ESL Blogs

Something which connects us all in the virtual world is called "Internet", more precisely, connecting individuals like you and me in a way conducive to the idea of free access of the information. Protecting it becomes even more critical when it has now become a necessity, e.g. learning English has now become a necessity, you may either afford a private teacher or find other creative ways.

With a free and "not-regulated" internet, you have better and more efficient options over affording a good private teacher, e.g. English Club has till date trained many non-native speakers. These people have now overcome their fear of speaking and writing by effectively utilizing this ecosystem , one such feature/service is the "Main Room", where people from around the globe come, participate, and practice English and most of them even get benefited since they really try in both action and spirit. Not only do they learn English, but also get to know about different people and culture from around the Globe and, if lucky enough, make some good friends too.

So, which way around is more profitable and also enlightening at the same time?

Learning a language within a regulated environment of a private teaching session or a limitless horizon of a social net such as EC or any other, where you not only gain knowledge but also know where and how to make use of it for a greater cause in your life?

A person sitting in India can instantly exchange words with anyone, anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds without giving much consideration involved in the so called "Expensive ISD Calls, which still remains out of the reach of more than two-third of the worlds population.

What is net-neutrality?

To treat every traffic on Internet equally while not thinking much about its source of origin or purpose , it is the essence of free internet.

A person with a standard 2Mbps connection can access a site at same Mbps(Speed)- Mega bytes per second-rate anywhere in the world.

"The other reason why should a website run slow is the traffic or number of people visit it at some specific moment in time which is not my topic since it has other reasons to slow-down and not related with regulation or discrimination of Internet data."

Many of us don't know about "Internet Traffic Regulation", Here comes the simplest definition as put by pro-net neutrality netizens,

"It's like, when you dial up a number on your phone, your telecom company decides who should you talk and what should you talk"

And who is the regulating authority here?

Of course, whosoever is the Provider since they are the enablers of Internet ecosystem. It is, in fact, the sole prerogative of Internet Service "Providers" such as Airtel, Idea, TATA, Vodafone and etc.

"I can still access EC or any other website by connecting my web-browser with its address or simply by clicking search bar, typing in what I want to Google", But Wait!! What if your ISP is regulating your Internet Data?

There are two possiblities if Internet Traffic is being regulated, on one hand you can still access it but speed remains awfully slow no matter how fast is your data plan or connection, e.g. text you write in EC's main would take surprisingly longer time to turn up in the chat window, it may show up in a matter second or two, minute, hour or even day depending upon the extent of regulation.

A chat room is technically a place where you exchange "INSTANT MESSAGE" and don't like to wait for such longer periods for your text to turn up in the main window. So, if there is no net-neutrality, the essence of "CHATTING" will remain dead thereafter!!!

Second thing, you can access EC at a speed commensurate with your Data Plan but specifically ask your provider to allow seamless flow of traffic between your computer and EC by PAYING EXTRA other than your Data plan.I would never do that, why? I will tell you later.

Most of us access more than 100 address, or may be half, on an average everyday. So, now you should make a list of every address and register them with your ISP by paying extra money to be able to access them seamlessly, but, again, it is not necessary that you may access the same set of 100 address everyday! you should again make a list of new addresses and register them by paying extra to be able to access the next set of new address, just think how many times you have to register a new address with your ISP and how much extra money can you afford to pay them, may be every time you find any website worthy and thinks will add value to your knowledge.

That is going to be even more expensive than buying books.

There is still a way out of this mess, if your internet company, in this case EC, pay some premium to these telcos (short form for telecom companies) every month to rule out the possibility of warranting Internet Traffic regulation to and from its source and facilitate its user base a seamless and unbridled access to services it providing for "free", Which, In my opinion, is not possible since EC is a not-for-profit internet website, it seems to have no commercial interests (haha). It has many other serious implications. So, regulating internet now will amount to covertly breaching the freedom of speech and rightful access to the social information meant for deserving people in need across the world.

In simple words, "clipping your wings every-time you want to fly".

But, there is still a way out to escape all this. "Forget about Internet, and think there exist no such thing" I can't opt for this way since it'll have negative implication on my life. That's my reason to be a pro net-neutrality netizen. We power up computer get a connection ready by our Internet service provider and connect to a new world, A world almost free of regulation and discrimination. Although, we're physically apart, sometimes even poles apart, but we still exchange information instantly. A 2Mbps speed in Britain is same as it is in India or anywhere in the world, I can access EC at same speed as would any other in Britain or anywhere else in the world.

In simple language, Internet is a web, populated with nodes(Your computer or any other server), which are inter-connected in some way or other, which is very close to the vision of P2P network- in such networks, everything is inter-connected and access to the information becomes easier than other conventional ways such buying books, going to the libraries. It is like a gathering of people, by people and indeed, for people. if I need something, I get it from among my group members provided they have this information. Internet is also like a group, where you, through your computer/laptop/mobile, participate in virtual time but for "real" gains. You find answer to your queries and also help others' find answer to their query.

Since a person can't always stay Online, so we put anything important we have in a virtual place-called www or world wide web, now whoever finds this information worthy or in need would be able to access, and more importantly distribute it to others. We've social groups within it, such as the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Hangout, since not all of us can buy space, these social-nets/websites would buy them for us!! Of course, not exclusively for free since it is not a charity, save from a handful of not-for profit websites, and let us put worthy information on it to make it available for others.

Of course, these companies spend money, but wait, why should they spend even a single penny when there is no gain! because they let others like you and me to use their platform to market and advertise their products and services, that's how they earn premium on their investments. They are of-course not doing charity by facilitating this virtual space to us, but a handful of them are really good, exceptional mind blowing, such as the Wikipedia, EC, EF (I sincerely apologise for not being able to write the name of others), whose only purpose is to impart knowledge and work for the greater cause of the mankind, they are the knowledge workers.

My question is, "How such a social and commercial revolution has been made possible?", the answer to this question is very simple, it has become possible not just because of the "Internet" but "The Free access of Internet", but because of "The unregulated access of Internet", "The undiscriminating access of Internet". What will be your first reaction if someone suddenly comes and checks this unbridled access to the most basic feature on which the Internet is based? "

There would have been no "Alibaba", "Facebook", "Flipkart" or "Google", "eBay", not even the EC (even if it was there not many of us would have known about its existence) had there been no free access to the Internet. But there would have been no such websites/social nets had there been no access to "The Free Internet". For this to understand, we have to understand the very basic reason of not its existence alone but also why are they popular among netizens (netizens- are citizens or users of Internet). A start-up or a company will cease to exist from the very day it looses its shine in terms of credibility , it becomes irrelevant, or people, like you and me, looses trust in it.

More precisely, **a start-up or a company fails when it fails you (as a user of their goods and services), when it is not as per your expectations, when it is not serving you the best way you rightfully deserve. And what makes them to easily reach even the last audience of its potential customer base or to even provide such a flawless service without being physically present everywhere is their free access to the Internet, In real words, Internet acts as a facilitator, a means by which these companies can make their presence felt globally, provide you such services and wins the needed trust to make their business grow, and more importantly generate a demand for their goods and services which is a crucial aspect of vital importance for their business to flourish.

If someone had regulated internet during the time of inception of these corporates, which includes social platforms such as Facebook, Hangout and etc. and commercial platforms like eBay, Alibaba, Amazon, Flipkart and etc... to name a few, how big would have been their user/customer base, or how efficient had it been to access their website platforms which is the mainstay of their existence even to this date. "Think you're initially a small entrepreneur, start-up, and throws open your website on Internet to serve your potential user base, in a matter of a month or two these product will find their identity among its customer base and if your products and services were competitive, and, at the same time, economical, no one could have restricted it from gaining a strategic upper edge over other manufacturers of same product and services, but in different brand. why? The data traffic related to your start-up is not being discriminated against any other already present big-honchos, this way you not only competed with a well-placed and time-tested brand but also managed to break in its year long stranglehold of domination." And thus providing its target user a say in negotiation. In no time, you would be able to turn your tiny start-up into a giant Corporate.

You will do well, for sure, even where you're not physically occupying a physical office space without considering much about the cost and time overruns as long as your products are competitive, no two opinion in that. And such perfect competitor is good for providers and consumers in general.

Now, let us look at the second side, What if you had means to stretch your arms in the areas beyond your physical reach but this time your website traffic is discriminated by Internet service providers on the whims of big corporates for, it to remain monopolistic in the market and charging indiscriminately to the customers for the same goods and services which otherwise you or someone else had made available for much cheaper cost and with upgraded quality. This situation not only hampers your growth prospects but the collective growth of that particular sector.

Big companies would not invest in product development or up-gradation and thus growth will be subdued, there will be no capital investment, no expansion which will eventually lead to economical distress due to its trickle down effect on a wider scale, which will gradually bring down number of employment in every sector. A situation would occur where a handful of people in the world will control 90% of its resource and capital, just because there is nothing better or good to compete against their products and even if there is something better to compete, consumers would still know very little or nothing about its presence or availability. Thus breaching the spirit of customers' negotiating power. The culprit remains the same, regulation of the free access of the internet. There will no new start-ups, and the growth will become a matter of past.

To be continued....