Promises and challenges of Blockchain in education

Blockchain is arguably the next technology-mediated socioeconomic mega trend after the ongoing era of Net Neutrality and Big Data. This theoretical paper explores blockchain technology and its impacts on education. It is argued that we cannot take for granted that the network neutrality, popularized accessibility of the Internet and its influence on education will remain as we know it today. Blockchain promises, among others, a greater control over financing and investing in education, implementing instructional projects, a certification/accreditation system and learning. Education blockchain with its distributed ledgers would set novel standards of crypto-learning and crypto-administration that are acceptable across organizations and nations, enhancing thus the objectivity, validity and control of information without being compromised by socio-economic instabilities. The slow rate of adoption of blockchain technology in education reflects the rate in the fields of finance and management but, at the same time, it poses a few critical challenges such as lacking tangible incentives for technology maintenance or ‘blockchain mining’ (inward sustainability) coupled with a rather feeble orientation to collective development of education (outward sustainability).

Implementasi net neutrality di indonesia ditinjau dari undang-undang ite

The problem of net neutrality has become a debate in many countries where the regulation on the net neutrality policy confirms that internet providers or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not allowed to make distinctions or be discriminatory in the selection of internet applications or content to be used by consumers or users. The purpose of this research is to analyze the application of network neutrality from the perspective of Indonesian law which specifically examines critically the applicable Information and Electronic Transactions Law. This research method is descriptive qualitative. The results show that the implementation of Net Neutrality in terms of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law is still not optimal because there are still network restrictions that are applied to certain Internet Network Providers. The results also show that there is a need for amendments to the ITE Law related to the enforcement of legal protection with the principle of forming a prohibition against the actions of Internet Service Provider (ISP) business actors that can disrupt the business climate.

The transformation of network neutrality in Canada

"Telecommunications technology has dramatically transformed an individual's ability to access information. Internet surfers are often unaware of the ways in which their Internet services are being managed, and even fewer are familiar with the term Internet neutrality. As a growing trend, more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Canada are intervening with the infrastructure of the Internet by utilizing traffic management practices, such as bandwidth 'throttling'1, which hinder a user's ability to quickly access certain types of content online. Internet traffic management practices (ITMP) are a means for ISPs to control their 'congested'2 networks, with the aim of optimizing or improving their network's performance, or they can often aid in increasing usable bandwidth (Lithgow, 2011). Traffic management practices ultimately allow one kind of 'packet'3 to be delayed over another; for example, ISPs often use a program called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which is a program that can identify forms of traffic online, meaning it can target specific applications. Since ITMPs can target specific 'packets' online, smaller interest groups, and businesses became increasingly concerned that network neutrality policy principles, such as 'common-carriage'4 was not being enforced by the CRTC. This paper will identify the main concerns of utilizing ITMP on broadband networks, and will illustrate that ITMP can and should be connected to the discussion regarding network neutrality in Canada" -- From the introduction, page 1.

The transformation of network neutrality in Canada

"Telecommunications technology has dramatically transformed an individual's ability to access information. Internet surfers are often unaware of the ways in which their Internet services are being managed, and even fewer are familiar with the term Internet neutrality. As a growing trend, more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Canada are intervening with the infrastructure of the Internet by utilizing traffic management practices, such as bandwidth 'throttling'1, which hinder a user's ability to quickly access certain types of content online. Internet traffic management practices (ITMP) are a means for ISPs to control their 'congested'2 networks, with the aim of optimizing or improving their network's performance, or they can often aid in increasing usable bandwidth (Lithgow, 2011). Traffic management practices ultimately allow one kind of 'packet'3 to be delayed over another; for example, ISPs often use a program called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which is a program that can identify forms of traffic online, meaning it can target specific applications. Since ITMPs can target specific 'packets' online, smaller interest groups, and businesses became increasingly concerned that network neutrality policy principles, such as 'common-carriage'4 was not being enforced by the CRTC. This paper will identify the main concerns of utilizing ITMP on broadband networks, and will illustrate that ITMP can and should be connected to the discussion regarding network neutrality in Canada" -- From the introduction, page 1.

Transnational Internet Law

The greatest, and certainly to a Westphalian nation-state-centered universe most revolutionary, challenge for regulation is the increasing co-operation between national, regional, and international networks of regulators, to regulate the internet. Reidenberg coined the term “lex informatica” to explain its transnational legal nature, based on Berman and Kaufman’s analysis of mediaeval lex mercatoria, rather than Jessup’s transnational law. This chapter briefly considers the technical standards that permit inter-networking and thus the internet, then examines how standards—including commercial and legal standards—have created a transnational lex informatica. The chapter then focuses on two phenomena of the transnational internet law evolution. The first is governance by contract for all commercial transactions, even those that are ostensibly free of monetary value, in which the contractors are trading private information for advertising revenue. The second is the “open internet,” laws protecting some aspects of network neutrality.