The end of End to End?

How else can anyone explain why newsreaders support ascii posting of binary content and email programs all support attachments? Hint: It has nothing to do with efficiently moving spreadsheets between users...

The dirty secret of the ISP industry is that the profit is all in illicit chat, dirty pictures and finding ways to get high or get laid (ideally both, simultaneously).

The irony is that the telcos with their closed-network closed-system mindset have fallen into a trap. A true end-to-end network operator doesn’t get their brand tarnished by the data that flows over their network. When compelling content equals sex, gambling, porn and general vice, you can’t have it both ways.

[via Telepocalypse]

I love the connection made here. Its not really a dirty secret though, most ISPs will talk openly about this dynamic after a few beers. I will never forget a great roundabout with about 15 ISPs in San Jose in 1997 (1998?) when Jason Nealis (formerly the chief bit-head at Erols Internet) interupted a blathering vendor who (like the rest of us) had consumed a few too many cocktails and said "Diversify or die my ass. We're in the pr0n business baby. All my network does all day is moves pr0n from one end of the network to the other. Give me gear that lets me do that quickly and we'll all be happier."

I didn't hear much more from that particular vendor that night.

Regardless of whether this is a secret or not, it is based in fact at some level. Will it be enough to cause the demise of telco's? Not sure.  There's a deeper question that needs to be examined further. Do users actually care about having unfettered access to a global end-to-end network? Do they understand enough to care? Is the e2e message clear enough that understanding is possible? I suspect that a lot more people would care a lot more if they had line of sight to what was actually at stake in this battsle. Millions of people worldwide have a helluva lot to lose here, and I'm betting that few of them actually know it. Cheap ubiquitous pr0n is one thing, but what message do we need to start sending so that users understand what we've lost if we live in a world where the closed-network, closed-system, brand-conscious, closed-mind networks have won?

Here's my first cut at a list. Took me five minutes. There's probably 100 things that I've missed.

1. The freedom to run any applications you want.
2. The freedom to view any content you want.
3. The freedom to choose whom you get your various internet services from.
4. The freedom to choose what type of device you use to access the network.
5. The freedom to do it yourself or find someone else to do it for you.

What else will users care about even if they don't know enough about the esoterics of "e2e"? In other words, in order to preserve the internet and ensure that the continual erosion of its value is stopped and reversed, the internet needs a message that the common person can understand. No one should have to read anything written about or by Lessig, Cerf, Saltzer, Reed et al in order to come to a fundamental understanding of what is really at stake.

Send me your comments and I'll recraft this list on a regular basis.