The Case for Internet Optimism, Part 2: Saving the Net from its Supporters
Adam Thierer
Tech Freedom
The Next Digital Decade

In the second part of Thierers examination of Internet Optimism, he looks at the Supporters, where previously he examined the Internets Detractors.  The main focus is the question of how to save the Internet from becoming a closed platform after celebrating roughly a decade of openness.

Thierer states that,

“My primary beef with these “Openness Evangelicals” is not that openness and generativity aren’t fine generic principles but that:

1. They tend to significantly overstate the severity of this problem (the supposed decline of openness or generativity, that is);
2. I’m more willing to allow evolutionary dynamism to run its course within digital markets, even if that means some “closed” devices and platforms remain (or even thrive); and,
3. It’s significantly more likely that the “openness” advocated by Openness Evangelicals will devolve into expanded government control of cyberspace and digital systems than that unregulated systems will become subject to “perfect control” by the private sector, as they fear.”

Furthermore Thierer  points to the gray area between openness and closed, and also discusses the falsehood in calling all closed systems evil.

You can find Thierer’s article in full in The Next Digital Decade book here.