<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">On Apr 4, 2014, at 10:59 AM, michael gurstein <<a href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com">gurstein@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I think that as the significance and scope of deployment of the Internet grows and the Internet becomes even more ubiquitous the calls for (and arguments in support of) seeing the Internet as a (global?) public utility operating (i.e. being �governed�) �in the public interest� are growing apace at least outside of circles dominated by a neo-liberal ideology.</span></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Michael - </div><div><br></div><div>By that logic, should we not also "govern" the design and functionality of the actual</div><div>devices used to access the Internet? I am having trouble understanding why we'd</div><div>be so careless in allowing a variety of software and hardware designs, given the </div><div>need for consistent "utility-like" delivery, and certainly we could make a major impact </div><div>in areas such as security and spam if the configuration was not left to the vagaries </div><div>of actual users... ;-)</div><div><br></div><div>/John</div><div><br></div><div>Disclaimer: my views alone.</div><div><br></div></div></body></html>