Google Crowdsourcing the Future of Internet

Today we are watching an extraordinary move from Google. The internet giant seems to be exhausted in its pursuit for unlicensed use of unused airwaves (“white spaces”) between broadcast TV channels for internet access and decided to call for support from general internet users. Instead of continuing to try to reach the solution that it wants on its own Google has decided to invite all the internet users it can access to sign a petition that this unused spectrum should be available for unlicensed use.

The company explains that Federal Communications Commission is supposed to make a ruling in the nearest few months and with that in mind Google has launched a dedicated website for that – named Free The Airwaves – to explain the users why unlimited access to this spectrum is important to everyday users, not only Google as an internet company. The argument is that while Google and other internet companies will benefit from more users being able to access the internet, users themselves will be the winners here simply because those that are unable to access the web today (or can only access it at a higher price) will see the change as well.

The site launched with a tag “supported by Google” (and covered by Google copyright as well) contains basic description of the cause, some videos further detailing it (users are also invite to submit their own videos) and FAQ section defining the problem in a language comprehensible enough for anyone.

But obviously the most important part of the site is the link sending a user to sign a petition to support Google’s goal here. I am quite sure that Google’s explanation of the problem will bring quite a huge a number of signatures to the petition, most certainly more than anything the opponents can collect. But unfortunately for Google a petition is still a petition and while it can be taken into account, it does not oblige FCC to take the decision that Google wants.

What I find the most impressive, is that internet giants seem to realize that their own resources are not enough and start recruiting their users for support and ideas. Remember Mozilla crowdsourcing the future of browsing? Now Google is trying to crowdsource the issue of internet access. And to me this trend is somewhat disturbing – after all, these companies are supposed to be able to work on their own efficient enough, right?