Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

This session is about looking ahead.

Micah Sifry starts with advice for organizers: Find the connectors among all those speaking. Go to the watering holes where people already are rather than expecting them to come to you. Online social networks that are tuned to work on politics may be the next big thing.

Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org warns that darkness may be over the horizon. There is a threat to our medium: We need to preserve Net neutrality, the lack of gatekeepers and the low barrier to entry. The threat is that cable companies and ISPs are trying to change the fundamental rules of the Internet. This should be an issue of personal concern to everyone at this conference. "Intellligence at the edge rather than control in the center is the fundamental design principle of the Internet," said Vint Cerf, Eli says. There are two reasons for hope, he says: 1. Google and Amazon et al. are in a clash of the titans against AOL/Time-Warner, etc., so intervention can be effective. 2. This is an issue that people across partisan lines can agree on. He recommends NetFreedomNow.com

Valdis Krebs asks how you build networks. Not as part of a campaign effort once every two or four years, he answers. People make real connections by working together on some project. Influence is local; that's where decisions are made.

Q: What about "GoodMail" from AOL
A: MoveOn has been concerned about this for the same reasons we worry about Net neutrality. "As soon as you move email into a tiered system in which there is commercially certified mail and then everyone else..." When MoveOn first started, it wouldn't have the funds to deliver the mail. AOL's white list stops all bulk mailers, so either AOL will continue to invest large amounts of money on its white list or they can say that it's GoodMail's problem. We think they'll do the latter, which will mean if you're a small or mid-sized entity that sends email, you're going to have to pay that fee. Tiered email poses all the same problems as a tiered Internet would.

Micah talks about some tech for building genuinely local networks. All the panelists agree that the strong networks aren't formed for politics but have other interests and centers. Micah, however, thinks that America is a relatively non-political culture. But laterally-connected online groups are changing this because people believe their ideas and contributions matter; by being connected to others, people don't feel so powerless.