Nobody disagrees that passing an economic stimulus package is the top priority for the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress. Then what? Network Neutrality? The flipside of knitting together a winning coalition of techies, anti-war activists, women, labor unions, young voters and the like is: (a) everybody thinks they were most instrumental in sending Obama and more Democrats to Washington, and (b) they want Obama and the Democrats to make their policy wish lists reality - first. Or, at least, right after a stimulus bill is passed. The Obama campaign had a special affinity with the online world, as it revolutionized the Internet as a fundraising and organizing tool in a presidential campaign. The Free Press Action Fund, a media reform organization, has outlined an expansion of the nation's broadband network - at a cost of $44 billion - and compiled a wish list that mirrors those of other online activists: 1) It wants Obama to back his long-stated support for the principles of net neutrality with a law that would "forbid discrimination on the Internet based on the source, destination or ownership of online content." 2) It wants the Obama administration to champion greater diversity in media ownership. 3) San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation has been fighting how the Bush administration has used electronic surveillance of citizens. It would like to see that practice end. In a speech last week on infrastructure investments, Obama proposed "expanding broadband lines across America, so that a small business in a rural town can connect and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world."
