Digital Future of Public Media

This week a group from the Open Technology Institute (OTI) will join the thousands of media makers and journalists, activists, advocates, policymakers, and technologists convening in Denver at the National Conference on Media Reform.

One year ago, in the aftermath of the Internet “blackout” staged to protest copyright legislation, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales explained why the online shutdown was so powerful. The blackout, he said, got “the attention of Congress.” Now, “they realize they can’t just listen to Hollywood.

I must have been 12 or 13 when my father suggested I go downtown with him to get some money from the bank. It was a Saturday afternoon, and, although he was a senior executive at the “Multibanco” in Chihuahua, I doubted he was going to be admitted on the weekend to help himself to some pesos. So I kept watching soccer on TV. My team, Atlético Español, was finding a new way to lose; that’s what they did.

Remember how the Internet community stopped SOPA?

Come on out to Irish Whiskey this Thursday at 8pm for the official launch of the Internet Defense League (IDL), a network of people and organizations committed to defending the open Internet. The goal of IDL is to sound the alarm quickly to millions of users whenever the Internet is in peril.

This week at the Open Technology Institute, we’re going back to the source of our passion for technology. It’s not about policy objectives or new software features, but rather the inspiration and enjoyment we get from sharing what we know and learning from others. The Allied Media Conference offers a rare chance to interact with an array of community organizers, technologists, and policy folks in an environment that’s all about generating creative ideas and engaging with other participants.

Welcome to our weekly series, highlighting the most newsworthy events under the Open Technology Initiative’s three key areas: Freedom of Expression, Spectrum Policy, and Privacy and Security. Contact us with story ideas: blog@opentechinstitute.org

In this paper we consider reforms and innovations in spectrum policy that would enable and sustain an expanded public media to better support quality news, journalism, education, arts, and civic information in the 21st century. The Internet has remade the landscape of free expression, access to news and information, and media production. Thus, we are well past the moment when spectrum allocated to broadcasting could be considered as distinct from that allocated to wireless broadband networks.

On June 6, the tech community celebrated World IPv6 Launch Day, when a number of major ISPs and Internet companies turned on IPv6, a new protocol for Internet addresses known as IPv4. This new protocol will eventually replace the current one. IPv6 will address the shortage of IPv4 addresses—the remaining few million were assigned in 2011—and enable the continued expansion of the Internet. Although IPv6 will likely run parallel with IPv4 for at least a few years, beginning the transition now is key.

This entry is part of an ongoing series of cross-posted content from the Netizen Project, providing news and information for the citizens of the Internet.

People aren’t free online if the only choice they have is a slow signal controlled by a giant cable company, said speakers analyzing the future of broadband during the Freedom to Connect conference in Silver Spring, Md.

Network use is growing, but national wire line providers are resting on their laurels, said Blair Levin, a former Federal Communication Commission official who said this is the first time since the creation of the commercial Internet when there are no plans announced to build more advanced networks.