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Net Neutrality 10-29-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

The Truth Behind America’s Digital Decline

With every passing month, the United States falls further behind the global leaders in broadband Internet access thanks to a combination of market and policy failures. Our markets lack the competition to bring lower prices, higher speeds, and universal access. Our policies lack the imagination and potency to create real change. Meanwhile, Americans pay more money for less service than a dozen other nations. A third of U.S households are still stuck with dial-up, and another third lack Internet access of any kind. Our broadband problem is becoming a crisis.

Yet major telecommunications legislation now moving through Congress lacks a comprehensive vision for how to bring multiple competitive broadband providers to each market offering truly high-capacity connections at affordable prices.

[. . .]

To make matters worse, the Federal Communications Commission seems content to ignore the broadband problem and pretend we are moving forward. While the FCC is crowing about an uptick in 1 megabit per second (Mbps) DSL connections, Japanese consumers are paying the same price for 100 Mbps. How long can we afford to be 100 times slower than the rest of the world?

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 10-28-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

No Room for Neutrality on Net Neutrality

. . . What’s really going on is cable and telecommunications companies want to kill net neutrality so that they can charge content providers for preferred access to their customers.

As Craigslist founder Craig Newmark once described it (via Cory Doctorow’s memory of the comment):

“Imagine if you tried to order a pizza and the phone company said, “AT&T’s preferred pizza vendor is Domino’s. Press one to connect to Domino’s now. If you would still like to order from your neighborhood pizzeria, please hold for three minutes while Domino’s guaranteed orders are placed.”

Personally, I’d like to pick my own pizza vendor. And search engine

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 10-27-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Why have a phone network?

So why bother with a phone network. Maybe because, if the phone monopolies admitted they were just running IP networks, they would move even more aggressively against the principles of net neutrality.

“Net neutrality, or the privatization of the Internet, is a profit grab from the big companies and it’s dangerous to all of us,” [Fonality founder Chris]
Lyman said. Transport companies should just provide transport.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 10-26-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Let’s Challenge TV’s Lockout of Progressives

With the winds of change threatening to blow open the 2006 election, I’ve been turning more and more to the Sunday morning politics shows. But I find the same old players, a narrow mix of tired pundits — and virtually no one sympathetic to the new winds raging.

[ . . . ]

And “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” has just hired as its Democratic pundit, Mike “Telecom-industry-lobbyist-against-Net-neutrality” McCurry.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 10-25-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Net Neutrality Vital to Creative Artists, CV Tells FCC

. . . What is at stake here is nothing less than the future of the Internet, and whether the future Internet will be open or closed to independent and diverse voices and viewpoints. Not just creative voices – all voices. Will consumers retain the freedom to access any website, as they could when government policies were in place that ensured nondiscriminatory access, or will they be restricted to visiting sites approved by – or in business with – the “gatekeeper” that provides high speed Internet access? As creative media artists, we’ve seen this closed business model now being proposed for the Internet take over both broadcast television and cable television. Been there, done that, and seen that it is extremely harmful to diversity, creativity, and free expression. Let’s keep the Internet a real “level playing field.”

The market power of the proposed combined company over Internet content and services, along with recent regulatory and legislative developments, requires that the Commission attach substantial and enforceable conditions to its approval of the transaction to ensure that the Internet remains that real “level playing field.” The companies’ offer to abide by the FCC’s Broadband Policy Statement for a period of 30 months is not merely insufficient; it thumbs its nose at the American public and this Commission. By definition, approval of this transaction cannot be in the “public interest” if the combined company retains the right to ignore and violate after just 30 months the public interest in net neutrality, as expressed in the Commission’s Policy Statement. . . .

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Great Find: SlideShare

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PowerPoint Without the Hassle

Thank you to Ann Michael who sent me the tip on this new little beauty. The Boston Globe called it YouTube for PowerPoint. Take a look here.

Great Find: SlideShare
Permalink: http://slideshare.net/
Target Audience: Anyone who gives presentations
Content: What do you get when you cross the sociability of YouTube with the slide function of PowerPoint and then mix in a large dose of individuality? They’re calling it SlideShare, and it’s pretty exciting. You can build and upload your own slide shows OR you can go there to watch shows that other folks made.

SlideShare lets you upload PowerPoint or Open Office presentation files. Then you can share them through a online interface much like YouTube. The joy is that now PowerPoint documents can be stored on the Internet. No sending, copying, or moving them to a new machine. You can even embed them in your blog. People are already finding creative ways to make use of this new mashup. Here’s what they say at their main site.

How people are using SlideShare?

  • Teachers are uploading their own slideshows and also asking students to upload their assignments to SlideShare so that parents can see their work.
  • Conference organizers are uploading presentations from their conferences.
  • People are uploading photo slideshows to memorialize a wedding or other special event.

If you are bored, check out the humour on SlideShare. There’s tons of it there!

It’s so easy; it seems everyone is using it. I’ve embedded on here.

There are many beautiful ones at the site that the type more effectively. I chose this because it shows how things still look when not perfectly designed. (I’m sure you’ll use type more effectively.)

To learn more about SlideShare and to see many more shows go the main site or visit their blog.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
Great Find: Library Thing
Great Find: Gotoit Media Portal for Videophiles
Great Find: Notebook UP