[And a response at the end from our very own Lizard. --DBM] ******** Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 13:24:43 -0400 To: declanat_private From: Jeff Chester <jeffat_private> Subject: another do-gooder event You may want to let your list know about. Best and thanks The Future of Noncommercial Broadband Communications at Risk Preserving the Internet's Openness, Freedom, and Diversity Speakers include Rep. Ed Markey, FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, Dave Farber, Lawrence Lessig, other experts Dear Colleague: The Center for Digital Democracy and the Center for Media Education cordially invites you to participate in a conference on the future of the Internet in the broadband era on Wednesday, 9 May 2001, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC). The Net is at an important crossroads, and we may soon lose meaningful access to this new medium. Such a development will negatively impact our civil liberties, limit diversity of information and ownership, harm our ability to inform and advocate online, and restrict competition. The public interest broadband conference will describe how the media industry giants are restructuring the digital media system, fashioning a system that extends their control over the media beyond television to the Internet. Instead of an open network, media conglomerates are spending billions to create what they call "walled gardens," but which are really new forms of electronic enclosures designed to ensure that they will continue to dominate the media system. Unless they act soon, nonprofit organizations will find it difficult to operate in an online environment that favors big business over small, e-commerce over e-democracy, and public relations over public service. That's why it's important to begin exploring new means of collective action in the online world, new ways of preserving space for noncommercial, public-interest programming, and for directing traffic to the sources of information and interactivity that will prove vital to our society in the twenty-first century. Additional speakers will include: Dr. Patricia Aufderheide, American University, Timothy Denton, attorney, Canadian Association of Internet Providers, Stewart Harris, Public Webworks, Stephen Heins, Northnet, and Barry Steinheart, ACLU. Please join us in discussing these important issues, and in exploring further collaboration in the broadband era: 9 May 2001 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington D.C. 20036-2103 RSVP: 202-232-2872 Agoldmanat_private Seating is limited. Lunch will be provided The conference is made possible through the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain, the Albert A. List Foundation, and the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation. ********* Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 10:41:59 -0700 From: lizard <lizardat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> >The Future of Noncommercial Broadband Communications at Risk > >Preserving the Internet's Openness, Freedom, and Diversity > > Speakers include Rep. Ed Markey, FTC Commissioner Mozelle > Thompson, Dave Farber, Lawrence Lessig, other experts > >Dear Colleague: > >The Center for Digital Democracy and the Center for Media Education >cordially invites you to participate in a conference on the future of the >Internet in the broadband era on Wednesday, 9 May 2001, at the Carnegie >Endowment for International Peace (1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC). <deletia> Since cyberspace is infinite -- add another hard disk, and you 'create space', whence cometh the need to 'preserve space'? Rather, it seems, the folks behind this want to preserve their OWN 'walled gardens' -- the internet equivalents of PBS and NPR, which exist to serve the elite but which are funded by the masses. I assure you, the 'public spaces' they desire to build will not contain TRULY non-mainstream content. They will not host the Nuremberg Files, NAMBLA, Stormfront, Bonsaikittens, or the like. They will host the mainstream non-mainstream, the sort of stuff acceptable to academics, rich liberals, and corporate donors. I challenge any of those speaking at this conference to say, directly, "We wish to use public tax dollars to guarantee that Nazis and NAMBLA will always have web space." Do any of them dare do this? I doubt it. cc'ed to Mr/Ms Goldman. ********* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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