My thoughts:
I think that net neutrality is important to have so that everyone is getting fair and unbiased services from their ISP's. It is important for their to be an equal playing field when it comes to the internet. An ISP shouldn't be able to prioritize or suppress information that is traveling to it's destination. The recent speech from the FCC is a great step foward in making sure that the net remains neutral so that free speech can prosper and people can continue to use whichever hardware and software they would like.
Pro-Net Neutrality:
-WeAreTheWeb is an organization made up of celebrities and others who say, "Big telecom and cable providers want to restrict your access and charge you more for internet content you already receive for free." They believe that the people own the web and not the big companies.
-OpenInternetCoalition is a group of companies that includes Ebay and Ask.com that believe the internet should be open to all. Being founded by public funding it should stay public and big companies shouldn't place "toll booths" in the internet. They want even people that don't have a lot of money to be able to use the same services and not be restricted by more fees.
Anti-Net Neutrality
-NetCompetition is an organization made up of big companies and ISP's as AT&T and Comcast. They are "Promoting competitive internet choices for consumers." They don't want the government to get involved in the industry and feel that market-based competition is better than government managed competition.
-HandsOffTheInternet is another organization made up of companies including BellSouth and Alcatel that is against the gobvernment regulation of the net. They feel that the consumers should make the choices and not the governemnt. They warn of a broadband price increase because of "net neutrality."
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Cloud Computing
What is cloud computing?
-Cloud Computing is like a virtual hard drive that allows users to save and update their work on a provider, like Google's Sites. Users don't own the "physical infrastructure", but instead use a company's and some get charged for only what they use. A user can access his/her work on the provider's site anywhere there is a computer and internet hook-up. Uses applications and storage from a network rather than locally.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for an ordinary computer user?
-An ordinary computer user will find that cloud computing is very convenient as they can take advantage of it wherever there is a internet connection. Cloud computing allows for no carrying of heavy hardware in order to continue working on something that was saved before.
-Some disadvantages are, some companies might experience some down-time as they are repairing and making their site better. Unfortunately for the user during this time they have no access to their work. If they had a physical copy it might not halt all of the work for that period.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for a start-up company?
-A start up company would find that it is a lot more economical to use cloud computing, as they don't need to spend money on hardware, as they can just use a provider. It will cut costs and allow a start-up to spend money on other things such as advertising.
-It is crucial for a start-up company to be viewed as solid and doesn't have that many bugs. If their provider goes down, that could mean that they are viewed as somewhat of a failure, not being able to keep their site online.
What are the social dangers of cloud computing? That is, why might people be uneasy about the whole world's documents being stored on GoogleDocs instead of on local machines?
-There are some security ricks people need to be aware of. Since you don't have "full control" of your work when using a cloud computing model there is a security issue, not knowing who has access. There is also a problem with data availability, when there is downtime on a system. You are completely without your documents or sites when GoogleDocs or GoogleSites goes down, leaving many to be doubtful about cloud computing.
-Cloud Computing is like a virtual hard drive that allows users to save and update their work on a provider, like Google's Sites. Users don't own the "physical infrastructure", but instead use a company's and some get charged for only what they use. A user can access his/her work on the provider's site anywhere there is a computer and internet hook-up. Uses applications and storage from a network rather than locally.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for an ordinary computer user?
-An ordinary computer user will find that cloud computing is very convenient as they can take advantage of it wherever there is a internet connection. Cloud computing allows for no carrying of heavy hardware in order to continue working on something that was saved before.
-Some disadvantages are, some companies might experience some down-time as they are repairing and making their site better. Unfortunately for the user during this time they have no access to their work. If they had a physical copy it might not halt all of the work for that period.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for a start-up company?
-A start up company would find that it is a lot more economical to use cloud computing, as they don't need to spend money on hardware, as they can just use a provider. It will cut costs and allow a start-up to spend money on other things such as advertising.
-It is crucial for a start-up company to be viewed as solid and doesn't have that many bugs. If their provider goes down, that could mean that they are viewed as somewhat of a failure, not being able to keep their site online.
What are the social dangers of cloud computing? That is, why might people be uneasy about the whole world's documents being stored on GoogleDocs instead of on local machines?
-There are some security ricks people need to be aware of. Since you don't have "full control" of your work when using a cloud computing model there is a security issue, not knowing who has access. There is also a problem with data availability, when there is downtime on a system. You are completely without your documents or sites when GoogleDocs or GoogleSites goes down, leaving many to be doubtful about cloud computing.
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