by NTIA, National Telecommunications and Information Agency
A new report by NTIA details ongoing disparities between rural and urban residents in access to high-speed broadband.
Digital Inclusion |
| Rural Broadband Lag Persists by NTIA, National Telecommunications and Information Agency A new report by NTIA details ongoing disparities between rural and urban residents in access to high-speed broadband. |
 | Open Internet Proposal Gets 24% Support From Verizon Shareholders This represents a three-fold increase in support from a similar action filed last year, which garnered 7.9% of shareholder votes in favor of a net neutrality proposal. |
_1.jpg) | Susan Crawford in SF on May 14th Former White House Advisor and law professor Susan Crawford speaks on her new book Captive Audience: Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age. 2:00pm on May 14th at the CPUC Auditorium 505 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. |
| Internet Freedom: Dubai and Beyond by Committee on Foreign Affairs, http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/joint-subcommittee-hearing-fighting-internet-freedom-dubai-and-beyond In DC, an important hearing on the international administration of the Internet. Check out the video. |
_8.jpg) | International Internet Regs: Nothing to Write Home About by Policy Team, WCIT Watch at Access Now The rework of international Internet treaties at the WCIT came up with an end result almost no one likes: and a treaty many countries aren't likely to sign |
 | Wireless Lifeline: Real or Phony Update: 11/29 It looks like a compromise proposal is in the works. Comments at the meeting looked very encouraging for consumer protections and a meaningful definition of basic service. |
.jpg) | Six-Strikes Anti-Piracy Tracking To Roll Out November 28th Torrent Freak Torrent Freak acquired AT&T planning documents for an ISP-enforced antipiracy initiative that would target users for violations by their IP address. |
 | New Pew Cell/Phone Internet Survey Documents Impact of Data Caps Pew Internet Center 17% of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing on their phone, rather than a computer or other device |
| AT&T and Verizon - What Digital Divide? by Gerry Smith, Huffington Post Gerry Smith writes in the Huffington Post about AT&T and Verizon's decision to reject FCC funds to expend high-speed Internet services to rural Americans. |
| There's a Public Internet and You May Not Be On It by Brendan Greeley and Jeff Bliss, Bloomberg BusinessWeek Responding to a Department of Justice probe into anti-competitive behavior, telecom giant Comcast made the interesting claim that while competitor Netfix operates in the public internet, their on-demand movie service (Xfinity) operates in the private Internet. |
 | Fahrenheit 451 by Andrew Couts, Digital Trends In the spirit of the Bradbury novel and the Right-to-Know Monsanto initiative, a Google programmer has suggested a new error code indicating when a link you click on has been censored by the government. |
.jpg) | CISPA - SOPA, But Worse by EFF, Deeplinks Blog In the parade of dismal cybersecurity bills coming out of Congress, CISPA (passed by the house on April 26th) is setting a new low. |
| 5.9% of AT&T Shareholders Vote for Wireless Neutrality by Granty Goss, IDG News Service About 5.9 percent of AT&T shareholders have voted for a proposal calling on the company to commit to net neutrality principles on its wireless networks, but supporters of the measure called the vote a success. |
 | SXSW Misfire - The Human Hotspot by Emily Price, Mashable.com The company turned homeless people on the streets of Austin into wireless hotspots. |
| The Capacity Crisis Myth by Karl Bode, DSL Reports Karl Bode of DSL Reports addresses the dramatic spectrum crunch rumors that justify the new trend of data caps and premium user fees. |
 | Stop Online Piracy Act Overreaches by Rebecca McKinnon, New York Times Update 1/7 The Senate version (PIPA) is scheduled for a vote as soon as January 24th. |
| 1st Week of Net Neutrality: (Kinda) After the Senate turned away a resolution of disapproval 52-46, a new reality of wireless discrimination and wired neutrality began on 11/20/2011. |
 | Net Neutrality: A Global Struggle Net neutrality is often characterized as a developed world issue, but it may be as or more crucial for emerging economies. |
| "Can A Community Use Its Own Network?", Asks Longmont. Answer - YES Muni Networks Sometimes the 2nd time is the charm. On November 1st, voters in Longmont, Colorado overturned a 2010 referendum against letting their city use a municipal fiber ring to offer services to city residents. |
 | Open Internet: Insurrection at the e-G8 An unscheduled press conference at the e-G8 featured Jeremie Zimmerman, La Quadrature du Net - Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, Susan Crawford, jean-Francois Julliard, Reporters Without Borders and Yochai Benkler from the Berkman Center. |
 | Did The Cable Industry Pay Ralph Reed Millions of Dollars? by Lee Fang, ThinkProgress.org According to documents obtained by ThinkProgress, the National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA), a trade association that represents cable providers like Comcast and Qwest Communications, has provided Reed’s lobbying firm with at least $3,462,117 worth of contracts in the last three years alone. |
| Community Broadband Map The Institute for Local Self-Reliance prepared this map. The West is lagging badly. |
| The Internet Strikes Back: 59% of the Country Wants to Ensure Access Congress voted to abolish recently-passed lukewarm net neutrality rules. A new Consumer's Union Poll makes it clear the House is out of step with the majority of Americans. |
 | The Internet You Need New animated short and website. |
| Net Neutrality Order Passes With Big Loopholes Net Neutrality orders passed the FCC on December 21st with exemptions from regulation for wireless and mobile connections from regulatory protocols and little to prevent paid content prioritization. |
| Bay Area Disability Advocates Call on FCC to Keep the Internet Open In January, The World Institute on Disability sent a comment to the FCC suggesting net neutrality regulations would have a negative effect on persons with disabilities. The position that the WID takes is not one shared by the entire disability community. This letter is to address that fact and voice concerns members of the disability community have about the future of the Internet. |
 | 100+ at Google on August 13th More than 100 people stopped everything on Friday August 13th to tell Google how they really felt about the corporate turnaround on net neutrality. A petition with 330,000 consumer signatures was delivered to the Internet giant at the rally. |
| Amid Rumors of Google-Verizon Deal, FCC Pulls out of Net Neutrality Industry Talks A series of much-criticized stakeholder meetings on the contentious issue of “network neutrality” or open internet regulations collapsed today as the Federal Communications Commission pulled out of negotiations with AT&T, Google, Verizon and Skype. |
 | Connecting the Issues: USF Reform and Social Justice Don't get how extending Lifeline service to broadband makes a better world? Here is Mag-net's analysis of why Universal Service Fund Reform is a critical issue for a more just country. |
| No Net Brutality Now that the FCC has proposed a partial reclassification of Internet services from Title I to Title II, rightwing think tanks have come out swinging in defense of their big telecom buddies. |
| Net Neutrality and The Third Way by Tracy Rosenberg, Huffington Post On May 6th, FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski laid out a six-page plan for trying to make everyone happy in the net neutrality battle. It's a big question whether he will succeed. |
| Whose Internet Is It? First, we had the Supreme Court affirming the free speech rights of corporations. Now we have the DC Court of Appeals telling us Comcast owns the Internet. But they don't. We do. |
| The FCC Bus Hits South by Southwest The Bay Area's vital response when the FCC came to town in April 2008 to hold a hearing on Comcast throttling is the subject of a new documentary aired at Austin's SXSW. |
 | Oakland Digs the Gig: Oaktown Joins the Google Scuffle The City of Oakland joined about 600 other communities nationwide today in a competition for the honor of becoming a test-site for Google’s experimental ultra high-speed broadband networks. |
| Net Neutrality Laws Lie in FCC Hands by Terry Johnson, Philadelphia Tribune The imperfect founders of the Republic anticipated a struggle over freedom of the press. But surely they could not have imagined — and 10 years ago most people could not have imagined — that the democratic potential of the nation might turn on the outcome of a fight over freedom of access to the Internet. |
| Digital Nation: 21st Century America's Progress Towards Universal Broadband The report samples 4000 households and 129,000 citizens. It's central idea is that although Broadband internet has transformed the way Americans communicate, for many citizens, Broadband remains out of reach. The report, complete with graph and pie charts, illustrates the gaps in internet access (which demographic groups have it or don’t and why); where it tends to be more accessible, as well why who have access to it chose not to use it. |
 | Xinjiang residents cope with losing Net access by Cara Anna, Associated Press They arrive at this gritty desert crossroads weary from a 13-hour train ride but determined. The promised land lies just across the railway station plaza: a large, white sign that says "Easy Connection Internet Cafe." |
| Can we have affordable broadband for everyone? Can we afford not to? As advocates fight to convert the promise of an open Internet future into binding net neutrality regulations, the larger issue of affordable access for all looms in the background. Can it be done? |
| Have a Heart: Net Neutrality for Valentine's Day Sign the petition! |
 | Raising Our Voices: Empowering Communities and Creating Justice by Elizabeth Farsaci with some text from Eloise Lee and Dorothy Kidd Raising Our Voices is an ongoing media training project that works with community leaders to produce content on issues related to immigration, poverty, violence, gender, labor and social justice. |
| New FCC Commissioner Challenges MMTC on Net Neutrality The Federal Communications Commission's newest Democrat Mignon Clyburn had some interesting comments to make about net neutrality on Friday at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council's Social Justice summit |
| Comcast Making Some Headway Against FCC in Net Neutrality Appeal by Joelle Tessler, Associated Press Comcast is appealing the FCC decision that it violated net neutrality principals by throttling Bit Torrent downloads, a decision made following an en banc hearing at Stanford University in 2008. Here's a report from the US Court of Appeals in DC from the AP. |
| Julius Genachowski, New FCC Chair, Signals He's Ready to Move on Net Neutrality by Matt Wood, Media Access Project Update: Great news! The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking passed at the 10-22 FCC meeting. Genachowski's call for immediate action on net neutrality has stirred a strong counter-movement in the telecom sector. See Media Alliance's letter to the FCC prior to an October 22nd meeting where we will find out if the Chairman's call has resonated with his 4 FCC colleagues - 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans. |
| Global Privacy Standards for a Global World Affirming that privacy is a fundamental human right set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other human rights instruments and national constitutions; |
 | One Web Day Came to UC Berkeley: Sept 22 Media Alliance and the Berkeley Center for New Media met on One Web Day to discuss our Internet future At the Berkeley Center for New Media Commons. |
| Call for Reviewers: Broadband Technology Opportunities Program With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), President Obama and Congress appropriated an unprecedented $7.2 billion in funds to expand broadband access to all Americans. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is administering the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) a $4.5 billion grant program to promote broadband deployment, public computer centers and broadband adoption. |
| Speed Matters? The third annual Speed Matters report on Internet Speeds in America was released today by the Communication Workers of America - and U.S. connection speeds have not improved significantly in the past year. |
| Pulling the Strings A cute graphic from Free Press you can share illustrating the fingers in the pie as the nation struggles to develop a plan to address the technology divide. |
| Media and Democracy Coalition Asks for More Inclusion in Stimulus Broadband Funding A coalition of public interest groups co-signed this letter asking for changes. |
| Global Broadband http://www.apc.org The Association for Progressive Communications (http://www.apc.org) reports on global broadband access victories in South Africa and Bolivia. |
| New Report: Privatizing the Public Trust: A Critical Look at Connected Nation This report by Public Knowledge, Common Cause and the Media and Democracy Coalition (MA is a steering committee member) takes a hard look at the telecom-connected nonprofit that looks poised to swallow up some broadband stimulus monies for mapping broadband assets without public disclosure. |
| National Broadband Policy for the Twenty-First Century: Thoughts from the Grassroots This Media Alliance report is a compilation of several events held in the state of California in 2008 where grassroots groups and members of the community gathered to discuss the the Internet. |
| Nation's Largest ISPs Crafting Fake National Broadband Policy In order to make sure that no real, substantive ones take shape.... It's generally agreed upon that this nation has no broadband policy whatsoever. We can probably all also agree that actually changing this might be a good idea for a supposed global technology leader. |
| Our Vision for the Future It's easy to criticize. Too easy. But what is the affirmative vision for a 21st century media that works to advance peace, justice and social responsibility? |
| Digital Infrastructure, By the Community, For The Community Article by MA's Program Director Eloise Lee from Race, Poverty and the Environment. |
| Net Neutrality 101/FAQ's What is Net Neutrality about? When we log onto the Internet, we take a lot for granted. We assume we'll be able to access any Web site we want, whenever we want, at the fastest speed, whether it's a corporate or mom-and-pop site. We assume that we can use any service we like — watching online video, listening to podcasts, sending instant messages — anytime we choose. What makes all these assumptions possible is Network Neutrality... |
| Center for Rural Strategies Lays Claim to the White Spaces One of the rarely-mentioned aspects of the D-TV transition is the vast swaths of spectrum that will become available with the loss of the analog "fuzz" frequencies. What will they be used for? |
| The Coming Death of DSL With low-end broadband packages hitting price points that make them commodities, ISPs are starting to rely on high-bandwidth premium services to draw in high profits from their subscribers |
| The Low-Access People: Tiny Grey-Garcia's Notes on the NCMR It's the snow that appears late at night on our TV... it can reach across oceans and mountain ranges and beyond...it has the potential to provide a channel of access to many independent broadcasters, which is why the big telecoms are trying to seize it,"explained Eloise Rose Lee, from Media Alliance based in California, one of five people speaking at "The Future of the Internet" panel at the National Conference of Media Reform held in Minneapolis last week. |
| The FCC Bus: One Person's Story I sat in a dark, foreboding hall at Stanford University listening to the words of resistance of Gloria Esteva (staff writer of POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork and member of the Voces de Immigrantes en Resistencia at the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR). As I listened I felt truly inspired. |
| Florida Awards Mapping Contract to Connected Nation Front Group by Art Brodsky, Public Knowledge Despite bidding quite a more than an equally qualified competitor, Connected Nation, the telecom-affiliated nonprofit trying to corner the broadband mapping department, was awarded a contract by the State of Florida. Art Brodsky of Public Knowledge sounds the alarm. |