[FC-discuss] Your voice needed at FCC “net neutrality” workshop next week!

[FreeCulture.org - Students for Free Culture]

[![IMP][1]

ARPAnet Interface message processor (IMP), BBN, 1967][2]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering adopting
national rules to protect the open Internet. On January 13, the FCC is
hosting a public workshop at MIT that will include some of the founders
of the Internet alongside entrepreneurs, technologists, and policymakers
(see agenda and panelist bios below).

On one hand, the workshop is an opportunity for community members to
hear experts discuss the features of the Open Internet that are
important to preserve.

But much more crucially, this workshop is an opportunity to enter your
questions, thoughts, concerns, and suggestions into the public record.
The FCC will use this information in its decision-making process. _Your
contributions to this workshop will have have a significant impact on
the course of action that the FCC ultimately takes_.

Think about it: how does the Internet’s openness affects your ability to
work, study, create, and communicate? On what network features do you
rely? What have you done with it? What do you hope to do in the future?

There is no doubt that large corporations (like the newly-merged
Comcast/NBC Universal) have organized lobbyists to register their
interests. Free culture is not their priority.

Who will lobby on behalf of the student, the fan, the hacker, the gamer,
and the entrepreneur?

**The FCC needs to hear your voice.**

_Innovation, Investment, and the Open Internet_

  * January 13th, 2010

  * [4:30 pm EST][3]

  * [MIT Media Lab, Bartos Theater][4]

  * Streaming: [http://www.openinternet.gov/workshops][5]

  * Agenda/ bios:
[http://wiki.freeculture.org/FCC_Workshop_January_13][6]

If you are local to Boston, please come _in person_. If you can't make
it at 4:30, it is OK to come late. Simply showing up is a powerful
demonstration of the concern that exists among everyday internet users.

   [1]:
http://bnrg.eecs.berkeley.edu/~randy/Courses/CS39C.S97/gifs/imp.jpg

   [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_Message_Processor

   [3]: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=1&day
=13&year=2010&hour=16&min=30&sec=0&p1=43

   [4]: http://www.mit.edu/~cousot/MintaMartinLecture/directions.html

   [5]: http://www.openinternet.gov/workshops

   [6]: http://wiki.freeculture.org/FCC_Workshop_January_13

URL: http://freeculture.org/blog/2010/01/11/your-voice-needed-at-fcc-net-neutrality-workshop-next-week/