of his feelings regarding the tournament (hopefully, not while he's playing!!). Golf is surfing on the new media and technology, and taking advantage of them. And it's working, @usopengolf had almost 4,000 followers for the 4-day event, Poulter has more than 86,000.

So to quote @usopengolf: "Congratulations to Lucas Glover, and thanks for following us for the 109th U.S. Open!"

#Iranelection #Tehran

Jack Dorsey (co-founder of Twitter) was recently explaining (read my article) that Twitter could be a powerful tool for Democracy, helping rebuilding Iraq. His enthusiasm to use social networks to gather a People, is being picked up in a neighbour country, Iran.

Since Friday, and the controversial presidential elections held in Iran, opponents to re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have prostated in the streets of Tehran. Among those protestors undoubtedly stand some twitteres. Twitter is becoming inevitable to get information of what's going in Iran. The Iranian government filters websites, jams BBC satellite that broadcasts Persian TV and so on. As a consequence, journalists, and correspondents in Iran can't work, and transmit information (mainly to the western countries), fostering a flow of tweets coming from Iran. Journalists use those tweets, after confirmation they really come from Iran (with geolocalisation) to provide news in their countries. You can also find pictures from the events in Tehran on Flickr.

#Iranelection and #Tehran are among the most popular research and topics on Twitter. That also lead Twitter to postpone a maintenance operation scheduled June 15 at 9:45pm Pacific time, which would be the following day, 9:15am in Iran. Twitter in its Press Release, claimed the fact Twitter was used as an' important communication tool in Iran'.

Are those events the sneak peeks of what the web 3.0 could be? The integration of social networks in the political world? Or is just Twitter accentuating the buzz around its growing success and making a marketing 'coup'?

Is the British Press better than the American?

Everyone is claiming it is the end of Newspapers. Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle has laid off half of its staff. Two months ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its last edition. The Philadelphia Daily News is becoming part of the Philadelphia Inquirer. But this is in the US. 

Indeed, in 10 days, the British newspapers, the Daily Telegraph has increased of 100,000 its number of readers. It is now printed at 900,000 copies. This is linked to the recent scoops dealing with the MPs’ expenses scandal.

But at the same time, as said before, the Health of the American press is fragile. 15,000 journalists have lost their jobs overseas. And according to French radio, Europe 1, American Newspapers are losing between 2 and 10% of their readers yearly. Most likely, American readers can reproach the propaganda published on the war in Iraq, the New-York Times reporting the use of WMDs in Iraq for instance. Similarly, a reporter of USA Today recognized making-up most of his scoops. Those stories have damaged the image and the credibility of the press, while the British press opens the debate, denounces, with proofs, and doesn't give any moral lesson.

The model of the Daily Telegraph is quiet similar to the one used by most newspapers now, journalists work for both the newspaper and the newspaper-website, one completing the other.

Or how an economically healthy press is linked to a valuable press.

Hoax on Prop 8?

Today a Tweet was posted, indicating that Prop 8 (which repeals same sex marriage in the State of California) was overturned. the Tweet was quickly RT (read ReTweeted) by others. Unfortunately for same sex marriage defenders, this is not the case yet. Indeed the 'patient zero' tweet was referring to a LA Times online article of May 16, 2008... A rumor that the rumor (about overturning Prop 8) was wrong started to spread, but the harm was done, and exacerbated by the LA Times itself, which had ReTweeted its own one year old article! 

Nevertheless, this hoax, or unfortunate mistake, no one knows, is a good warning against the excessive use of the Internet as a reliable source. We must be careful to what we read and never take what is written for granted. A good booster shot, all things considered.

Get check some more news about Prop 8: Stop8.org

Vinegar Tom

Tonight, I attended a play in the Studio Theatre, at San Francisco State University (check out the photos). Vinegar Tom was written by English playwright Caryl Churchill. The play is about Alice, a twenty or so year old girl, living in the English country in the 17th century, and accused of being a witch. The plot stresses out the discrimination against women in today's society. Women are described as "credulous, impressionable, with a slippery tongue". This 1976 play is timeless, regarding the issues it raises.

And just as Jack Dorsey thinks Twitter can help democracy in Iraq, I'm convinced, social networks as a whole can help sensibilize more people than the current media do about society issus. A dozen tweets today were referring to discrimination against women, while more than 500 groups exist on Facebook dealing with women and discrimination. By growing, the networks could benefit to the society. However, so far it is mostly the Youngs who are part of the mouvement we are experiencing, and therefore, the actions taken online have a limited impact. But it is just waiting to expand some more.

The play is running until Friday (May 15). So you only have two more representations. It is at the Studio Theatre at San Francisco State University. The play starts at 7pm. free entrance.

Meeting @jack

Last Thursday, in Shari Weiss' PR class, we had the visit of Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter (and one of the 100 most influent people of 2009 according to Time Magazine). Twitter is a social network that allows its members to do micro-blogging, those posts are called tweets. While it was created 3 years ago, it only really attracted people last year during the American Presidential election, the twitterers exchanging the last results and trend from the polling places.

Jack's intervention in our class was a delight (watch the videos). He is accessible, even if U.S. Twitter visits has increased of a 1000% in one year (according to Time Magazine, April 20, 2009). He explained us how he came up with the idea of Twitter, what his vision was. He sees Twitter as a tool for people to learn and participate, and thinks that just as for the rest of technology it will be as valuable as the users make it become.

His simplicity reflects in the way to use Twitter, only 140 characters to express what you want to share with people. But it is powerful, being a potential tool for Democracy in Iraq (watch CNN reportage here)

This one hour class was way too short, but will stay engraved in me.

Pepsi refreshes the ad... fo sho

Morris Column near Union Square

About a month ago, as I was walking up Powell, I noticed this Pepsi ad on a Morris column. It was written: fo sho!, the Os replaced by the Pepsi logo. But this ad was not talking to me at all, since I didn’t know the meaning of this expression. As soon as I went back home, I googled it, and found out it was slang for ‘for sure’, and basically a way to agree with someone in an urban style.

Now I get it, I found this ad yay(another idiom recently learnt) funny, and a good way to reach this specific branch of young urban people. 

The Pepsi ‘refresh’ campaign is surfing on the Hope raised from the election of President Obama, and the fact that optimism is the corner-stone for a good future.. drinking Pepsi at the same time, fo sho.

Why Am I Blogging?

In the About Me section, I described what I will try to do in my blog, but I didn’t explain why I was blogging. I see 3 reasons to it:

• The first one is undoubtedly because of the importance of social media today, especially in International Business & Marketing, the fields I’m studying. My PR teacher, Shari Weiss (check her blog here) encouraged our class to do so, and that’s why I took the leap.

• I think another reason is my curiosity and my desire to share my thoughts. I surf a lot, try to stay tuned of what’s going on in news, media, trends... because I’m sure it is the best way to learn and, as a blogger, I want to play a part in it.

• The third reason I blog, and to a certain extent one which is connected to the two first reasons, is that I’m sure it is a good way to increase my creativity (finding topics, taking pictures among others), my writing skills (especially since I’m not writing in my native language), and it will allow me at some point to display my ideas.