February 20, 2019
The Georgetown Law Technology Review recently published my article on the concept of openness in modern communications and information systems. This new piece should be of particular interest to those seeking a scholarly treatment of some of the foundational elements in my GLIAnet Project.
Entitled “Hiding in the Open,” the article draws on some fifty years of U.S. communications regulation to analyze “functional openness”—basically, effective user-side access to a networked resource, process, and/or entity. The article then examines the rise of cloud computing and the large Web platform companies, and their deep roots in the “open” Web.
Examining the platform regulation white paper issued by US Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) last summer, the article explains that policymakers and others should consider traditional market concepts, such as fiduciary duties and public callings, as useful stand-ins for functional openness. The GLIAnet Project conception of opt-in “digital trustmediaries”—entities with heightened duties of loyalty and accountability to their online clients—is posited as one promising approach.
The article concludes with some remarks on using the helpful framing of “openness by design.”
Please check it out!
GLIAnet-Related “Hiding in the Open” Article Featured in Georgetown Law Technology Review