Tom Evslin on Citizen Journalism

NewAssignment.net, a new website that will make the case for the value of open source, participatory journalism, has posted a piece by Tom Evslin on the role of citizen journalists in preventing Internet Service Providers from meddling in net discrimination.  As a luncheon speaker guest here at Berkman earlier this year he toiled in these issues, and in his new piece he continues:

“We may have a problem with commercially-motivated blocking. AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre has been clear that he considers parts of the Internet “my pipes” and that he believes AT&T has a commercial right to charge information providers differentially for use of the pipes that we and the information providers believe are already paying for once. Other telco execs have echoed this view.

Legislation requiring net neutrality has been proposed but may not be a good idea. It is very difficult to define the concept and enforcement itself might be a dangerous government intrusion.

But how do we avoid the need for neutrality legislation? How do we know if legislation has become the lesser of two evils? That’s where citizen journalism comes in.”

To read the rest of the piece, which includes Tom’s hopes for step-by-step future actions, visit NewAssignment.net here.

To hear the podcast of Tom’s luncheon discussion from August, visit Media Berkman.

To catch wind of future Berkman Luncheon Series guests, sign up for our events mailing list here.