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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Product Life Cycle Theory And The Maturation Of The Internet, Christopher S. Yoo Nov 2010

Product Life Cycle Theory And The Maturation Of The Internet, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Much of the recent debate over Internet policy has focused on the permissibility of business practices that are becoming increasingly common, such as new forms of network management, prioritization, pricing, and strategic partnerships. This Essay analyzes these developments through the lens of the management literature on the product life cycle, dominant designs, technological trajectories and design hierarchies, and the role of complementary assets in determining industry structure. This analysis suggests that many of these business practices may represent nothing more than a reflection of how the nature of competition changes as industries mature. This in turn suggests that network neutrality …


Is The Internet A Maturing Market? If So, What Does That Imply?, Christopher S. Yoo Aug 2010

Is The Internet A Maturing Market? If So, What Does That Imply?, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Network providers are experimenting with a variety of new business arrangements. Some are offering specialized services the guarantee higher levels of quality of service those willing to pay for it. Others are entering into strategic partnerships that allocate more bandwidth to certain sources. Interestingly, a management literature exists suggesting that both developments may simply reflect the ways that the nature of competition and innovation can be expected as markets mature. The real question is not if the nature of competition and innovation will change, but rather when and how. This theory also suggests that policymakers should be careful not to …


Global Warming Advocacy Science: A Cross Examination, Jason S. Johnston May 2010

Global Warming Advocacy Science: A Cross Examination, Jason S. Johnston

All Faculty Scholarship

Legal scholarship has come to accept as true the various pronouncements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientists who have been active in the movement for greenhouse gas (ghg) emission reductions to combat global warming. The only criticism that legal scholars have had of the story told by this group of activist scientists – what may be called the climate establishment – is that it is too conservative in not paying enough attention to possible catastrophic harm from potentially very high temperature increases. This paper departs from such faith in the climate establishment by comparing the …


Network Neutrality Or Internet Innovation?, Christopher S. Yoo Apr 2010

Network Neutrality Or Internet Innovation?, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the past two decades, the Internet has undergone an extensive re-ordering of its topology that has resulted in increased variation in the price and quality of its services. Innovations such as private peering, multihoming, secondary peering, server farms, and content delivery networks have caused the Internet’s traditionally hierarchical architecture to be replaced by one that is more heterogeneous. Relatedly, network providers have begun to employ an increasingly varied array of business arrangements and pricing. This variation has been interpreted by some as network providers attempting to promote their self interest at the expense of the public. In fact, these …


Innovations In The Internet’S Architecture That Challenge The Status Quo, Christopher S. Yoo Jan 2010

Innovations In The Internet’S Architecture That Challenge The Status Quo, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

The current debate over broadband policy has largely overlooked a number of changes to the architecture of the Internet that have caused the price paid by and quality of service received by traffic traveling across the Internet to vary widely. Topological innovations, such as private peering, multihoming, secondary peering, server farms, and content delivery networks, have caused the Internet’s traditionally hierarchical architecture to be replaced by one that is more heterogeneous. Moreover, network providers have begun to employ an increasingly varied array of business arrangements. Some of these innovations are responses to the growing importance of peer-to-peer technologies. Others, such …


Assuming The Risk: Tort Law, Policy, And Politics On The Slippery Slopes, Eric Feldman, Alison I. Stein Jan 2010

Assuming The Risk: Tort Law, Policy, And Politics On The Slippery Slopes, Eric Feldman, Alison I. Stein

All Faculty Scholarship

Prominent jurists and legal scholars have long been critical of the doctrine of the assumption of risk, arguing that it is logically flawed and has sown confusion in the courts. This article takes a fresh look at the assumption of risk by focusing on legal conflicts over ski accidents in three ski-intensive states—Vermont, Colorado, and California. It argues that the tort doctrine of the assumption of risk remains vital, and highlights the way in which powerful political and economic actors with links to the ski industry have lobbied aggressively for state laws that codify the assumption of risk. The result …


The Changing Patterns Of Internet Usage, Christopher S. Yoo Jan 2010

The Changing Patterns Of Internet Usage, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Internet unquestionably represents one of the most important technological developments in recent history. It has revolutionized the way people communicate with one another and obtain information and created an unimaginable variety of commercial and leisure activities. Interestingly, many members of the engineering community often observe that the current network is ill-suited to handle the demands that end users are placing on it. Indeed, engineering researchers often describe the network as ossified and impervious to significant architectural change. As a result, both the U.S. and the European Commission are sponsoring “clean slate” projects to study how the Internet might be …