Dan‘s giving the lunchtime presentation.

Something big is happening, he says. The former readers are now writers and participants. The media need to learn some lessons. E.g., CBS should learn not to refer to bloggers as “pajama people.”

He describes the moments when he realized that something big was happening to media. [I’m not going to recount the anecdotes in detail because I won’t do them justice. Get his book.] E.g., Election night in Hong Kong when he realized that he was assembling for himself Net sources that were giving him a better view than the broadcasts in the US. Also, Dan watched how the Net responded on 9/11. The Trent Lott story breaking in the blogs. Qwest’s Nacchio at PCForum being caught out by a guy who was reading the bloggers at the conference, in real time.

The tools won’t just be text, however, Dan says: Mobile phones, video cameras, etc. We’re re-mixing and it’s great. Unfortunately, it’s probably illegal, especially if you’re breaking the DRM to do it. Also, the better you are, the more it costs you: If people flock to your web page to see your great video, “you’ll get a whopping bill” from your host. “The only plausible delivery mechanism is peer-to-peer. Naturally, that’s under attack, too.” Dan says he’s a proud user of BitTorrent, to a smattering of applause. He says he was in Hong Kong and wanted to watch West Wing, so he downloaded it. “My question was: Who can I send my money to for this wonderful service?” But Hollywood doesn’t want his money for that because it’s disruptive.

Now he turns to policy “because I’m afraid this culture of creativity that I love and is the future” is threatened by the incumbents. The government wants “chokepoints” and insertion points. “The copyright lobby definitely wants chokepoints.”

“Copyright is a disaster area for the new kind of media I believe in so strongly.” The Broadcast Flag is “madness.” “It’s just nuts from any perspective except Hollywood’s.” “It’s about fundamental freedoms.” “Think about if we need permission to quote text. And with digital books, that may be where we’re headed.”

The Web is now a read and write place, but the architecture doesn’t support it well, e.g., the fact that your download speed is faster than your upload speed.

“I’m pretty afraid that end-to-end is going to disappear. The mobile carriers have never believed in it.” Nokia has a phone with Python on it, an example of the good stuff that will come from the phone manufacturers if they’re separated from the carriers.

Peer-to-peer is under attack. “I plead with you not to support the Induce Act” because it will make things clearly ok now subject to legal action.” Even, potentially, the iPod.

“End-to-end and neutrality of the network are important to me.”

Governments, as well as carriers, want to control the content. E.g., Yahoo’s fight with the French government, Google’s changing the content they deliver on their China news site, Cisco gleefully selling quality of service routers to the Chinese and Saudi Arabia. “I don’t want to zone the Internet.” Dan understands the policy reasons for applying CALEA to VoIP, but it doesn’t make sense to him. “Have these people heard of Skype with 10 million users already?”

Dan gives Michael Powell credit for what he’s been saying and doing with spectrum. He hopes there’s more unlicensed spectrum. “When I’m in the Valley, the most amazing stuff I’m seeing among the entrepreneur’s is wireless.” Dan used to think that we ought to have a public works project to lay fiber, but now he thinks wireless may solve it, “if it’s given the freedom to solve it.”

“I hope we enforce with rules nework neutrality.” The owners of the pipes ought not to own the content.

“We are on the cusp of an era that will be incredibly messy…but more voices are already better than fewer voices, especially when there’s been a concentration…Without those voices, it could get pretty scary indeed. So, let’s not lose the potential. Let’s let the Net be the Net.” If we have behavioral problems we have to deal with, then let’s not deal with it at the architectural level.

Q: BellSouth and Qwest are building networks that won’t let other people’s video on.

A: If there won’t be rules that say you will provide open networks, we have to count on wireless. I’m not crazy about that solution. Maybe both would be good. The power is with the incumbents. The power wouldn’t be with the incumbents if the technology industry, which is bigger than Hollywood, would take up the challenge.

Q: Does end-to-end cover just the network, or also the operating system and the browser?

A: Yes, and the market seems to be taking care of this. There’s enough progress in Linux that we have a better shot at the discipline of the marketplace. Dan says he was a vehement supporter of the Microsoft antitrust suit that was sold out by the Bush administration, a “scandal,” says Dan.

[Terrific talk, I thought. But, then I am a huge admirer of Dan’s skill and self-effacing goodness.]

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