The Sunlight Foundation has posted some cool visualizations of how Congress has dispersed the pinata of giveaways called “earmarks.”

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The Bush administration has approved revising Reagan’s presidential order 12333, instituted in 1981 to curb the abuses of civil liberties by the intelligence agencies. A friend of mine who used to be in one of those agencies says that he has never bought into the current concerns about intelligence agencies because he knew 12333 was part of the agencies’ DNA. Now, this conservative Republican (although he’s harder to categorize than that) says he’s concerned. [Tags: civil_liberties homeland_security bush 1233 reagan politics]

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Here’s the audio of my closing comments at the Internet & Society Conference last week, the theme of which was open access. In it, I say that the Web is revealing knowledge to us as it has always been, and urge that we not be too realistic as we address the Web’s potential. I also pay homage to Charlie Nesson ‘s vision of the university leading the fight to keep the Internet open and free. My comments were freeform, composed just a few minutes before the talk (because I was supposed to be responding to the day), and very informal. The audio is 20 minutes long. [Tags: is2k7 berkman charlie_nesson knoweldge open_access]

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Moira Gunn interviewed me for TechNation about Everything is Miscellaneous. We talk about the three orders of order, “meta-business,” Wikipedia as a guide to what humans are interested in, and the Internet and politics. Here’s the excerpt. [Tags: moira_gunn wikipedia politics business everything_is_miscellaneous ]

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I’m really excited about this, so pardon me if I run the press release from the Edwards campaign:

EDWARDS CALLS ON FCC TO MAKE INTERNET MORE AVAILABLE AND AFFORDABLE

Mountain View, California – Today, Senator John Edwards sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to use the upcoming auction of the 700 megahertz slice of the broadband spectrum to make the Internet more affordable and more accessible to all Americans, regardless of where they live or how much money they have. Edwards is visiting California today to attend a town hall meeting with Google employees where he will discuss this issue among others.

“In recent years, the Internet has grown to touch everything and transform much of what it touches,” wrote Edwards. “It’s not the answer to everything, but it can powerfully accelerate the best of America. It improves our democracy by making quiet voices loud, improves our economy by making small markets big, and improves opportunity by making unlikely dreams possible.”

Edwards called on the FCC to set bidding and service rules for the upcoming auction to ensure that the public airwaves benefit everyone, not just big companies. Edwards asked the FCC to:

· Set aside as much as half of the spectrum for wholesalers who can lease access to smaller start-ups, which would improve service in rural and underserved areas.

· Require anyone who wins rights to this valuable public resource not to discriminate among data and services and to allow any device to be attached to their service.

· Make bidding anonymous to avoid collusion and retaliatory bids.

The full text of the letter is below.

Dear Chairman Martin:

The upcoming 700 megahertz spectrum auction presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the next generation of American technology.

In recent years, the Internet has grown to touch everything and transform much of what it touches. It’s not the answer to everything, but it can powerfully accelerate the best of America. It improves our democracy by making quiet voices loud, improves our economy by making small markets big, and improves opportunity by making unlikely dreams possible.

As you know, the Federal Communications Commission is now preparing to auction the 700 megahertz slice of the spectrum. This “beachfront” band is particularly well suited to wireless broadband because it has wide coverage and can easily pass through walls.

By setting bid and service rules that unleash the potential of smaller new entrants, you can transform information opportunity for people across America — rural and urban, wealthy and not. As much as half of the spectrum should be set aside for wholesalers who can lease access to smaller start-ups, which has the potential to improve service to rural and underserved areas. Additionally, anyone winning rights to this valuable public resource should be required not to discriminate among data and services and to allow any device to be attached to their service. Finally, bidding should be anonymous to avoid collusion and retaliatory bids.

I urge you to seize this chance to transform the Internet and the future.

Sincerely,

John Edwards

The 700 megahertz slice is coming available because analog TV is being moved off of it. The incumbent carriers would like to scarf it up. But even with a requirement that the winners of the auction build the network out to rural and poor areas, the carriers have shown they will drag their feet forever. In fact, the FCC’s use-it-or-lose-it proposal could (as far as I understand it, and I may not) delay delivery to those areas as they are stripped from the carriers and then re-auctioned. We need to get this right the first time. Our best hope, imo, is to enable local businesses to make decent profits by providing Net access to their local rural and poor areas. And to do that, we should make big hunks of 700 mH spectrum available to wholesalers who provide spectrum to hungry smaller carriers. (See the Frontline plan.)

This band is not the final answer. But it’s an opportunity to get some more of the public airwaves working for the public good.

(Disclosure: I am a volunteer advisor to the Edwards campaign. I was involved in the discussions of this issue.) [Tags: john_edwards spectrum net_neutrality fcc internet ]

Here’s Harold Feld’s take. Harold knows this stuff inside out.

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Ethan has yet another great post, this one on using Twitter.com and even e-cards as tools of political organization. [Tags: ethan_zuckerman twitter politics]

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The next in the Miscellaneous Podcast interview series is up at Wired.com. I talk with Markos Moulitsas Zúniga — you know him as Kos of DailyKos, of course/. How does the site manage to be both mass and intimate? And does the structure that allows that imply a politics?

(The series is sponsored by Wired and the Berkman Center.) [Tags: markos kos dailykos politics wired berkman everything_is_miscellaneous]

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Loic Le Meur has posted his thoughts about his involvement as an Internet advisor to the Sarkozy campaign. Very interesting.

Now, Loic writes, “I am back to business focusing on my next startup.” Too bad Sarkozy hasn’t snapped him up to advise him on Internet policy, because from what I saw of the new French president at Loic’s Le Web 3, we need someone to protect the Web from Sarkozy’s comfort with “Internet regulation.” The good news is that Sarkozy, like most politicians, seems genuinely not to understand the Net — his Le Web presentation said many good-sounding things, some of which contradicted others — which is an opportunity for someone like Loic to explain it to him…

[Tags: loic_le_meur loic sarkozy internet_regulation france]

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Ile Verte is holding a get-together for French and other bloggers. “Second Lifers will also be able to put questions to the guests,” says the email I received.

It begins at 11:40AM PDT (= 2:40pm EDT). [Tags: secondlife politics france]

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While it seems 9% of the Web* is deciding whether or not to publish the now-ineffective (except for disks already published) HD DVD key (with Wikipedia facing an interesting question), John Edwards has stopped using the phrase “global war on terror” because it frames the task improperly. Good for him. There are other ways to fight than through “war,” and the war framing throws off our focus, thus putting us at greater risk. Imo. I believe that every Democratic candidate will make us safer from terrorism than this administration has, because they’ll address our true vulnerabilities and will work towards making the world less hospitable to the growth and maintenance of terrorist organizations. (Edwards is criticized in the story at RawSugar because until recently he did use the phrase, or ones like it. So, he’s learning. OTOH, I am a volunteer to the campaign, so I am biased.)

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