As the Internet has evolved -- moving from a relatively small set of networks used by researchers to a worldwide platform used by over a billion people -- its performance has become harder to analyze and understand. Researchers lack access to critical data about the current state of broadband networks, and users can find it difficult or impossible to understand the performance and characteristics of their Internet connections.

At the event, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Intiative (OTI), Google, and the PlanetLab Consortium announced the launch of Measurement Lab (m-Lab), a server platform designed to fill the current information void in network research.