Upcoming event

What California's groundbreaking open middle mile initiative means for libraries and states everywhere.

Guiding principles as a framework for middle-mile implementation:

• Provide affordable, open-access, middle-mile broadband infrastructure to enable last-mile network connectivity throughout the state.

• Build the network expeditiously, leveraging existing infrastructure, networks, and construction projects, where feasible.

• Prioritize connectivity to unserved and underserved communities, including community institutions.

A new paper -- “USForward” -- highlights the need for Universal Service Fund contribution reform, analyzes options for doing so, and provides recommendations on how best to reform this essential support mechanism. Carol Mattey of Mattey Consulting, who authored the report, will also be joining the briefing.

Participants include: 

A bimonthly series of live conversations between ALA President Patty Wong and library practitioners who are keeping their communities connected with high-speed broadband, technology and digital skills training. 

For the fourth webinar in the series, join us for a discussion on how platform research to address mis/disinformation should be approached through a race-based lens, new platform research solutions and methods being pioneered and utilized by researchers of color, the unique challenges researches of color face, and how philanthropy can better support and empower Black and Brown tech platform researchers to carry out their work.

Speakers:

Safiya Umoja Noble, Co-Founder and Co-Director, UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry

The worlds of Washington and Silicon Valley have been colliding for the past several years and the intersection of tech, innovation, regulation and politics have reached a tipping point.

The Biden administration recently released an executive order on competition policy. Underlying this order are rapidly evolving views on antitrust policy and the role of the federal government in attempting to ensure competition in various markets. An independent agency—the Federal Trade Commission—is, perhaps paradoxically, at the center of this order. The FTC has also recently made its own moves, rescinding bipartisan policy agreements and issuing new guidance for companies merging under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.

The IP3 Awards is a special occasion to honor those who have made significant contributions in the three areas of IP: Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol. This year will be the 18th year Public Knowledge has held the awards, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you. PK will be holding this year’s event virtually, but will be using an interactive platform to give it an “in-person” feel! We will also be collecting your home address in your registration in order to send you a Gift Bag for the event.

Digital inequity continues to perpetuate intergenerational poverty among poor communities of color by disenfranchising them, limiting their access to health care and education, and stifling economic opportunity and growth. Black and Latino students are 30% to 40% more likely to have limited access to the internet, while 68% of Americans living on rural tribal lands don’t have access to broadband.
 The program will feature extraordinary digital equity leaders who will explore the intersectionality of the digital divide and the racism entrenched in this issue.

Speakers:

Topics selected for FCC open meeting agendas will be posted on the Commission's website approximately three weeks prior to the Commission's next monthly meeting. The Commission will also issue a public notice of the "Commission Meeting Agenda" one week before the meeting and announce at that time the items that are scheduled for the agenda.