[ June 11, 2010; 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. ]
In June, Media Access Project will launch the third annual MAPPING CHANGE public policy forum series. These events are intended to educate the public and stimulate dialogue among lawmakers and policy experts about cutting edge policy proposals in communications and technology.

This year’s program will build on topics raised in the two former series, to continue to drive debate [...]

Ken Auletta has profiled scores of tech and media moguls for the New Yorker, but this one is different.  Here, he introduces us to the man who runs Afghanistan’s first and only media conglomerate, and suggests that he is triggering significant social change.
The Networker - Afghanistan’s First Media Mogul
Every day in Kabul, politicians and journalists in [...]

By Kamilla Kovacs, Media Access Project
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski should remember one simple message as his agency clarifies its authority over Internet access services: The agency’s job is to serve the public. Accordingly, the FCC’s primary concern should be the needs of the nation, not those of big telecommunications or cable carriers.
Yet last [...]

Here is a provocative essay on the changes which may transpire as smartphones and other “appliances” replace the computer.

Closing the Digital Frontier
The era of the Web browser’s dominance is coming to a close. And the Internet’s founding ideology-that information wants to be free, and that attempts to constrain it are not only hopeless but immoral- [...]

Most readers of Daily RoadMAP know that MAP is in the midst of an epoch battle over how to classify broadband services under the Communications Act.  (MAP President Tyrone Brown recently expressed his views here.)  This brief essay by Ryan Singel of Wired presents one of the most forceful cases for Title II classification in simple, plain language.
You [...]

By Sara Jerome, The Hill
Stakeholders at the first congressional meeting on overhauling communications law discussed whether there is room for targeted legislation to clarify broadband regulatory questions, according to Media Access Project’s senior vice president Andrew Jay Schwartzman, who attended the meeting.
The group of over 30 stakeholders from across the telecommunications landscape — including broadband [...]

By Todd Shields, Bloomberg
Talks aimed at possible legislation to regulate Internet service providers such as AT&T Inc. began today without a consensus, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman of Media Access Project, who took part in the talks.
“There are a lot of areas of disagreement,” with talks to continue in coming weeks, Schwartzman, project director for [...]

A new report from Ofcom, the UK’s (sort of) equivalent of the FCC, pooh-poohs the likelihood that ISP’s will discriminate in offering Internet access.  Sounding like the U.S. carriers, it points to the absence of documented blockages, and recommends against imposing net neutrality rules.  You can count on this being introduced into the debate on [...]

David Cup, BroadbandBreakfast.com
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 – Experts this week debated whether the United States is seriously lagging behind other countries on broadband access and if its place on the global stage is related to a failure of telecommunications regulation.
At a forum hosted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Sascha [...]

Google has won the first round in its copyright battle with Viacom.  This case has been watched with great anxiety by Internet content providers because they view Viacom’s copyright claims as threatening the future of aggregation sites such as YouTube.
Judge Rules Against Viacom In Copyright Suit Against YouTube
The ruling says the website removes content when [...]