Public Interest Internet Briefing and Discussion
OneWebDay
September 22, 2009
11 am
Rayburn House Office Building, Suite 2203
Independence Ave. and First St., SW
Washington, D.C. 20003
As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continues to develop its National Broadband Plan, a full range of Internet stakeholders from the nonprofit front lines, local government, corporate and policy worlds will meet to discuss a bold plan for networking the nation and mark the national release a new report, "A Public Interest Internet Agenda," from the Media and Democracy Coalition. The event is one of dozens taking place around the country and the world on OneWebDay, September 22, 2009.
The keynote speaker is Blair Levin, Executive Director of the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorizes the FCC to create a plan that "shall seek to ensure all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal." The FCC is hosting a series of workshops for stakeholders and inviting input from the public. The OneWebDay panel will contribute to the plan's development by bringing a diversity of relevant viewpoints together with an emphasis on the public interest. The FFC's National Broadband Plan will be presented to Congress in February 2010.
Joaquín Alvarado - Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Senior Vice President, Diversity and Innovation
Kenneth Boley - Government of the District of Columbia, Office of Chief Technology Officer, Director of Intergovernmental Initiatives
Amalia Deloney - Media Action Grassroots Network, Coordinator; Media and Democracy Coalition, Board Member.
Kelley Ellsworth - Byte Back, Inc., Washington DC, Executive Director
Amina Fazlullah - U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Counsel, Media Reform and Internet Freedom
Susannah Fox - Pew Internet and American Life Project, Associate Director, Digital Strategy Project
Link Hoewing - Verizon, Assistant Vice President, Internet and Technology Issues
Joanne Hovis -National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, Board Member
Nathaniel James - OneWebDay, Executive Director
Blair Levin - FCC, Executive Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative
John Wonderlich* - Sunlight Foundation, Policy Director
OneWebDay (http://onewebday.org) was founded in 2006 as an all volunteer campaign to build an active community of Internet advocates in the United States and around the world. Originally imagined as a celebration of the World Wide Web, it has grown into a movement of organizations, citizens and consumers committed to universal and equal access to the Internet. Now in its fourth year, OneWebDay has a full-time Executive Director, powerful new partners and is planning events in 50 cities across the globe in 2009. Its theme this year - One Web. For All - focuses on volunteer service and Internet opportunity.
The Media and Democracy Coalition (http://www.media-democracy.net) is a collaboration of more than 30 organizations united to amplify the voices of the public in debates over media and telecommunications policies. Its new report, "A Public Interest Internet Agenda," is being promoted nationally on OneWebDay because of the values the two organizations share. The report has been endorsed by over 40 local and national public interest organizations that work on media and telecommunications issues, and includes sections on: broadband communication as a right; data-driven policy; competition and localism; leveraging public resources; and digital inclusion.