I’m a supporter of net neutrality. But I also think that federal net neutrality regulations are a bad idea. Tim Lee persuaded me that consumers can do a better job of enforcing the net neutrality norm than regulators. (In my ideal world, Tim Lee would have a column in a major newspaper or magazine. No one is better at explaining complex issues in a cant-free manner.)

So there are two general ways that civil society can help to preserve network neutrality. One is user education. Educated users are much harder to coerce than ignorant ones. Users who don’t understand the value of open networks are more likely to allow themselves to be herded into walled gardens. Educated users are likely to be much more resistant to such efforts. Second, we can promote the development of open, decentralized software platforms. Monolithic, homogenous online services are relatively easy to filter or block. In contrast, open platforms—and especially free software—supports the development of a “long tail” of software and websites that’s much harder for a network owner to understand and control. The great thing about these trends is that they’re likely to happen with or without an organized, top-down effort. Open software platforms have been gaining market share for decades simply because they work better.

This week, Stephan Shakespeare of the Network for a Post-Bureaucratic Age is kicking off a series of events designed to apply the lessons of open, decentralized software platforms to other aspects of public policy.