Q 16. What kinds of policy interventions are possible? What do you prefer?
A. Roughly speaking, four types of market/policy/tech interventions are possible:
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Informational – thou hide not – transparency; useful, but usually not sufficient
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Behavioral – thou should not – retail regulation; compliance/enforcement challenges
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Functional – thou will not – wholesale regulation; devising discrete market inputs to create positive market outputs
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Structural – thou cannot – antitrust; should be rarely used
These can all fit together in various ways.
-- GLIAnet can be its own standalone remedy, can be complementary to the others, and/or can serve as the ecosystem that can help fill in gaps where other remedies have curtailed platform power and given users new ability to choose other options.
-- GLIAnet looks more towards functional interventions, as carried out via “soft” policymaking and Players (standards bodies, MSOs, traditional policymakers).
-- In turn, these policy interventions all point back to the functions in Layers 1-7: User interfaces, Mediation points, Open protocols, Common standards, Interoperability, Interconnection, and “Data” “portability.”
Q 17. And finally -- what can I do today, to begin paving the way for this new, democratized overlay to the Web?
A. Collectively, there are many opportunities to move the ball forward.
These include: drafting principles, building coalitions, enlisting entities to become TMs, investing in tech resources, and advocating for policy components.
You can follow this website and sign up with your email. There we will be updating on events and convenings, and opportunities to get involved.
More concretely:
-- If you work in politics: say on the Hill: think about relatively modest political interventions – draft bill language, hearing topics, floor speeches, committee letters to MOPs – that could raise visibility and have an outsized impact.
-- If you work for a company: consider how the TM model, and ages-old market principles like duties of care and loyalty, could work better for your business and its end users than the status quo.
-- If you work in civil society: develop structures and processes and movements that can channel the better aspects of our humanity.
-- If you work in academia: buttress and extend the legal and social and ethical underpinnings of the GLIAnet model.
-- If you are an ordinary “consumer”: act with your clicks, and your attention span, and your money, and your hard-won intentionality. Think twice about giving up data you really don’t have to. Choose browsers and search engines and messaging platforms that prioritize your private spaces, and not their profits.
Consider those institutions of trust in your lives, and how they could better serve your online needs. And then, begin using them.
For more information, contact us at info@glia.net