The Common Good
In economics the term “common good” refers to a good that is rivalrous but not excludable. Fish is an example for a common good that (assuming there is no fishing regulation) is not excludable because anyone with a boat can go fishing. However, it is rivalrous since there is a limited number of fish in the oceans – and in fact overfishing is a problem in many regions of the world.
The Internet as a Common Good
I stumpled upon a EU document claiming the Internet was as a common good and therefore it would be necessary to reform Internet governance (PDF). The author argues that the market alone was not capable of controlling a global public-private infrastructure of communication, that the Internet is largely based on non-proprietary and open technologies and that the preservation of freedom rights would demand a reform of current Internet governance.
Although I do not agree with the author and au contraire believe that self-regulation and market mechanisms (together with standards bodies, such as W3C) have worked quite well in the past and will work in the future (as long as net neutrality is preserved), the discussion about private common goods / global public goods has drawn my attention.
In fact, the Internet seems to fit the common good attributes, as it is rivalrous (net neutrality discussion), yet not-excludable.
The Cloud as a Common Good
Now, thinking about Cloud infrastructure in lieu of the Internet, i.e. Amazon Web Services, Google AppEngine, Microsoft Azure, etc. Currently these services does not fit the non-excludability propery and therefore would rather be categorized as private goods. However, initiatives such as the OpenCirrus Testbed point to a different direction. If the Internet is considered a common good, the Cloud might become a common good as well.
In fact, I believe the Internet (primarily being a communication infrastructure) and Cloud services might blur and melt together into a combined communication and middleware infrastructure that will be much more powerful than what we have seen so far. Just think what kinds of applications you could build if you could rely on processing power, storage, messaging and so on like you do with basic communication (TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.). People who think this is just hype, well, they will miss a big opportunity :p
