How often do you open the paper and see an intelligent quote from a politician on technology policy? I was pleasantly surprised to see just that today in a Boston Globe article. Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey is taking over the House subcommittee on telecommunications, and on the issue of net neutrality, Markey says,

Innovations such as the Web browser, search engines, and the Internet did not emerge from large established companies, and forcing firms to pay more to reach users would stifle creativity

I think that’s a no-brainer, although it seems to be controversial in some big business circles.

What could be really interesting is if this principle were to be applied to the wireless industry. We have seen barely a trickle of mobile location services in the last decade for no other reason than there is no concept of net neutrality in mobile data networks. You have to pay to play, and you have to make separate deals with every wireless provider out there to get an application to a phone. This is clearly stifling innovation in the mapping industry.

Congressman Markey, please bring net neutrality to our cell phones!

As many know by now, OGC is working to bring KML into the international standardization process. There’s a public mailing list for interested parties to discuss what they would like to see in an OGC KML, but I’d like to spend a second on the legal aspect, which is just as important. Here’s a post I just made on the GeoRSS mailing list:

And one crucial point that I think a lot of people miss is the legal intellectual property aspect. Bringing KML into OGC isn’t just about what features end up in that XML format. It’s just as much about making sure the format is royalty-free to use forever. We all know the Google mantra is “don’t be evil” (and the people I know there completely live up to the mantra), but OGC standardization means you don’t have to take their word for it.

So by standardizing KML in OGC, even if people don’t get all the features in there they may like to see, at least you will know you can build innovative applications and information services around KML without fear of getting a cease-and-desist in the mail some day.