The New Media Collective

This video was posted yesterday (May 10, 2006) by COAnews to further illustrate the whole net neutrality issue.

Here's a brief summary:

Major telecommunications companies are spending millions lobbing the U.S. congress to make the Internet into a private network. In political lingo this means abandoning what is called “Net Neutrality”. In common sense terms it’s about the government withdrawing our right to Internet Freedom, it’s about the Death of The Internet. This V-Doc. (viral documentary) is about the current threat to Internet Freedom and how we can hold on to the open Internet and our right to communicate.

This congressional decision will set a monumental precedent, and thus, impact not just U.S. citizens, but citizens all over world.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In our continuing coverage of the Network Neutrality issue (see previous post), we present a video giving the why's and how's of it, and why we, as citizens of the blogosphere, should do our part to stop any threats to our online freedoms.

Provided by the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, this video is the latest effort in their campaign to garner support to protect the internet's First Amendment, Network Neutrality. Comprised of organizations from across the political spectrum, bloggers and concerned citizens, the Coalition's goal is to get folk to take action by contacting their local representatives in Congress, urging them to take steps to preserve Net Neutrality. This will ensure that the internet remains free and open to the thousands of people who use it as a voice to express and as a vehicle for innovation and progress.

Click below to support the SavetheInternet.com Coalition and save Net Neutrality.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

[ Click on image to view ]

In this MEDIA MINDS installment, we learn about the social media site, imeem, through its Director of Business Development, Steve Jang, courtesy of JD Lasica of Real People Network, who caught up with Steve at the SXSW Interactive Festival last month.

According to its website, imeem is an online social media service that combines all-in-one instant messaging with social networking, that makes sharing blogs, photos, videos, and ideas with friends easier and more fun. (Download imeem for Mac.)

And who doesn't want to have more fun online?

(Originally posted on Real People Network on March 25, 2006.)

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This NYTimes article examines the digital divide as it pertains to the use and access of the internet by African Americans in relation to other races. The accessibility of technology due to decreasing costs of equipment and services and increased availability in public places like libraries and schools has generated more internet use among most Americans. But the question remains: Is it about quantity or quality?

Digital Divide Closing As Blacks Turn To Internet
By MICHEL MARRIOTT, NYTimes

African-Americans are steadily gaining access to and ease with the Internet, signaling a remarkable closing of the "digital divide" that many experts had worried would be a crippling disadvantage in achieving success.

Civil rights leaders, educators and national policy makers warned for years that the Internet was bypassing blacks and some Hispanics as whites and Asian-Americans were rapidly increasing their use of it.

But the falling price of laptops, more computers in public schools and libraries and the newest generation of cellphones and hand-held devices that connect to the Internet have all contributed to closing the divide, Internet experts say.

Another powerful influence in attracting blacks and other minorities to the Internet has been the explosive evolution of the Internet itself, once mostly a tool used by researchers, which has become a cultural crossroad of work, play and social interaction.

Continue reading "Is the Digital Divide Closing for Blacks?" »

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)