Over the past few weeks, various members of teh online liberal/progressive community, that included quite a few Kossaks, worked together in a democratic fashion to create the Netroots Platform  

For those of you who have just joined us, check out Democracylover in NYC's mothership diary entry, to get the whole picture.  For the Netroots Science & Technology Plank, we had 19 Contributors, and 11 different versions.  Join me over the fold to read the final version

Over at TPMCafe, Art Brodsky (communications director for Public Knowledge, a D.C. group that works on intellectual property and telecom issues) tells us that FCC chair Kevin Martin has telegraphed his impending decision to reject the appeal by Skype which would allow any device to be connected to a wireless network.

Instead, innovators will need to cut deals with companies like Verizon and Sprint before they can develop new services.  This is criminal.

Class divisions on the American version of the internet just got another tier.

Although it was first noticed for the 25th, the FCC announcement is firm for the 26th.

There's no indication in the tags that this has been diaried.  But, even if it has, since most people seem to need at least three exposures to a piece of information before it even registers, here's another reminder that the FCC is open to public input on the matter of internet accessibility.

According to a message sent out by the Boston Second Life Meetup Group:

Broadband access to the internet is yet another sector of American infrastructure that has languished due to short sighted Republican economic policies.  According to a report from Educause, an association comprised of IT managers from over 2,000 universities, access to the internet in the United States is both slow and expensive when compared to the rest of the developed world.  These IT managers believe that we need to have at least 100 megabit service to every household in the country if we are to be competitive in the global economy.

This afternoon I got an e-mail request from Care2 - 'the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference' - to 'take sixty seconds and test your high speed internet IQ.'

Thinking I knew something about this - I've only been ranting for decades, seems like, that Appalachia was woefully under-served when it came to internet access and accessibility - I clicked on the link and took the quiz.  Follow me to find out how dumb I was. (And please note the 'meta'-tag because there's a lesson here about Daily Kos and the Democratic Party's reliance on the internet.)

Just a week ago, I wrote about the upcoming broadcast spectrum auction and how using the 700 MHz spectrum could provide universal broadband access for those who either can't afford Cable or DSL or fiber, or who live in parts of the country that cannot access broadband due to under-investment by the cable and telecom companies. Now, Kerry has come out in favor of fair FCC auction rules, and argues that everyone should be able to get broadband

As mcjoan noted earlier, the FCC's comment period regarding auction of the 700 MHz band of the broadcast spectrum ends today. You can send in your comment via Save The Internet.

Why is this issue so important? Because this broadcast spectrum could be used to provide universal and affordable internet access. If the the same part of the spectrum that has been utilized to give you free network TV is used to provide broadband, then no longer will fast internet access be the province of those who can afford it or are lucky to be in the right location of the country.

The impetus for this week's Demographic Tuesdays came from a comment in my Memorial Day diary Songs for Memorial Day - I Ain't Marching Anymore which had 13 YouTube embeds in the diary and more quickly accumulating in the comments. Although everybody loved the diary (lol), some pointed out that they would need to look at it later, or couldn't properly open it at all, due to their slow dial-up access.

Dial-up? For Kossacks in 2007? Who knew? (LOL)

So the demographic question this week is:

• What kind of Internet connetion do you have at home?

As always, this poll will work best if it stays up in the Recommend Diary list into the evening west coast time to allow maximum, equivalent voting by all regions.

Here is a flash back to last year and leveymg Diary
But the time is now.  The NSA has total access outsourced to third parties(private corporations).

http://blog.wired.com/...

May 14th is the official deadline for cable modem companies, DSL providers, broadband over powerline, satellite internet companies and some universities to finish wiring up their networks with FBI-friendly surveillance gear, to comply with the FCC's expanded interpretation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

Have you heard of this before?
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)

CALEA Compliance for Packet Equipment, And Equipment for Facilities-Based Broadband Internet Access Providers and Providers of Interconnected VoIP

All facilities-based broadband Internet access providers and providers of interconnected VoIP service have until May 14, 2007 to come into compliance with CALEA.

(x-posted at D-Day)

There are these two big scandals looming that are affecting people right now, and they cannot be twisted as political, they cannot be explained away by blaming Democrats or Bill Clinton or whatever trick the executive branch wants to use.  They are the pet food scandal (I should say human food too at this point) and the student loan industry scam, which was well-known to this government for six years and yet they did nothing to stop it, allowing predatory lenders to buy their way into university's favor and limit choices for consumers.  These aren't political scandals; they're simply the obvious outgrowth of an ideology that views the mechanisms of government with contempt, and perceives power as a way to make money for cronies and friends.

Cross-posted at Eclectic Lite.

It looks like some in the Network business just aren't going to give up to network neutrality without at fight. Check this out.

Comcast is shutting off user's broadband service for one year due to excessive bandwidth usage. According to the PhysOrg.com article:

Carreiro said he received a message from a Comcast Security Assurance representative in December, who warned him that he was hogging too much of the company's bandwidth and needed to cut down. When Carreiro contacted customer service about the call, they had no idea what he was talking about and suggested it was a prank phone call. Unconvinced, Carreiro contacted Comcast several more times, but was again told there was no problem.

A month later, he woke up to a dead Internet connection. Customer service directed him to the Security Assurance division, which Carreiro said informed him he would now be without service for one year.

Carreiro has switched to Qwest's DSL service with no further problems.

ATT offers slow, low-priced stand-alone DSL pitched as affordable, but in reality would serve to deprive poorer users of services high-speed users take for granted. This is about equality of access.

Welcome to the new ghetto. The streets are cluttered, and the residents can't afford access to the services they need to compete. The utilities companies keep pushing for higher profits while leaving 'lower tier' folks behind. They are losing the information war. It's about access; this is a [small d] democratic struggle and it's important. The Congress must act to prevent further balkanization of the internet for it to remain a useful social and commercial tool.

On an isolated and warm breeze-swept peninsula on the east coast of Brazil, Indians and the descendants of slaves have waited decades for electricity and telephones.  Now, by the graces of the Lula Government, electricity will be arriving this December or so.  Low capacity telephone lines may arrive soon afterward.  But there have been no promises that broadband Internet will arrive, so humble residents are taking matters into their own hands, with the help of an ex-patriot lawyer from the United States, by starting the Brazilian Peninsula Project.   DailyKos readers have donated enough money through PayPal to pay for the first month of Internet access fees.

And in an extraordinary measure of the reach and influence of DailyKos, the single largest donor is a white woman surrounded by Republicans in a small town in the Deep South of the United States, a woman who is not even a member of DailyKos and does not post or comment, and yet she reads DK is moved to action.

Here is a simple solution to the Net Neutrality problem. Call the telecoms' bluff.

Their entire argument in favor fo scrapping Net Neutrality, is that if that doesn't occur, the telecoms won't have an adequate financial incentive to keep building up the high speed internet network.

What we see in this case is an agency attempting to squeeze authority from a statute that does not give it. The FCC's interpretation completely nullifies the information services exception and manufactures broad new powers out of thin air.

That's Harry T. Edwards, the lone dissenting judge in yesterday's DC Appeals Court decision that upheld the Federal Communication Commission's go-ahead to Internet wiretapping, despite the overwhelming opposition of civil liberties groups, trade groups, and educators. The FCC's logic was complicated, so complicated that Edwards called it "gobbledygook." But the Commission's lawyers managed to convince a majority of the court that the Communications Assistance Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) applies to ISPs and VOiPs. Story here. Law enforcement background story here.

I admire all the work and passion that has gone into arguing for net neutrality. As a long time 'net user myself (I first signed on to ARPANet in '87) it warms the cockles of my heart to see that people still get it. But I have an idea to really drive the point home.

Many people have pointed out that with high bandwidth on sale, the 'free' internet is going to slow down to modem speeds. So, fine. If the law passes, let's go back to modems.

A little-reported story of a scrappy public servant Greg Meffert, Deputy Mayor of NoLa pitted against big monopoly BellSouth hit the MSM today.

USATODAY reports:

More than half of New Orleans still doesn't have phone or Internet access. But that isn't stopping BellSouth from campaigning to shut down a free Wi-Fi service that has become a lifeline for thousands of residents, the city's top technology officer says.

Without this network about half of NoLa would still be in the stone-age communications-wise today. BellSouth has not finished restoring phone service to NOLA let alone internet access.

six months after Katrina, the lack of phone service in many areas is proving to be an obstacle that is difficult and expensive to overcome. The lack of service is hampering some business owners trying to restart operations, forcing them to find alternatives to their regular phone and Internet providers in order to send faxes, process credit cards or order supplies.