[DDN] [Fwd: [cc-mediareform] Coming this Tuesday: Help craft a national broadband strategy]

[Chuck Sherwood]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[cc-mediareform] Coming this Tuesday: Help craft a national 
broadband strategy
Date: 	Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:28:35 -0400
From: 	Russell Newman <russellnewman at alum.mit.edu>
To: 	cc-mediareform at list.commoncause.org



Greetings! 

Russ Newman here; many of you knew me while I was at Free Press. While 
I'm at USC Annenberg now, since early-mid June I've been in Senator 
Richard Durbin's office as a Fellow. I wanted to give you a heads-up on 
an exciting initiative that will commence this week. It's short notice, 
and for that I apologize, but as I've come to learn this summer, much 
doesn't get planned around here more than a day in advance, despite best 
efforts otherwise...

Starting Tuesday evening at OpenLeft.com, the Senator and his staff will 
blog nightly on a broad swath of broadband policy issues. Each evening 
will be kicked off with discussion from individuals who have worked a 
long time in various realms, but the intent is to spur broader comment 
from as many people as possible. Based on the discussions which occur, 
in early August this office plans to release a bill online and seek 
further comment. The intent is to fashion a bill collaboratively and to 
drop it when the Senate returns from recess. 

I've attached the letter announcing the initiative. Please feel free to 
share it with those you think might be interested in taking part. We're 
going to be culling through discussions which result long after the 
evening kickoffs are done and scanning the blogosphere to see where 
these topics get picked up, if they do. Given that legislation is going 
to be suggested based on this, it's a terrific opportunity for folks to 
contribute, to bring new constituencies in, and to prove that many are 
paying attention and care deeply about these issues.

I think it's going to be a fascinating experience. I'll hope you'll join 
us and participate and encourage others to do so. Feel free to contact 
Matt Stoller (stoller at gmail.com <mailto:stoller at gmail.com>) or myself 
with any questions. Specifics of each evening are listed below.

All the best,

Russ
-----

Day 1, Tuesday July 24, will feature a live-blog with the Senator where 
we'll be looking to lay out the big picture: how should we think about 
broadband policy? How should we be looking at it differently? What 
should the key principles for a national broadband strategy be? It's a 
big-picture night and an opportunity for folks to say what they're 
concerned about, as well as how they think the Internet (and broadband 
overall) should operate in the future. 

Day 2, Wednesday July 25, will focus on net neutrality and other 'how 
the Web works' issues, but indeed, net neutrality will take center 
stage. I'm hoping we find new frames, new insights, and new directions 
for this debate.

Day 3, Thursday, July 26, is going to be about municipal infrastructure 
with an emphasis on the use of the public airwaves to provide broadband. 
We'll talk iPhone politics, spectrum auctions, and discuss models for 
municipal broadband and their implications.

Day 4, Friday, July 27, is going to be more about practicalities in 
regards to the provision of infrastructure itself: public/private 
partnerships, projects like UTOPIA and Fiber for the Future, Connect 
Kentucky, and USF/USDA reform. 

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