• Appeals Court Ruling Endangers FCC's Ability to Protect Online Speech

    Aparna Sridhar
    April 7, 2010

    Broadband networks represent the most critical communications infrastructure of our time: if these underlying transmission systems don't function effectively, the Internet cannot serve as a vibrant forum for speech, commerce, and culture.

  • Net Neutrality -- The Fight Ahead

    Timothy Karr
    April 7, 2010

    "The Day the Internet Lost" read a full-banner headline on Huffington Post yesterday.

  • The Courts Can’t Take Away Our Internet

    Megan Tady
    April 6, 2010

    Today’s ruling for Comcast by the DC Circuit Court could be the biggest blow to our nation’s primary communications platform, or it could be the kick in the pants our leaders need to finally protect it. Either way, the future of the Internet, the fight for Net Neutrality, and the expansion of broadband is hanging in the balance.

  • Public Policy and the Collapse of Complex Business Models

    Josh Stearns
    April 5, 2010

    Clay Shirky published a thoughtful blog post called “The Collapse of Complex Business Models” where he applies the lessons of Joseph Tainter’s 1988 book, The Collapse of Complex Societies to the shifting media industry. Shirky's reflections on the challenges and opportunities that exist in times of collapse pose key questions about how we make structural change in societies, cultures and industries.

    Tainter’s essential theory is that complex societies collapse not in spite of their complexity but because of it. Shirky summarizes: “Early on, the marginal value of this complexity is positive—each additional bit of complexity more than pays for itself in improved output—but over time, the law of diminishing returns reduces the marginal value, until it disappears completely. At this point, any additional complexity is pure cost.” For Shirky, this tension is at the heart of many questions about the future of media, and he suggests that paywall advocates are essentially arguing that they need to find ways to make Web users pay up because otherwise, “we will have to stop making content in the costly and complex way we have grown accustomed to making it. And we don’t know how to do that.”

  • Phone Company Helps Make the Case for Net Neutrality

    Timothy Karr
    April 5, 2010

    Here we go again. Another Internet service provider is caught getting in the way of its users, just four days before the Federal Communications Commission closes the window for public comments in its effort to stop such meddling.

  • New Journalism Centers Created for Public Media

    Stevie Converse
    April 2, 2010

    The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced a major journalism initiative that will increase original local reporting in seven regions around the country. Media Minutes has the story this week.

    The CPB is funding the creation of seven Local Journalism Centers that would combine the resources of participating public TV and radio stations to tackle important but under-reported regional news stories.

    Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, says that the public media system is uniquely structured to increase regional reporting.

  • Driven Back to Dial-Up

    Megan Tady
    April 2, 2010

    You know your company is performing poorly when someone cancels your high-speed Internet and opts for dial-up instead.

  • AT&T Apologizes for Luke Wilson Ads

    Megan Tady
    April 1, 2010

    AT&T this morning apologized for their advertising series featuring once-credible actor Luke Wilson.

  • A Hint of the iPhone, a Whiff of Competition

    Josh Levy
    April 1, 2010

    The word on the street is Verizon will be offering the iPhone before the end of the year.

  • Reaching New Audiences ... One Flier at a Time

    Mark Katches
    April 1, 2010

    This is a guest post from Mark Katches, the editorial director for California Watch. It is cross-posted from the California Watch blog.

    I just spent an hour handing out fliers on a street corner about our latest California Watch story.

    “Want to know what buildings on campus are seismically unsafe?” That was how I started my pitch to students walking to UC Berkeley, which has more seismically dangerous buildings than any other public university in the state.

    The flier contained a list of buildings rated “poor” or “very poor” in the event of a big quake. It also included our Web address to learn more about the subject. Many of the students who got the fliers were headed to classes in those very buildings on the list. You can download the flier at the bottom of this blog post.

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