Clouds on the horizon?

[Commentary] The tension between two sets of values -- closed vs. open, bordered vs. borderless, walled garden vs. open ecosystem -- is one of the defining memes of Internet policy, shaping debates over everything from copyright to privacy, free speech to network neutrality.

Some see openness as a moral absolute -- any blocking is bad blocking, even if done by private actors in competitive markets. Others take a more nuanced view, recognizing that for economic, cultural and other reasons, every interaction is not a good interaction just because it’s possible. I’m in the latter camp.

In the wake of the Snowden revelations about National Security Agency data collection in foreign countries (accurate or not), governments like Brazil and Germany have begun to talk about building their own national “clouds.” A European Commissioner, Michel Barnier, has called for creating a “European data cloud” independent of US oversight. Even the US-backed CEO of ICANN is supporting an Internet governance conference in Brazil in May 2014 that promises to be a flash point for those critical of the US. Whatever our views on other issues, it is in our shared interest -- as it has been from the beginning -- to see the inherently free and open nature of the Internet preserved, and with that in mind to call on the Obama Administration to take the lead, and to rally to its side when it does.