I have created multiple web sites to help empower grassroots people to make their voice heard. If elected to City Council, I will make every effort to use the web to promote transparency in government. This year I started the Democracy for Washtenaw Show podcast to provide audio from candidate forums we at Democracy for America have been hosting at Pittsfield Township Hall. These have so far been moderated by former congresswoman Lyn Rivers.
On a national level I am very concerned about Network Neutrality. Read this May 2, 2006 NY Times Editorial. “Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everyone else.” Citizens can stop these monopolies by urging their government representatives to support Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. The Web has been used more and more to promote democratization and transparency in government. We should not let the large cable and telco monopolies take this away from us.
At a local level we face decisions about wireless access being made available in Washtenaw County. I would insure that City Council is kept informed as to how decisions would support citizen access and help the growth of small business vs. promoting the interests of large monopolies. Recently, monopoly interests tried to block the city of Philadelphia from providing open wireless access. Philadelphia was finally able to win, but the rest of Pennsylvannia is still being blocked by legislation promoted by large monopoly interests.
2 users commented in " The Internet and Politics "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI agree that network neutrality is a key issue, and that municipal wireless internet access is the best way to make the advantages of the internet available to all. Monopolies will always act to exercise political clout to preserve their financial interests and we will lose all sense of balance if Internet accessibility results in different information being available to different people, based on providers “editing” the information feed.
In Southwestern Michigan we are fed the same propaganda by the organized media every day. We have used the internet to uncover election fraud in Allegan County and ballots in Kalamazoo for the Secretary of State actually running 3.5 to 5.5% less than what the Diabold machines gave Terry Lynn Land. If we did not have the internet, or it was censored, people would not be finding this information about their supposed democracy. I am treasurer of the Michigan Election Reform Alliance which started in Pittsfield Township.
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