Successful Blog

Open Mic at 7pm Chicago Time

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Tonight We Search for Pirates

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YES, the mike will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

The rules are simple — be nice.

We met lots of new friends last week as we always do. If you missed it, stop by this week, and it’s your turn to come.

Tonight we go in search of pirates.

We might also talk about

  • crayons and legos.
  • uban legends
  • vacations.

AND THE EVER POPULAR,

What are the code-writing donkey and the drinking moose doing tonight?

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic is ON in Philadelphia!

Net Neutrality 7-11-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding these links to the Net Neutrality Page.

Good News – Maybe

We interrupt this series on Telecommunication Pricing to bring you an important message. According to a story in Saturday’s NY Times, Federal District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is considering major modifications to the already accomplished SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers. We’re going to mash that up with a quote from Vint Cerf who is now at Google.

“Through the eyes of a layperson, the mergers, in and of themselves, appear to be against public interest given the apparent loss in competition,” the Times reports Judge Sullivan wrote. “In layperson’s terms, why isn’t that the case?”

. . . follow the link to read the mash up.

A net neutrality movie: It Happened to Jane (1959)

Unlike the movie, we don’t have a Doris Day to charm “the meanest man in the world.” So it comes down to congress and the FCC in the United States, and similar government organs in your country. Grassroots activism seems the only course since it’s nigh on impossible to out-lobby phone and cable companies.

So:

What will you do for the Internet this week?

How will you defend your right to call unimpeded? And in private?

Who will you call?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 7-10-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

The Origins of the Net Neutrality Debate

For all the fuss, however, net neutrality was a non-issue one year ago. In the July 7 issue of the National Journal, senior writer Drew Clark asks how the prospect of tiered Internet access suddenly became a focus of public and Congressional debate. He traces the origins of the debate to a few revealing remarks by Ed Whitacre, the CEO of the company then known as SBC (and soon to become AT&T), suggesting that the company was eager to start charging big customers more for access to the company’s Internet backbone connections.

It’s true that Whitacre’s statement raised the alarm among heavy Internet users — but Whitacre was hardly the first to think of turning the Internet into a toll road. . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 7-9-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Net Neutrality = A Financial Services Industry Free-Ride?

I’ve written a little about the Net Neutrality debate , and posted some Blog entries bout it — e.g. here, here and here. It’s a complex and interesting subject, and politicians have clearly had difficulty getting their heads around it. So I was interested to see how Wikipedia would approach the topic.

The entry seemed to me to be a model of its kind — well-informed, mostly well-referenced and balanced. But its ‘neutrality’ has been challenged and has triggered Wikipedia’s discussion process. The discussion page on the issue is fascinating. Here’s the bit about the bias complaint. . . .

[What follows is the challenge process at Wikipedia.]

It’s always irritating to have one’s views changed by other people’s better arguments, but this discussion has caused me to re-evaluate the original entry. I think the point about ‘framing’ is right. Wouldn’t it be nice if all public debate about complex issues were conducted this way? Then we really would have a deliberative democracy. I’m always puzzled by people’s hostility to Wikipedia: to me, it looks like one of the best things to have emerged from the Net.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Thanks to Week 37 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Net Neutrality 7-8-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding these links to the Net Neutrality Page.

Let’s put Net neutrality to bed: Engaging the George

We’re talking about a simple idea, that when you haven’t paid for dedicated capacity at a given throughput and reliability . . . your traffic will travel at the same speed and with the same reliability as everyone else’s traffic. The carriers’ position is that they should be able to define that freedom of access. It is the long and successful tradition of the United States that it does not allow a monopoly or duopoly to operate free of regulations which define a minimum common good that they must fulfill in exchange for their market positions.

Battle Lines Drawn Over Net Neutrality

InfoWorldMike writes “. . . Determining the full effects of Net neutrality can be difficult, however, in part because the concept is hard to define precisely. Most of the debate has taken place inside the Washington Beltway, where lawmakers and outsiders have proposed several different versions. InfoWorld has a Special Report up exploring the issue with a debate between experts Bill McCloskey and Jon Taplin and some of the news that has captured the issue as it developed.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE