Joe Garofoli

The public has blistered the Federal Communications Commission with a record 780,000 responses to its proposal that Internet service providers no longer be required to treat all online traffic equally.

But does the onslaught -- more than the agency has received for any proposed rule change -- even matter to the five commissioners who are expected to consider it in late 2014?

"I can tell you that I didn't go read all 3 million of those messages, but I knew they were there," former Commissioner Michael Copps said, referring to a similar deluge that were sent to the FCC, Congress and elsewhere in Washington when the commission considered loosening media ownership rules a decade ago. "But did they make an impact? You bet they made an impact. There was no question about it."

Copps, who served on the commission from 2001 to 2011, has long been a fierce advocate for preserving net neutrality and an opponent of further media consolidation.

Silicon Valley's newest venture capitalist has social media experience - and a social justice background. Benjamin Jealous, the former NAACP president responsible for turning around the flagging civil rights institution, will join an Oakland venture capital firm dedicated to socially conscious investing.

His assignment as a venture partner with Kapor Capital and the Kapor Center for Social Impact: create a freeway to the tech world from poor communities of color where now there is little more than a trail. Only 6 percent of US tech workers are African American and 7 percent are Latino; 15 percent are Asian American and 71 percent are non-Hispanic white, according to 2011 census data.

Jealous, a former Alameda resident who revived the 105-year-old NAACP during his tenure that ended in December, is a lifelong activist with no tech or venture capital experience.