Disruptive Telephony

One of the very cool announcements coming out of the Internet Society's Global INET event in Geneva this week was the creation of an "Internet Hall of Fame" that recognizes many of the pioneers who started this amazing journey we've been on. The full site is available at:

internethalloffame.org

Wired also had a great writeup:

The Internet Gets a Hall of Fame (Including Al Gore!)

As is noted in the Wired article:

The inductees fall into three categories: Pioneers who were key to the early design of the internet; Innovators who built on the net’s foundations with technical innovations and policy work; and Global Connectors who have helped expand the net’s growth and use around the world.

Both the site and the Wired article are well worth a read. It's an amazing journey we've been on since those early days of the Internet... and it's great to see folks like those listed here getting the recognition they justly deserve!

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Want to learn about how voice and video calls will take place right in your web browser? WITHOUT a Flash or Java plugin?

The "WebRTC" initiative is making this a reality through efforts of the major browser vendors, VoIP industry companies and standards working groups within both the IETF and W3C. On the VoIP Users Conference (VUC) Call on Friday, April 13th, the group will have a discussion of what exactly is happening with WebRTC... and then some live demos from the Voxeo Labs and Phono teams who have been working on this topic for some time now.

This is, to me, an incredibly important area of work as we have the opportunity to really bake real-time communications (RTC) into the fabric of the tools we use every day to work with the Internet.

I'm looking forward to the VUC call ("tomorrow" as I write this, but probably "today" when most of you read it) and would encourage you to join in to listen and/or participate in the conversation.

You can join the live call via SIP, Skype or the regular old PSTN. There is also an IRC backchannel that gets heavy usage during the call. It will be recorded so you can always listen later.

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When I look out my office window and see a bucket truck driving by with a guy up in the bucket attaching what looks like fiber optic cable to the polls, my reaction as a networking geek was naturally:

• who is stringing new fiber?

Followed, of course, by "that's kind of a cool way to ride around town" (probably literally cool, today).

My initial thought was that it was upgraded wiring from either Fair Point Communications, our local phone company (who bought out Verizon's landline business up "he-ah"), or Time Warner Cable, who owns the cable franchise for Keene, NH.

It turned out to be neither, but rather someone new.

I walked out and met the crew up the street when they happened to be reloading connectors into the bucket. One of them said this was new service for "SegTEL". He said SegTel was a private company who had been recently bought out by someone and was planning to provide high-speed Internet access to businesses.

As I walked back to my house, my immediate reactions were:

• Cool! Will there be a plan I can afford as an individual?
• Will they offer IPv6?

To my surprise, SegTEL appears to have no functioning website! I did find that it has been acquired by Tech Valley Communications in New York, whose announcement of the acquisition completion in January included this bit:

segTEL was founded in 1998 and provides fiber optic telecommunication services to carrier, wholesale, and large enterprise customers throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine. segTEL has unique and extensive expertise in providing customized fiber optic loop, backhaul and transport services to Top-25 wireline and wireless carriers. All segTEL staff will continue their current operational activities with the combined company.

SegTEL was/is apparently located in Enfield/Lebanon, NH, about an hour north of me. In reading through TVC's news page it seems TVC received a substantial private equity investment in 2010 that made all of this possible. A Business Review article adds a bit more context to the acquisition. They also have some interesting links on the TVC news page about the growth of fiber.

An NTIA document refers to 10Gbps and 1Gbps Ethernet offerings (I'd take it!) and an FCC document from September confirms the transfer to TVC. It seems, though, that SegTEL and TVC both have been primarily targeting other service providers and large enterprises, not individuals. (Which does make me wonder why they were stringing the fiber through our very residential neighborhood.)

Sooo... given that a big fat fiber cable is connected to a pole that is literally about 25 feet away from my server, will I be able to play with a big pipe? Or will it be priced out of my range? (Probably!) And, important to my role, will it support IPv6?

And SegTEL or TVC folks, should you read this... you've got a willing beta tester for your new service offering! ;-)

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Calling people using your browser - but without a Flash or Java plugin? That's been the mission of the WebRTC initiative for some time now with efforts underway in both the IETF and the W3C to standardize the work so that it can be broadly implemented.

I was very pleased to see the team at Voxeo Labs announce that the Phono SDK can now support WebRTC with the developer build of the Google Chrome browser. They outlined their work in a blog post and produced a video demonstrating the technology and also received a very nice writeup on TheNextWeb:

This is very cool as it has the potential once WebRTC is baked into more browsers to provide us with a very solid browser-based platform for building and deploying real-time communication apps. Kudos to the Voxeo Labs team for what they've done so far!

P.S. Some interesting comments about this topic over on Hacker News...

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Truly awesome... via Techcrunch...

Kudos to the LaughPong team for doing this!

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How can we accelerate the usage and deployment of IPv6 and DNSSEC? What are the barriers to getting those technologies more widely deployed? How can we "take away the pain" of getting started with IPv6 and DNSSEC?

When I joined the staff of the Internet Society back in late September, the project I joined was charged with looking at questions like that and developing a means to promote online resources that would help speed up the usage of IPv6 and DNSSEC.

Yesterday, after a long 3 months of hard work, we formally announced what we are now calling the "Internet Society Deploy360 Programme" located at:

http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/

On that site, you will find real-world deployment information about how to get started with both technologies. Case studies, how-to documents, links to other sites, and much, much more...

THIS LAUNCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING!

The site is certainly incomplete... we wanted to get the site out there and now my task over the months ahead is to fill the site up with answers to questions and pointers to new information.

We're not looking to add ALL the information found on the web about IPv6 and DNSSEC, but rather the best information we can find.

And where we can't find information that answers specific questions, we'll be creating new materials either directly ourselves or with partners. As an example, I'm working right now on some tutorials about how to add DNSSEC support into Firefox, and how to configure DNSSEC for your domain at a couple of different registrars.

And let me tell you, it is EXTREMELY clear to me now that this program(me) is definitely needed, as many parts of both DNSSEC and IPv6 are in desperate need of geek-to-common-language translation! Just sorting through some of the steps myself, it's very clear that there's a good bit of pain that needs to be taken away...

To that end, we will be constantly adding new material and resources as we both find and create new content - both in text, video and other forms.

Our goal is also to help foster the conversation around these topics, and so we'll have a constant stream of blog posts and will, of course, be engaging via many forms of social media. You can be part of what we are doing by:

• following @Deploy360 on Twitter
• liking our Facebook page
• adding our Google+ page to a circle
• subscribing to our YouTube videos
• following us on SlideShare

and I would definitely encourage you to join us on as many of those channels as you use. We're also actively seeking volunteers to assist us and have been rather humbled and pleased by the great amount of interest and support we've already seen.

I'm excited to get this project out there... and am looking forward to the months ahead as we build the momentum to help get both IPv6 and DNSSEC more widely deployed!

Please do take a look around the Deploy360 site. I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions you have. Are there other questions we can be answering? What are the barriers you have found to using these technologies? Are there sites or resources that you found very helpful that we don't have on the site yet? Please do let me know! Drop me an email, fill out our feedback form, ping me on one of the various social media... heck, leave a comment to this blog post! Somehow... I'd love to know what you think.

And with that, I'm off to write some content...

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As 2011 draws to a close, are you looking at what donations to make to charitable organizations for tax purposes?

Here in the USA, this is something that many of us think about in these final days. It's a last chance we have to make tax-deductible donations that can then be used to potentially lower the taxes you pay to the US government when we go through all that fun over the next few months.

Now, there are admittedly a zillion great causes and organizations out there to whom you can give donations. Local organizations, global organizations, relief organizations, churches and religious groups, arts organizations, environmental groups, sports groups, school groups, cancer and other research organizations... so, so many...

In the midst of all that, I'd also encourage you to think about possibly making donations to organizations helping in the fight to maintain an "open Internet".

2012 promises to be a challenging year for the Internet... not just with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and it's PROTECT-IP cousin here in the US... but with similar legislation cropping up all around the world. With various governments seeking to put restrictions on the Internet in their country. With upcoming global telecommunications treaties and discussions. With various industries who have been severely disrupted by the Internet. With large companies wanting to lock people in to specific platforms and systems. With... with... with... the list goes on and on...

The Internet has now become a critical communications medium with so many players out there now believing they should play a role.

We need to ensure that the Internet remains open for "permissionless innovation"... for access to the services and applications we want to use... for access to everyone all around the world...

And unfortunately, the powers that would like to close and restrict the openness of the Internet are also powers that have a ton of money and a ton of lobbyists, lawyers and more.

So if you are looking for a way to help make a difference in 2012, may I suggest please helping out some of the organizations that are out there fighting to keep the Internet open?

There are again, many such organizations fighting the good fight for the open Internet, and I'm sure all of them would welcome the contributions. If you aren't aware of any such organizations in your region, here are four I personally believe are doing valuable work:

• Internet Society (ISOC)
• Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
• Public Knowledge

And yes, I'm now a staff member for the Internet Society but I've been a donor to ISOC for several years prior to joining as a staff member in September. There are also many other groups helping in local areas throughout the world.

THE POINT IS TO DONATE TO SOME ORGANIZATION TO HELP KEEP THE INTERNET OPEN!

Or even more than one! If you're in the US, you have a little over 24 hours to make those final contributions.

We've got a wonderful resource in the open Internet we have today... let's keep it open!

P.S. The four organizations I list above are all 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations under US tax law. If you are looking at other organizations you will want to just check to ensure that donations to them are in fact tax-deductible (if your point right now is donate for tax purposes).

P.P.S. There are, of course, many others working in complementary ways... the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is doing great work on critical privacy issues. I love all that the Sunlight Foundation is doing for open government and there are so many more. All of them could use donations!

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How completely BROKEN is the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) be?

Here are the two steps ANY consumer can take to COMPLETELY bypass the DNS filtering proposed in SOPA:

1. Find The Computer's DNS Settings

On a Mac, go into System Preferences, then Network, select the network connection being used (typically "Wi-Fi" or "Ethernet") and then click on the "Advanced..." button in the lower right corner. On the resulting screen, click on the "DNS" tab to see a screen like this one:

On a Windows computer, go into the Control Panel and look for "Network and Sharing Center", find the adapter being used, right-click it and choose "Properties". Next click on "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" (or IPv6 should you use that) and press the "Properties" button. Microsoft provides step-by-step instructions on their website for changing these properties.

On mobile devices, tablets, etc, the same kind of screen can generally be found in a "preferences" or "settings" area. Linux systems likewise may have a graphical control panel/settings area or may requiring editing of a file.

2. Enter In Addresses for Public DNS Servers OUTSIDE The USA

All someone has to do is search for "list of public DNS servers outside us" in Google or other search engines. They can look at the OpenNIC list of public DNS servers or any of a zillion other web pages.

Choose one or more DNS servers outside the United States and enter them into the computer's DNS settings.

Apply those settings and... ta da... the consumer is no longer subject to any DNS filtering that is proposed as part of SOPA. (Because they are no longer using DNS servers that are subject to US law.)

That's it!

IS IT REALLY THAT SIMPLE?

Could the entertainment industry seriously be lobbying for a filtering solution that can be defeated so easily?

Yes, it is... and yes, they are.

BUT HAVEN'T THEY BEEN TOLD IT'S SO SIMPLE?

YES! Pretty much everyone who knows anything about the Internet has explained to SOPA proponents that this proposed mechanism will not work.

White papers have been issued, statements have been received from organizations charged with cybersecurity, a group of 83 prominent Internet inventors and engineers sent a letter to Congress...

WHY DO THE SOPA PROPONENTS PERSIST?

Good question. Ask them. Perhaps they think US consumers are too dumb to follow simple steps like these above. I don't know.

Beyond simply not working, consumer's bypassing normal DNS settings from their ISP can potentially make the Internet LESS secure because consumers could be using DNS servers set up my malicious entities (and then promoted to people looking for pirated content) who could then send people to sites that download malware, engage in phishing, etc.

This is just one more reason why SOPA should NOT become a law!

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Please note that this blog post represents my personal opinion and has no connection whatsoever to any employers or other organizations, either past or present.

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Today, December 14, 2011, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding the second of two workshops on the transition of the PSTN to new technologies, as I described last week. The workshop will be streamed live today starting at 9:30am US Eastern at:

http://www.fcc.gov/live

The FCC's note about the workshops mentions that people watching live can send in questions to panelists using either of two methods:

• by e-mailing [email protected]
• tweeting on Twitter using the hashtag #FCCLIVE

Today's sessions look to be quite interesting and contain quite a range of participants. The full schedule and list of participants is available on the FCC's web site (click on "Expand" in the lower right corner of the page), but here is the brief list:

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9:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m.
Welcome Remarks
by Zachary Katz, Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor, Office of the Chairman, FCC

9:40 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Impact of the Transition on the Technology and Economics of the PSTN
Participants include: University of Colorado, Carnegie Mellon, George Washington University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Gillan Associates, SIP Forum

10:45 a.m. – 11:45 p.m.
Policies of the PSTN (e.g., accessibility, reliability, affordability, and public safety)
Participants include: Tufts University, Consumer Federation of America, University of Wisconsin, Neustar

1:00 p.m. – 2:10 p.m.
Implementing the Transition to New Networks
Participants include: Verizon, Comcast, Carnegie Mellon, National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA), XO Communications

2:10 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.
Syncing Expectations, Emerging Technologies and the Public Good
Participants include: Georgetown University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania – Wharton, Acme Packet, Panasonic Systems Networks

3:20 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Economic Rationales for PSTN Transition
Participants include: Queens College, Indiana University, Syracuse University, Sanford Bernstein, University of Auckland, NZ

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Yesterday the Internet Society formally joined the opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (a.k.a. "SOPA" - background info available) with a statement from the Internet Society Board of Trustees:

http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=4932

The statement says in part:

The Internet Society Board of Trustees has expressed concern with a number of U.S. legislative proposals that would mandate DNS blocking and filtering by ISPs to protect the interests of copyright holders. While the Internet Society agrees that combating illicit online activity is an important public policy objective, these critical issues must be addressed in ways that do not undermine the viability of the Internet as a platform for innovation across all industries by compromising its global architecture. The Internet Society Board of Trustees does not believe that the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are consistent with these basic principles.

Specifically, the Internet Society is concerned with provisions in both bills regarding Domain Name System (DNS) filtering. DNS filtering is often proposed as a way to block illegal content consumption by end users. Yet policies to mandate DNS filtering will be ineffective for that purpose and will interfere with cross-border data flows and services undermining innovation and social development across the globe.

The statement goes on in further detail to outline the organization's concerns.

The opposition of the Internet Society to SOPA is not a surprise given that the organization issued a white paper on the perils of DNS Filtering back in the spring of 2011 in response to the U.S. Senate's version of the bill, the Protect-IP Act (a.k.a. "PIPA"). Still, a formal statement of opposition is very welcome to add to the many other voices indicating that SOPA and PIPA specify the wrong solutions to the problem.

Great to see!

[Full Disclosure: I am employed by the Internet Society but NOT in the public policy section and so all opinions expressed here are entirely my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the organization.]

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