Internet's openness threatened by politics

[Commentary] In Silicon Valley, the innovation capital of our country, new ideas are born every day, and the platform driving much of this new innovation is a free and open Internet.

Since 1995, venture capital funds have invested approximately a quarter of a trillion dollars in industries reliant on an open Internet, including $91.8 billion on software. Facebook, Twitter and thousands of other new applications and online services have flourished around the world, thanks to the Internet's global structure. As consumers have transitioned from dial-up modems, to high-speed broadband, the ability to communicate across borders through high-definition video conferencing, social networking and cloud computing has become a seamless process. These are the signs of a thriving, open Internet. But come December, approximately 193 nations will convene in Dubai at the World Conference of International Telecommunications (WCIT, pronounced "wicket") to consider an effort to take the one element that has made the Internet the success story that it is and turn it upside down.

It is absolutely essential that the United States defend the current model of Internet governance at the upcoming Dubai conference. The very fabric of the free and open Internet is at stake.