carissim*
in effetti il TCP/IP di Cerf e Kahn ha introdotto nel 1973 il pacchetto di bit
come il container delle merci di McLean nel 1956,
tutti e due sono fantastici esempi di "spanning layer" che
disaccoppiano il trasporto dal contenuto
tutti e due hanno infatti aperto uno spazio prima inesistente per nuovi scenari applicativi ...
la metafora dell'Economist puo' essere utile anche per paragonare la governance di Internet alla
governance del traffico marino. Il traffico di pacchetti TCP/IP governato da leggi simili
a quelle del mare intraviste nel 1796 (!) dall'italiano Domenico Azuni (1749-1827) nel suo
"Sistema universale dei principi del diritto marittimo d'Europa"
incaricato da Napoleone ...
Ciao!
A presto
Norberto



On Tue, 18 May 2010 17:51:10 +0200, J.C. DE MARTIN wrote
> Economics focus
>
> From ships to bits
>
> May 13th 2010
> >From The Economist print edition
> Common carriage is an ancient idea being applied to a modern problem—internet access
>
> IT SOUNDS like the most modern of regulatory problems. All internet services involve shipping bits of digital information from one computer to another. These bits are gathered into packets and sent as electrical signals down phone wires or cable networks (which can be pretty fast) or as pulses of light along optical fibres (which is faster still). Stringing wires or laying cables is expensive, so a company that owns a connection that runs to the side of your house—the so-called “last mile”—has tremendous power over potential rivals.
> On May 6th America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a plan to classify the last mile of internet access as a “telecommunications service”; it is currently classified as an “information service”. Since the 1930s providers of telecommunications services in America have been obliged to agree on rates with the FCC. They cannot discriminate among customers or traffic, and they have to contribute to a fund that subsidises rural connections. The new plan promises to refrain from any price regulation; the FCC wants to ensure primarily that packets pass from point to point without preferential treatment.
> Most large telecoms operators are unhappy with the plan. It will discourage innovation and investment in expensive new networks, they say, and a telephone-era solution is unfit for the internet. They are wrong on at least one count. The FCC’s decision rests on the idea of “common carriage”, a principle that is, in fact, far older than the telephone.
> Excerpts from Justinian’s “Digest” of Roman law suggest that 6th-century sea captains, innkeepers and liverymen could not refuse board to any cargo, man or horse. [...]
> Continua qui:  http://www.economist.com/business-finance/economics-focus/displayStory.cfm?story_id=16106593


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