Internet Protection Fight Starts in Washington -- Don't Just Sit There

[Commentary] The Obama Administration has been talking about an open Internet for months. Before that, the Obama campaign made it a centerpiece of a technology platform. Now, finally, the idea is getting some traction, and it's about time. Julius Genachowski, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has only been in office since June 29, and in that time he's mostly been busy choosing heads for the Commission bureaus and finding senior staff while sorting through the responsibilities Congress gave the Commission to come up with a broadband plan. So it's a great sign of things to come that one of the first actions of the Genachowski era that the Commission took of its own accord was to call some official attention to the fact that Apple was keeping Google's new Google Voice application off the shelves of the iPhone App Store. The fact that the Commission is making inquiries about the Apple exclusion should send the proper signal through the industry that a new day is starting to dawn, albeit slowly, at the FCC. Take advantage of the summer and spread the message. This is not simply about the Internet-activist Netroots. This is about students and businessmen and musicians and artists and writers and mechanics in small towns and urban centers, and everyone else who wants and need a free and open Internet. Now is the time to start speaking up.