September 2014

What is Minecraft and why did Microsoft just spend $2.5 billion on it?

Microsoft has cut a $2.5 billion deal for Mojang -- the video game studio responsible for the mega-hit, Minecraft.

If the only part of that sentence that made sense to you was "Microsoft" and "$2.5 billion," here's a quick primer on Minecraft and why this latest news is such a big deal. Minecraft is a video game. It was developed by Mojang -- specifically by Mojang founder Markus "Notch" Persson -- and first released in 2009. Minecraft is what's known as a "sandbox" game, or one that lets players pretty much have their own run of the game's world, without specific objectives or, in Minecraft's case, even a plot. Mojang's "Chief Word Officer" Owen Hill wrote that the game had simply expanded beyond the independent developer's ability to handle it. Minecraft can strengthen Microsoft's hand in providing a unique portfolio of services to users as it competes with the likes of Google, Apple and Amazon. Microsoft doesn't have something as strong as Google's search, Amazon's Prime content or Apple's iTunes store, and therefore needs to pick up more services.

Why parents are raising their kids on Minecraft

Minecraft offers Microsoft a platform with strong elements of social and mobile usage, two areas where they have struggled so far. But perhaps most importantly, Minecraft gives Microsoft an intergenerational success story that few other games or services can replicate.

The Verge spoke with dozens of parents who see Minecraft not only as an incredible tool for bonding with their children, but a gateway to education in computer science that could restore some appeal to the Microsoft brand for the next generation. In Minecraft, users move around a virtual world, harvesting resources like wood, gold, and iron ore that they can use to build whatever they like. Everything is made of textured 3D cubes. The graphics are extremely low-fi. There are bad guys to watch out for and defeat, and technically a dragon you can slay to beat the game, but what has captivated millions is the total freedom Minecraft offers to wander around and build, often collaboratively, a huge world of you own.

AT&T’s fascinating third-way proposal on network neutrality

Imagine an Internet with fast lanes that you -- not your cable company -- controlled. That's what AT&T is proposing to the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to bridge the gap between regulation-wary industry groups and net neutrality advocates who want strong government protections for the open Internet.

The path forward for AT&T's idea -- which has been discussed before -- is uncertain. Still, it's attracted some cautious approval from consumer groups, in a sign that some are still interested in a compromise amid what's become a major ideological fight in Washington over the future of the Internet. Here's what AT&T's proposal looks like: In a recent meeting with FCC officials, AT&T's senior vice president for regulatory policy laid out a plan that would allow individual consumers to ask that some applications, such as Netflix, receive priority treatment over other services, such as e-mail or online video games. That's different from the FCC's current proposal, which tacitly allows Internet providers to charge content companies for priority access to consumers but doesn't give the consumers a choice in the matter. AT&T's idea would still allow for commercial deals between companies. But they would have to be arranged as the result of one or more subscriber requests; the ISPs couldn't offer fee-based prioritization just because they wanted to. Some net neutrality advocates say they're heartened by the proposal.

Facts let us argue directly with net neutrality comments from around the world

[Commentary] Recent comments by Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson – as well as comments filed by his company in the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet proceeding -- demonstrate both some of the best and worst of what pro-Title II advocates have to offer.

I’ll focus here on what makes his comments some of the best. Simply put, they go beyond expressing mere opinion about the FCC’s potential regulation of the Internet and attempt to provide a factual basis for that opinion. I happen to find the factual basis provided unpersuasive. But the effort is laudable and deserves serious response. If all commentators would approach this process in a similar manner, discussions about the proposed open Internet regulations would be both healthier and more helpful to the FCC officials who are working tirelessly through this rulemaking process.

[Hurwitz is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law]

The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective

[Commentary] The Internet is the decisive technology of the Information Age, and with the explosion of wireless communication in the early twenty-first century, we can say that humankind is now almost entirely connected, albeit with great levels of inequality in bandwidth, efficiency, and price.

Our current “network society” is a product of the digital revolution and some major sociocultural changes. One of these is the rise of the “Me-centered society,” marked by an increased focus on individual growth and a decline in community understood in terms of space, work, family, and ascription in general. But individuation does not mean isolation, or the end of community. Instead, social relationships are being reconstructed on the basis of individual interests, values, and projects. Community is formed through individuals’ quests for like-minded people in a process that combines online interaction with offline interaction, cyberspace, and the local space.

[Manuel Castells is the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California]

Beyond Internet Universalism: A Framework for Addressing Cross-Border Internet Policy

What is needed is a framework that allows nations the right to customize Internet policy to their own national needs and rules, while at the same time constraining those rights in ways that enable global Internet commerce and digital free trade while also preserving the underlying global Internet architecture, like the global domain name system.

While nations will not always agree unanimously on specific policy proposals, appropriate solutions, or even the relevant evidence, a common framework of understanding cross-border Internet policy issues will allow for healthier Internet policy debates, better cooperation and coordination between nations, and fewer policy conflicts. This report explores the nature of cross-border Internet policy conflicts and provides a sample of the types of conflicts that have been seen in recent years. It also discusses the limitations of existing Internet policy frameworks, offers an alternative perspective and outlines a specific set of rules that should be used for evaluating cross-border Internet policy conflicts. Finally, it operationalizes this framework using various examples to show the method in action.

We deserve better web options

[Commentary] Don't you love your cable guy, even if he now looks a lot like Coach Cowher? Beyond the hype, the story of our broadband future along the North Coast is not as rosy as you might think. While Crain's Cleveland Business got the story, the prospects of the very big, but not well understood, news about Charter Communications taking over household and business Internet services in Ohio begs the question of whether we're just chopped liver out here along Lake Erie. I'll cut to the chase. While lots of promises are being made in Washington (DC) and elsewhere, if one digs a little deeper, we in Cleveland are unlikely to see the benefits. We should demand better, we deserve better and we can do better.

[Gonick is CEO and co-founder of OneCommunity, a nonprofit provider of ultra-high-speed broadband services and programs.]

Justice Sotomayor says technology could lead to “Orwellian world”

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says that without proper privacy safeguards, the advancement of technology could lead to a world like the one portrayed in "1984" by George Orwell. Speaking to Oklahoma City University faculty and students, the justice said that technology has allowed devices to "listen to your conversations from miles away and through your walls." She added: "We are in that brave new world, and we are capable of being in that Orwellian world, too."

Sprint, Windstream traffic routing errors hijacked other ISPs

Internet traffic routing errors made by US operators Sprint and Windstream on the same day underscore a long-known Internet weakness, posing both security and reliability issues.

Both of the errors involved Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), an aging but crucial protocol that is used by networking equipment to route traffic between different providers. Traffic routes are "announced" using BGP, and the changes are then taken up by routers around the world. But network providers frequently make erroneous announcements -- known as "route hijacking" -- which can shut off services, causing reliability issues or be used for certain kinds of cyberattacks. For about a day, Sprint made a BGP announcement that directed Internet traffic from an ISP in Macedonia through its own network, wrote Doug Madory, a senior analyst with Dyn's Renesys division, which monitors how global Internet traffic is routed. On the same day, Windstream commandeered traffic destined for Saudi Telecom, and then a day later for networks in Gaza and Iceland, besides three in China, Madory wrote.

AWS-3 auction: DoD pledges to enable greater access to shared spectrum

The next major US spectrum auction, for AWS-3 frequencies, is slated to begin in less than two months, and the Department of Defense (DoD) is pledging to do what it can to reduce the size of coordination zones in the 1755-1780 MHz band to enable greater access to shared spectrum by commercial operations.

That pledge is included in recently released government data, which is aimed at helping potential bidders assess how to proceed in order to coordinate their spectrum needs with incumbent DoD licensees in the 1755-1780 MHz band. The AWS-3 auction begins on Nov. 13, and the FCC hopes to raise a minimum of $10.587 billion for the airwaves. The auction will include the 1695-1710 MHz band, assigned as unpaired spectrum used for low-power uplink operations, and the 1755-1780 MHz band, which will be licensed for low-power uplink operations and paired with the 2155-2180 MHz band, which is unencumbered by federal users, for downlink operations. In most cases, federal spectrum users will have to exit the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz bands or geographically share them with commercial users.

Benton

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