Blogs

Sisyphus, you may recall from high school days, was sentenced to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down.

Section 202(h) of the 1996 Telecommunications Act gave the Federal Communications Commission the Sisyphean task of reviewing all of its broadcast ownership rules every two years (later extended to four) and determining whether each of them continue to be "necessary in the public interest."

At a May 20 House oversight hearing, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler emphatically defended the Commission’s latest open Internet proposal saying, “There is one Internet. Everybody ought to have open, equal access to the capacity delivered by the Internet."

Still No Time For Party Hats
The Net Neutrality Vote In The FCC Commissioners' Own Words

Commissioner Ajit Pai, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Michael O’Rielly

The Day Wheeler’s Open Internet Proposal Died

Just about everybody understands the Internet to be the most opportunity-creating tool of our time. The question now is opportunity for whom? Is the Net going to be the tool of the many that helps us all live better -- or will it be the playground of the privileged few that only widens the many divides that are creating a shamefully stratified and unequal America? Are we heading toward an online future with fast lanes for the 1% and slow lanes for the 99%?

Please don’t break the Internet before rural America gets it.

The Wall Street Journal reported the Federal Communications Commission will consider “new rules on Internet traffic that would allow broadband providers to charge companies a premium for access to their fastest lanes.”

In the library community, one of today’s highest profile, exciting national policy topics is modernization of the E-rate program. I know... it is hard to believe that the words “exciting” and "E-rate" can be in the same sentence. Well, it is true, and, as we shall see, it is with good reason.