Statement from Media Action Grassroots Network MAG–Net.org
Oakland, California — A recent article in the Wall Street Journal revealed that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering a legally dubious “hybrid” approach to new open Internet rules that would allow some forms of discrimination. Communities of color and low-income families are among the more than 3.7 million people in the United States that have urged the FCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier, and enforce Title II rules that prevent online censorship and discrimination.
Tracy Rosenberg, Director of MAG–Net Member Media Alliance in Oakland, CA, said, “The courts have already thrown back awkward compromises twice. The third time won’t be the charm. Full reclassification with forbearance is the only proven road to level the playing field on the Internet our communities need”. Continue reading All We Want Is Equal Representation Online→
Oakland-Members of Media Alliance, PUEBLO, First Voice Media Action, Mujeres Unidas Y Activas and others are meeting with Representative Barbara Lee’s office today at 11:00am to urge her to demand that any net neutrality orders presented to the Federal Communications Commission for a vote next week provide the same consumer protections to users of wireless and mobile broadband services.Continue reading Local Organizations Advocating for Real Net Neutrality→
The digital television transition, completed successfully by the United States on June 12, 2009, is generating a large flow of electronic waste as consumers continue to upgrade their televisions. We all want to recycle responsibly, but how? Continue reading DTV Help Centers Team Up To Deal With E-Waste→
Update: Farrell’s ordinance passed the committee unanimously!
A new ordinance before SF’s Supervisors requires SF landlords to provide a choice of telecom providers to tenants.
The ordininance, which is sponsored by Supervisor Farrell, requires San Francisco property owners to allow tenants to receive services from the Internet or cable provider of their choice and prevents landlords from declaring their properties exclusive for particular carriers. Continue reading Choice for SF Apartment-Dwellers→
On this edition, excerpts from “Race, Immigration and the Fight for an Open Internet,” a panel discussion presented by the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism and New America Media. The topic? Net neutrality. What is it? Who will it impact most? And why should we care?
Just because technology is in place doesn’t necessarily mean people will find value in it,” states Dr. Faye McNair-Knox, executive director of One East Palo Alto—an organizational member of the East Palo Alto Digital Village Program. “Working alongside groups who provide essential services to local residents has helped us to partner with individuals who have not participated to become familiar with the technology and develop their own value for it. You really have to build that whole base of value within a community for people to access technology.” Continue reading Digital Infrastructure: By the Community, For the Community by Eloise Lee→
Lisa Gray-Garcia aka Tiny, poet, poverty scholar, revolutionary journalist and lecturer is the founder and executive director of POOR Magazine/ PoorNewsNetwork (PNN), the author of Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America. Printed courtesy of the author and PNN (Poor News Network).
The walls of the conference hall auditorium were white and tall and engulfed the humans who sat in rapt attendance. I sat quietly, in panel after panel, afraid to move or make too much noise as tech-embedded words like, White space, Bit Torrent, Net Neutrality and Blogosphere floated past my ears. They bounced off the walls and knocked up against my head like thick steel rods, knocking my fingers off their tenuous hold onto the edges of the digital ravine, which seemed to grow sharper and taller with each obtuse reference to a technology I had never had the time, privilege or the access to learn in all of my 38 years of poverty and homelessness. Continue reading The Low-Access People: Tiny Grey-Garcia’s Notes on the NCMR→
