The giving spanning tree

The top-down/bottom-up, and centralized/distributed Internet governance tensions have been brewing in different ways for a few decades now, and especially so since Postel passed away.

Even more interesting than the list of states that seek to heavily regulate the Internet is the much longer list of states that maintain a hands-off approach. While regulations will do little to restrain the raw rate of Internet innovation in any country in particular, previous experience indicates that more resources will be devoted to inventions that circumvent regulation in the New West than in the hinterland.

In particular, this means that the New West's expensive and highly regulated fast parts of the Internet will tend to be equipped with a monoculture of tools and content, while the hives of creative activity will continue to be attracted to the abundant unfilled niches in the rest of the world.

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