Net Neutrality
Internet content should be unrestricted at the ISP level.
Browse Ideas with tag 'internet':
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Legal & Policy Challenges »6 comments for Idea: Net Neutrality -
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-19 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Build a fiber optic cable from Eureka, California to The Dalles, Oregon.
Currently there is one fiber optic cable connecting Eureka to the Internet. When that is accidentally cut, business stops. No credit or debit card sales, no automatic inventory re-ordering. The cable fails about once a year. If we connected to the data centers in The Dalles we could continue to be in business. The telecom companies have already designed the system but are waiting for a "big player" to sign on to finance ...more »
7 comments for Idea: Build a fiber optic cable from Eureka, California to The Dalles, Oregon.Currently there is one fiber optic cable connecting Eureka to the Internet. When that is accidentally cut, business stops. No credit or debit card sales, no automatic inventory re-ordering. The cable fails about once a year. If we connected to the data centers in The Dalles we could continue to be in business. The telecom companies have already designed the system but are waiting for a "big player" to sign on to finance the construction. This is a "shovel ready" construction project that would employ Americans.
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12 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.New Tools and Technologies »Rewire the US communications system
2 comments for Idea: Rewire the US communications systemUse stimulus money to rewire the US for 'the Grid' (the new internet created by CERN) to upgrade our communication and commerce network and, again, create jobs. It is over 10,000 times faster than the web and eliminates many of the limitations of e-commerce today. Low-overhead, grassroots commerce is a bright future for business and consumers.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.New Tools and Technologies »Internet Fraud
Unplug from the internet, countries and internet providers who have a large amount of fraud, or computer viruses. At a minimum start with Nigeria and Ghanda. Require the countries/companies to demonstrate an ability and willingness to actively prosecute internet fraud. Since this would cut off internet access to legitimate businesses, you can certify legitimate businesses individually and turn them back on, either ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Internet FraudUnplug from the internet, countries and internet providers who have a large amount of fraud, or computer viruses.
At a minimum start with Nigeria and Ghanda. Require the countries/companies to demonstrate an ability and willingness to actively prosecute internet fraud.
Since this would cut off internet access to legitimate businesses, you can certify legitimate businesses individually and turn them back on, either before or after the sanctions go into effect.
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9 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.New Tools and Technologies »Make Wise Decisions Quickly
In order to be wise, a decision has to include the stakeholders in its outcome, combine expertise with local knowledge and be a synthesis of the inputs. This is really hard to swallow. Trial by combat is as embedded in human cultures and institutions as the struggle between our super-ego and id are embedded in our psyches. In a tense situation, seriously entertaining the other guy’s point of view, much less incorporating ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Make Wise Decisions QuicklyIn order to be wise, a decision has to include the stakeholders in its outcome, combine expertise with local knowledge and be a synthesis of the inputs. This is really hard to swallow. Trial by combat is as embedded in human cultures and institutions as the struggle between our super-ego and id are embedded in our psyches. In a tense situation, seriously entertaining the other guy’s point of view, much less incorporating it, just doesn’t feel safe.Fortunately we can break through the Not Invented Here barrier with a combination of process and technology.
After the election of Barack Obama, the organization Change.Org decided to identify the ten most important actions that the Obama administration should pursue during its first term.
To accomplish this, they invited people to visit their web site, contribute suggestions and then vote up or down on all the submissions. Over half a million people participated. Predictably, this lowest common denominator process concluded that the most important action for Obama to pursue as President was the legalization of marijuana. Up and down voting more often promotes institutionalized stupidity than genuine synthesis.
Had the Change.Org innocents done nothing more than replace the up-down vote with a simple ranking for each suggestion, they would have promoted some synthesis. Here is how this works.
Imagine that you are a town manager. A tornado alert is sounded followed by a massive storm. You need to know how to respond. All of the town’s employees have GPS enabled phones and you have the infrastructure to poll all phones simultaneously. You send out a message, “Is there storm damage in your immediate vicinity, yes or no.” The answers from the phones are displayed on a map on your laptop as red (yes) or green (no) dots representing the situation at the location of each phone. What you see in response to your question is red dots all over the map. This tells you what you already anticipated. There was a big storm and there is widespread damage.
Change this scenario a little. This time your message reads, “Look around you and rank the severity of damage that you see in your immediate vicinity from 1 to 5.” Now your computer screen fills with color coded dots ranging from blue, green, yellow, orange to red. You see a corridor of red dots crossing the north side of town. In a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds, you have assessed the situation and are able to triage and direct emergency services to where they are needed.
This is an example of collective intelligence. The observers understood their immediate situations. You did not painstakingly collect raw data person by person and analyze it. Data was evaluated at the source and self organized more or less instantly on your computer screen.
In the Change.Org situation, even if legalizing marijuana made the top ten, it would almost certainly not have been ranked number one. As embarrassed as they were, to their credit, Change.Org did not try to bury the result. Instead they listed the ten winners, “in no particular order.”
The most disheartening aspect of the Change.Org case is that this author among others, sent scores of emails warning Change.Org about what was likely to happen. Then, a few months later, the Obama administration undertook an almost identical exercise called The Citizen’s Briefing Book via the www.whitehouse.gov web site. The same mob decision approach, the one so passionately despised by Franklin, Madison and Jefferson when they argued for making the United States a republic rather than a direct democracy, was used with the same predictable results.
This illustrates how easy it is to make poor decisions when there is little or no understanding of the architectures of participation. There is nothing inherently obvious in the process of promoting collective intelligence, other than that thorough communication and trust are essential precursors. Neither the mob approach nor the parochial elite approach work. The elite approach fails because its exclusivity creates “wicked” fairies. The mob approach fails because there is no qualitative appraisal of information.
If the global environmental crisis is as serious as most of us believe, our objective must be to produce highest common denominator decisions that do not end up creating more problems than they solve. In the history of our species, we have never more desperately needed the synthesis of originality, agility and sustainability.
In spite of this, I seriously doubt that any of us entertain any illusions that fundamental change will start from inside our formal institutions. The real work of creating a sustainable future will have to be done in a different venue. Fortunately, the most powerful mechanism for positive change on the planet is wide open and that is where this transformation has already begun.
I first experienced the Web in its infancy in the late 1970s. As far as I knew then, it was just people using computer terminals to communicate cross country. But when you set your telephone handset into a thingy with two rubber suction cups, you instantly had access to relevant information within a trust-base social system called the worldwide scientific community. As such win-win systems tend to, it grew at an astronomical rate.
From its beginning, people used it to promote change; not just garden variety innovation, but real structural transformation. There is nothing new about encyclopedias or socializing, but social networking sites and the Wikipedia are dramatically more powerful structures for disseminating usable information and promoting social cohesion than the structures that preceded them.
Mostly, the Net’s evolution has been stigmergic, like termites constructing a twenty foot tall insect arcology by leaving tiny mud balls at the end of scent trails laid down by anonymous siblings. While spontaneous, indirect coordination among people pursuing their individual passions has improved the usefulness of the Net, we are not likely that way to fully tap its potential as a medium for mobilizing our collective intelligence.
The public policy side of the Internet is an example of the difference between what is and what could be. Moveon.org has been one of the earliest pioneers in using the Net to influence political policy. Despite being a relatively populist organization, it uses the big media few-to-many model. It substitutes progressive political activists for capitalists while contributors fill the role of advertisers. The activists, using intuition and ideology, decide which policies to promote. To the contributors they sell productions designed to support topical political positions; typically letter campaigns or ads.
During its emergence, Moveon.org did several many-to-few experiments apparently looking for a way to engage public participation in developing its policy agenda. All of these attempts were based on a vote up or down model and produced disappointing results. The organization seems to have settled for having the contributors prioritize set piece lists of issues provided by the leadership.
Moveon.org and similar Net based proselytizers provide a welcome leavening agent in the political system, but there is little synthesis and thus little engagement of a larger collective intelligence.
While Moveon.org is representative of the typical missed opportunity to use the Net to promote collective intelligence, there are successes. Everyone is well aware of the Wikipedia. It is fashionable to complain about inaccuracies in the articles but research indicates that they are as accurate as most encyclopedias. More important, inaccuracies are typically corrected in the space of hours rather than months. Wikipedia has even been a superior source for information on breaking news as it was in the shootings at Virginia Tech. Students were updating and correcting the entry as events unfolded.
Wikis have shined in catalyzing focused stigmergic behavior in emergencies. A Wiki blossomed overnight to provide support for victims of hurricane Katrina—part of the Wiki was devoted to re-uniting dispersed families. A Wiki spontaneously emerged in advance of hurricane Ike. It helped people at risk track the storm and prepare for it.
The United States Patent Office has discovered another use for many to one process. The search for prior art is a particularly time consuming and therefore costly aspect of securing a patent. The patent office has now made it possible for interested citizens to do the searches themselves and alert the patent office to potential examples. This dramatically shortens search time and cost. Many hands make light work.
In another example of mobilizing collective intelligence on the web, researchers at the University of Washington posted an online game to help them explore protein folding. Anyone can download the game and play Foldit. Thousands of people, having fun, are actually fulfilling the function of a vast supercomputer entirely dedicated to discovering all the possible ways a protein might be folded to produce different biological effects.
As with ants, bees and termites, self organization can give rise to superior adaptive behavior. The Internet is effective in that respect; making it easier for individuals to communicate, verify, organize and engage. This reinforces positive sum behavior.
The essential next stage is to make the structure of self organization more accessible, friendly and consciously self improving. The insect equivalent would be all of the termites jointly designing their arcology in response to verified emerging conditions as they simultaneously build it.
We can add structures to the Internet that will expand the use of our collective intelligence. The actual design of such structures is not particularly difficult. Much of that has already been evolving in pockets of innovation for decades.
Almost fifteen years ago, using a wise decision model based process called the Advanced Management CatalystTM (AMCat), a diverse group of industry experts created a strategy for the United States shipbuilding industry in three days.
Through synthesizing their wide range of knowledge and experience, they also discovered a critical constraint on the future of American shipbuilding. While U.S. marine research was the best in the world, American companies were not translating that research into mainstream performance. The insights from this event traveled like wildfire throughout the industry.
The technology and infrastructure is in place to support rapid implementation of such stigmergic decision processes. We are talking about months, not years, to do this. That is good because we cannot have wise and universally compelling decisions soon enough.
With structures in place that leverage collective intelligence, the initiative of thousands, someday millions, of people can be brought to bear on creating and implementing a vision for humanity’s common future. We will be able to share a vision, act from a strategy and communicate with a clear voice. People will support what they have personally participated in creating.
Michael Thorne Kelly, Ph.D. is Chairman of the Board and Vice President for Research of Advanced Management Catalyst Inc. mkelly@amcinc.com 207.442.0658. The full article from which this is excerpted can be read at http://wiseaction.ning.com
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-25 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Public-Private Partnerships »Highway Wifi
The idea is simple, Use our existing highway infrastructure to create a network of seamless wifi hotspots. The Wifi routers and extenders could be easily mounted to existing overpass & highway signs. Allowing anyone on the highway or within a mile's range to be able to access highspeed wifi internet. I don't think it should be free. But access should be reasonably priced. Maybe $10/month. It could be a government ...more »
5 comments for Idea: Highway WifiThe idea is simple, Use our existing highway infrastructure to create a network of seamless wifi hotspots. The Wifi routers and extenders could be easily mounted to existing overpass & highway signs. Allowing anyone on the highway or within a mile's range to be able to access highspeed wifi internet. I don't think it should be free. But access should be reasonably priced. Maybe $10/month. It could be a government initiative which could help bring in money, thereby reducing taxpayer dollars. Or private entities could "rent" the highway space from state governments, then they receive incomes from users.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
161 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.New Tools and Technologies »Don’t Track Users on Government Web Sites
Very few Internet users really understand how persistent identifiers, such as “cookies,” record and track their online activities. But it is clear that when users take the time to examine this issue, they are not happy. This was clear when the White House initially proposed to make the President’s speeches available on YouTube without taking privacy into account. Changes were made, but the problem could have been avoided. ...more »
9 comments for Idea: Don’t Track Users on Government Web SitesVery few Internet users really understand how persistent identifiers, such as “cookies,” record and track their online activities. But it is clear that when users take the time to examine this issue, they are not happy. This was clear when the White House initially proposed to make the President’s speeches available on YouTube without taking privacy into account. Changes were made, but the problem could have been avoided.
EPIC strongly favors public access to new media and the government’s innovative use of new technology. At the same time, we think it is unnecessary and shortsighted to allow government agencies to stalk citizens with persistent identifiers.
EPIC recommends that the administration extend the policy against persistent identifiers to all government web sites. The government should not be tracking the public’s access to government information.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.New Strategies and Techniques »Internet Voting to Replace Congress for Representation
The strategy of having elected Congress members to represent constituencies was applicable when we had such a spread out citizen population and no technology to get every voice heard. We now have the technology available to truly have a government by the people. We will of course need congress-people, but their and their staff's role will be merely to sort through people-generated ideas (like this website)and to formulate, ...more »
6 comments for Idea: Internet Voting to Replace Congress for RepresentationThe strategy of having elected Congress members to represent constituencies was applicable when we had such a spread out citizen population and no technology to get every voice heard.
We now have the technology available to truly have a government by the people. We will of course need congress-people, but their and their staff's role will be merely to sort through people-generated ideas (like this website)and to formulate, propose, and manage laws based on what the people vote.
Monies will be needed to create the infrastructure so that ALL people of the Union can vote, such as voting centers in every neighborhood (like an internet cafe but for voting on a regular basis).
If we are serious about a government BY THE PEOPLE, let's do it. Let's stop bottlenecking the power-load through Capitol Hill and open wide the gates of Democracy.
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37 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Government Operations More Open »Open Software Standards Throughout Government.
All government computers should run open-source, free software licensed under GPL or similar and use universal, open standards for things like file formats. First, it's more secure and cost effective -- Linux/Unix viruses cannot spread the way those written for Windows do. Second, the software used and developed will be available to everyone for scrutiny, and public input can be given in improving that software. Third, ...more »
4 comments for Idea: Open Software Standards Throughout Government.All government computers should run open-source, free software licensed under GPL or similar and use universal, open standards for things like file formats. First, it's more secure and cost effective -- Linux/Unix viruses cannot spread the way those written for Windows do. Second, the software used and developed will be available to everyone for scrutiny, and public input can be given in improving that software. Third, the government/public will actually OWN the software, rather than paying companies like Microsoft who retain ownership of the software on our (ie, the public's) computers.
This also means no .doc files but rather .odt files and other similar formats.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.New Strategies and Techniques »Robert's Rules of Order online
We desperately need Robert's Rule of Order* specifically adopted for online use so that important deliberative meetings now being held by government officials at a time and place certain, can be attended by the general public online regardless of where they happen to live and at any time. The key to direct participation in government by we, the people, is the adaptation of Robert's Rule of Order for use online. ...more »
6 comments for Idea: Robert's Rules of Order onlineWe desperately need Robert's Rule of Order* specifically adopted for online use so that important deliberative meetings now being held by government officials at a time and place certain, can be attended by the general public online regardless of where they happen to live and at any time.
The key to direct participation in government by we, the people, is the adaptation of Robert's Rule of Order for use online.
Please give me your support for this important innovation that will dramatically increase participatory government by the public. How cool is that for a democracy?
ex animo
davidfarrar
* At present there is no Robert's Rules of Order specifically designed for online use.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.New Tools and Technologies »Chagora
There's a link between money, speech and the ability to participate. Political MicroDonation (under $1) with Electoral/Geographic Networking is vital for scaling representation. Especially in grassroots issue or legislative lobbying and for new candidates and ideas. It's the Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback! It's a fundamental of speech and association. (Chagora is NOT Monetized via any addition ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: ChagoraThere's a link between money, speech and the ability to participate. Political MicroDonation (under $1) with Electoral/Geographic Networking is vital for scaling representation. Especially in grassroots issue or legislative lobbying and for new candidates and ideas.
It's the Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback!
It's a fundamental of speech and association.
(Chagora is NOT Monetized via any addition to transaction costs!)
A Charity and Cause/Campaign Service Provider Characterized by Associated Individual Donor Accounts accessed via the Recipient’s and others’ Chagora widget or the Chagora website itself which is Attractive to Recipient charitable and issue/candidate oriented nonprofits because of its enablement of Exclusive Transaction & Feedback Capabilities of vital interest to Donors and the general public.*
Chagora Assumptions
1. CHARITY and especially POLITICAL MICRODONATION (Cause/ Candidate contribution under $1 alone or in concert with others) has very Powerful and Unrecognized Potential as a USER ATTRACTANT If it can be made easy enough for the donor to give and economically feasible for the recipient to receive.
2. And can CATALYZE Donor usage of this account for ALL CONTRIBUTION in both the POLITICAL AND CHARITY sectors for reasons of convenience, unified accounting, reporting and additional functionality and benefits discussed elsewhere.
3. The CHAGORA System thus is attractive to potential charity and/or candidate/cause Recipients BOTH because of the direct services Chagora offers (accounting, reporting, visibility, specialized group fundraising capabilities, unique charity/corporate sponsorship capabilities, etc.) AND the ready Donor-base it can provide.
4. And forms the basis for a Long Tail Aggregator with high-margin profitability NOT dependent on advertising or transaction fees.
The Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback!
Attempts to revitalize our political system have focused attention on the issue of money in politics. All are good tries, and all are from the wrong end. It’s not just too much big money… it’s too little SMALL money. Political MicroDonation under $1 is a proximity substitute for conditions under which Representative Governments first arose and operate best… and are essential for scaling better leader development and decision making.
When teamed with more effective information gathering and dispersal (e.g. Sunlight Foundation, etc.) as well as new technologies of association (OpenSocial Initiative, Causes, etc.) its capabilities will be quickly seen and hence its growth will be self-reinforcing...
Most people never give to a cause or campaign… They will! They don’t give now because they assume they can’t make a difference… It’s too much, too rare and too difficult!
They’re hungry for a voice; a mechanism to bring them IN. Chagora does it and does it profitably. The design as a for-profit structure with ultimate exit-strategy by ownership transfer to the Donor-base is a unique element intended as a check & balance mechanism empowering the commons in a reasoned way against imbalances concurrent with civilization scaling.
The Mechanism and the Fish
Political MicroDonation is a catalyst and needed an enabling mechanism. And the enabling mechanism itself is a Hook for a priceless fish. The Fish is a natural concentration of Donors gravitating to such a system... And an essential tool for empowering citizens in the commons!
How does it work
The Donor’s P.U.D Account (Pooled, User-Determined Account) with accounting and reporting makes previously non-viable and therefore non-existent transactions feasible and FUN.
Essentially the User participates in a Chagora Trust account with as little as $10 and relinquishes ownership of deposited money, but retains full discretion on its distribution (within defined limits relating to charitable or cause-based entities).
Further, the account, once established persists whether funded or not and has functions related to social networking for civic purposes which are expanded on elsewhere. Chagora takes no part of the transaction between the donor and recipient. CHAGORA’s Design Structure suggests that even those with NO interest in politics at all will eventually be drawn in as well!
Monetization
Recipient Subscription Fees, Charity and Cause/Campaign Services, Charity-Corporate Sponsorships, Accounting Services, FEC (and other) Reporting Services, Supplementary Web & Tech Services, Event Media Fees, etc.
*This user-controlled specialized account has additional potentials depending on a number of factors and its application in different countries and legal systems will vary... however its underlying fundamentals are universal.
Prototype & FAQ http://www.Chagora.com/faq.aspx
Blog http http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/culturalengineer
facebook http://profile.to/culturalengineer/
twitter id http://twitter.com/CulturalNgineer
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