Being something of a podcastophile (is that a word?), I am pretty constantly working with continuous series of podcasts playing in my ear. I don't do that in class, of course. It would be rather hard to hear the questions from the students!

I was just listening to Buzz Out Loud, a daily podcast "of indeterminate length" produced by CNET that is essentially a talk news program focused on all things Internet and information technology. The three panelists are fun to listen to and often have some interesting tidbits. In their August 23rd webisode entitled, "Three Men in a Boat," they discussed an interesting analogy for the so-called "tiered Internet," after a rant against the carriers about the Universal Service Fee. The analogy can be found starting at minute 4:08.

Today, when you visit some Six Flags amusement parks, you pay a fee to enter the park. However, you can also pay an additional fee and get a "Speed Pass." The speed pass virtually stands in line for you. You go to a particular line, scan your Speed Pass into a system and it gives you a ticket with a return time window on it that is roughly based on the current length of the line. You are then free to return to the ride at the designated time and you are allowed to enter a high-speed line that theoretically puts you on the ride at approximately the same you would have been on the ride if you had waited in the normal line. What you are buying is the freedom to walk around and do other things instead of waiting in line. The effect you experience, however, is being able to walk past all of those people in line, just at a slightly later time and for a modest fee. A Gold Pass is even more expensive and lets you skip the line altogether, immediately.

Is this a good analogy for what the "tiered Internet" would be all about? Is that so bad? Does it unfairly skew the Internet to the big companies with deep pockets at the expense of the little players with modest budgets?