When we use casual metaphors to describe complex technical systems, we inevitably get a mismatch. This is why ISP “throttling” cannot be regulated.

A reading list to stimulate thoughts about the (digitised) world you might want to live in.

The old is collapsing around us. The new is being born. The present Internet has done its job. A better one is needed for the society we must build.

We have frozen peas for dinner because the electricity supply is reliable and consistent. Why can’t broadband be just like the power utility?

The current Internet is amoral at best, and immoral at worst, in how it respects core human needs for privacy and self-sovereign identity. Let’s fix it.

How can broadband users select a supplier that is good for their needs? How can regulators ensure that there is an open and transparent market with rewards for better quality? How can customers hold their broadband service provider to account for the performance on offer? I am so glad you asked! Here’s how…

The broadband industry has falsely sold its customers on “speed”, so unsurprisingly “speed tests” have become an insane and destructive benchmark.

The inappropriate use of carriage metaphors for packet networks has led us to a place of regulatory insanity. We must return to reality, and quickly.

The broadband industry is an immature one, and its basic science and engineering is still being established. Just as physical manufacturing went through a quality revolution in the second half of the 20th century, we are at the cusp of the same thing happening to “digital manufacturing”. This requires new core skills, since online experiences […]