We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, August 20, 2010

Net-neutrality talks resume in DC without the FCC or Google

by Sara Jerome from The Hill. 

Private interests are circling the internet like vultures honing in on their prey. This does not bode well for open access to the internet for views that capitalists disagree with. If these corporations and their lobbyists succeed, the internet will be transformed into what radio and TV has become--information and cultural wastelands. 
Media Access Project, a net neutrality proponent, panned the development.

"These ‘negotiations’ are illegitimate. They do not involve representatives of people who use the Internet for free expression and commerce, and they lack representation from the infant businesses that depend on an open Internet to build the future Ciscos, Microsofts, and Skypes," said MAP senior vice president Andrew Jay Schwartzman.
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