Vote for the Nerd Party of Canada

In less than six months Canadians across the country will be choosing who whey want representing them in Parliament.  In the campaign running up to the vote in the election on October 19th the top issues are expected to be health care, infrastructure, taxes as they usually are in just about every election.  Just below the surface are the technological related issues that effect not just the younger voters but all of us as Canadians. 

Two decades after the Internet transformed our lives there is still a geographic divide between those living in cities who get top quality affordable broadband access and those in rural and remote areas who get expensive low bandwidth connections and some in those areas who still rely on dial up to get on the Internet. 

A growing issue effecting online life is what is known as Net Neutrality.  ISP's have been impairing the operation of online applications such as VOiP services and streaming video services because they conflict with other telephone and cable TV offerings.  Recently in the United States the Federal Communications Commission redefined broadband from an information service to a communications service and subject to tighter regulation to prevent impairment or blocking online services that conflict with other services the telephone and cable companies offer.

Access to information and communications services are most needed in times of emergency or crisis.  Recently the federal government and the broadcasting industry have revealed Alert Ready a single notification system to alert Canadians of many kinds emergencies through radio and television.  Great that we have it now but we have lagged behind the rest of the world by decades.  Conelrad, the first media emergency information notification in the United States was implemented in 1951.

As technological issues affect our lives they are not even on the road maps of the political parties.  Neither the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and the Greens haven't proposed any policies or even taken a position to support Net Neutrality, close the digital divide, and maintain access to communications and information in times of crisis.

Governments both past and current have sold off the airwaves to the cellular industry while law enforcement agencies emergency services, emergency aid agencies and when needed the Canadian Forces still do not have a single interoperable communications system.  Under both Liberals and Conservatives Canada's media and telecommunications industries into just a few vertically integrated giants that in offer services that support other services.  Online access Canadians in rural and remote areas gets continue to lag behind those in urban areas regardless of which party is in government.

Canada needs a Nerd Party to ensure an open neutral Internet is available to all Canadians regardless to where they live.  Nerd Party MP's will also ensure that information and communications will be available in times of crisis.  Send a nerd to Ottawa to stand up for your digital rights.

Don't be a turd, Vote Nerd!!

'Select WiFi' Shows Canada's Net Neutrality Crisis

On a recent visit to the local ice cream parlour, my wife and I were going to connect to the free WiFi to share the latest pictures of our boys with their ice cream filled faces on our social networking accounts.  We found that the free WiFi the ice cream parlour was providing was replaced with 'Sasktel Select WiFi' a WiFi service available in public areas such as restaurants, hotels sports arenas, etc. that is only available to Sasktel's smartphones.  Since my wife and I are Telus subscribers, we were cut off at the ice cream shop.  

Providing what is supposed to be a free public service to subscribers of just one cellular provider is akin to building a highway on public land and then telling drivers that only Ford owners can drive on it.  By contrast WiFi hotspot services offered at Tim Horton's, McDonald's and at Candian Walmarts provided by Bell doesn't place any restrictions on who can access the Internet through their hotspots.   

Net Neutrality hasn't reached critical mass as a hot button issue, but as the days if being able to access anything on the Internet from anywhere from any device start to slip away, Saskatchewan is becoming Canada's Net Neutrality coal mine.  The canary must not be allowed to die.

BCE Deal Dies, And What It Means For The Rest Of Us

The deal that would have seen Canada's largest telco, Bell Canada brought under private ownership of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has fallen apart. While there may be very little effect on most Canadians at first there will be impact further down the road.

In coming troubled times if Bell's bottom line starts sinking, then look for Telus to come back proposing a merger, if Bell doesn't opt to merge with Telus then a hostile takeover would come next. After Bell and Telus unite then it wouldn't be too long before the last two remaining regional telcos, MTS and Sasktel get gobbled up.

While the idea of having a single national telco may scare many consumers, it should be especally worrysome to those that don't have a competitve alternative such as telephone service from a cable company.

Bell and it's CRTC endorsed traffic shaping is seen as the biggest threat to Net Neutrality in Canada. With Bell as a majority part of a single national telco would practically guarantee Net Neutrality would be a memory without any kind of legislated intervention. That could also mean that in some communities where DSL is the only high speed Internet service is available, moving telephone service to Vonage or some other VoIP service wouldn't be practical or even possible.

With a national monopoly telco becoming a possibility in just a couple of years. It's time to support alternative broadband technologies.

Tech Issues After Tory Re-Election

The election of 2008 is over (in Canada at least) and not one of the parties addressed the tech related issues. There was not a single reference to copyright reform or net neutrality by any of the party leaders. So what will this mean in the upcoming parliament?

Copyright reform will once again appear the expected son of C-61 is expected to be reintroduced but maybe not right away. With the growing economic challenges pandering to the music and movie industries with Canada's DMCA clone will take a back burner for a while.

Net Neutrality legislation won't come from the government side of the house, but it would be an excellent issue for the opposition parties to flex their muscle and show Canadians that they can work together.

Electing a minority government was probably the best thing to help make sure that these issues don't get swept under the rug.

Has Barack Obama Thrown Away The Geek Vote?

Since Barack Obama captured enough votes in the Primaries to become the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party election in November there has been widespread speculation on who will be the vice presidential running mate. The naming of Deleware senator Joe Biden has ended the spectulation.

Many of Biden's posistions on many tech issues is now making some wonder if Obama's really stands where he says he does on tech related issues. Biden supported the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and opposes any attempt to reform the DMCA. Biden has also supported bills that would have launched denial of service attacks against anybody if they tried to download from a peer to peer network.

One of the most talked about issues in tech is that of net neutrality. Legislated Net Neutrality ensures that people can use the Internet the way they want to with out intervention from Internet service providers. Two years ago Biden actually went out and said that was no need for Net Neutrality. In Biden's mind having Telco's restrict VOIP traffic and Cable companies restricting Bit Torrent traffic is just fine.

Where exactly does Barack Obama truly stand on these issues?

Wake up Canada, We're losing the battle for Net Neutrality

Undoubtedly anybody who follows the American primary races, and the race for the presidency will hear the term net neutrality as a top issue. The pure and simple definition of Net Neutrality is that anybody can use the Internet how ever they want without interference from their ISP. For example anybody subscribing to the Internet service from their telephone company could use a VOIP service like Skype or Vonage without their ISP (the telco) inhibiting or prohibiting third party VOIP services.

In the past couple of years, a few bills have been launched in Congress to help ensure that Americans can use the Internet how they please even if conflicts with the Internet providers' corporate interests. Cable megaopoly Comcast faced harsh crititism for their practise of choking peer to peer network traffic. Comcast claimed that peer to peer network traffic was degrading performance for all subscribers. Many of the video files transferred across peer to peer networks are very large and legally questionable because video files are often movies and television series transferred illegally. It was seen as more legal butt covering than network performance conservation. Citing negative public reaction to the traffic shaping, Comcast recanted and lifted the restrictions of peer to peer file sharing.

In the Great White North, the largest Internet Providers, Rogers Communications and Bell Canada engage in similar practises that threaten the freedom to use the Internet freely. Both Rogers and Bell restrict Bit Torrent traffic. Despite public outrage they continue to do it. How long will it be until third party VOIP traffic and IP TV services like joost will face similar restriction?

A solution to the threat to Net Neutrality in Canada is going to have to come from parliment. The free market is not going to bring a solution. WiMAX the closest challenger to Cable-DSL duopoly will not help ensure Net Neutrality for Canadians. The only company licensed by the CRTC and offering broadband using WiMAX a company called Inukshuk Wireless is actually a partnership between Bell and Rogers.

It may seem that writing your MP may not to be an effective way to deal with this issue but right now it's the only thing ordinary citizens can do even if the telephone and cable companies have parlmentarians in their back pockets.