If you're particularly engaged on the net neutrality issue -- or if you're not at all, but interested in new models for online deliberation -- the National Science Foundation-funded Deliberative E-Rulemaking Project (DeER) at the University at Albany (SUNY) and Texas Tech is "test[ing] a new model for citizen input on proposed rules and regulations by federal agencies. We are recruiting people to participate in an online message board discussion on a possible FCC network neutrality regulation."

The project is supposed to begin in late August, but you can sign up for it right now. » read more | Jason Z.'s blog | login or register to post comments

All five FCC Commissioners were at Stanford University this afternoon for a panel discussion on Net Nuetrality, so my colleague David and I took a field trip down south from San Francisco for the day. Remember how Comcast paid a bus full of people to take up room at the hearing in Boston in February? We arrived early to make sure that we'd get a seat this time, but there was nothing to worry about - according to Chairman Kevin Martin, who opened the meeting with a statement of the FCC's efforts to include everyone at the table for an "open and transparent" conversation, Comcast (and all the other Internet companies) declined the invitation to dialogue with the public.

A month ago, we reported on the travails of popular phone conferencing service freeconference, upon which many nonprofits and grassroots organizations depend. I wanted to follow that up, and in particular to climb down from initial concern that freeconference had become crippled as a possible conferencing solution.

Without rehashing all the details in the original post, the nub of the matter is that a commercial dispute led a few telcos to begin blocking calls to freeconference.

Freeconference has worked this adroitly -- it does help to be in the right -- getting in front with bloggers to generate a hue and cry that's apparently stayed any further damage. After blogging the subject before, I even got a follow-up press release from a PR firm a couple weeks ago that began:

Blocked Conference Calls Cripples Food Programs to the Hungry

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AT&T/Cingular, Sprint and Qwest are blocking access to free conference calling which also is impeding efforts by the California Hunger Action Coalition to stop hunger, according to Frank Tamborello, Executive Director of Hunger Action Los Angeles and Co-Chairperson of the Coalition. The action coalition has depended upon FreeConference for more than four years to connect its volunteers statewide with free conference calling.

(etc.)

A carrier dispute redolent of net neutrality threatens trouble for the many small nonprofits who routinely rely on FreeConference for free telephone conference calls.

This month, some telco tentacles and wireless carriers began blocking calls to the service, which is widely used by small nonprofits and activist groups.

Why the blocking?

Not us. No, a deserved accolade for the Save the Internet coalition (of which we're proud to be a part) for fighting off the telecom and cable industries' attempted legislative rewrite.

Well-done. Odds are, unfortunately, that Save the Internet will get a chance to defend its title in the 110th Congress.