Open Architecture as Communications Policy

Open architecture is the design principle on which the success of the Internet and digital computer and communications technologies rests. Founders of the Internet and its most ardent defenders describe how the principle of open architecture was implemented in the end-to-end principle of the Internet, open interfaces of the personal computer, and nondiscriminatory interconnection and carriage for communications networks. Empirical studies show how the convergence of technologies and public policy created a dynamic environment for decentralized innovation and rapid technological change. The digital communications platform became a general-purpose technology with a transformative power equaling or exceeding the great industrial technologies of a century earlier – railroads, electricity and telecommunications. Legal analyses show that in the past few years the Federal Communications Commission turned its back on the thirty-five year record of success of its Computer Inquiries, which ensured nondiscriminatory access to communications service. Case studies document the chill on innovation when owners of advanced telecommunications networks are allowed to close the platform, exclude service providers, restrict applications and limit the availability of network functionalities. The book explores new, technology-neutral approaches to preserving both open communications networks and the freedom of the Internet.