Here is another instance of the disruptive nature of digital technology.
The Economic Case For Open Access In Academic Publishing
As hyperbolic as it may sound, academic publishing is the curator and guardian of the accumulated scientific knowledge of the human race, 1600 to present. It is also a cornerstone of modern science, preferentially selecting well-executed research [...]

Comcast has demanded that broadband backbone provider Level 3 Communications pay it a recurring fee for delivering video traffic to Comcast customers, Level 3 said Monday.
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
IDG News Service — Comcast has demanded that broadband backbone provider Level 3 Communications pay it a recurring fee for delivering video traffic to Comcast [...]

By Amy Thompson, Bloomberg Businessweek
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Comcast Corp. has begun imposing a fee on Internet middleman Level 3 Communications Inc., one of the companies that Netflix Inc. has hired to deliver movies and TV shows to Web customers.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV company, has set up an Internet “toll booth,” charging Level [...]

By Joelle Tessler, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Level 3 Communications Inc., an Internet backbone company that supports Netflix Inc.’s increasingly popular movie streaming service, complained Monday that cable giant Comcast Corp. is charging it an unfair fee for the right to send data to its subscribers.
Comcast replied it is being swamped by a flood of [...]

WASHINGTON – Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Senior Vice President and Policy Director of Media Access Project, issued the following statement in light of a complaint made today by Level 3 Communications, Inc. against Comcast’s demand of a recurring fee from Level 3 to transmit online content to Comcast customers:
“Comcast’s request of payment in exchange for content [...]

Asserts that process discourages retail sales of modems in competition to its leased equipment
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable
Comcast sees a continuing effort to block its joint venture with NBCU in the filing Monday of an FCC complaint on behalf of modem supplier Zoom Telephonics. The complaint addresses what Zoom says is Comcast’s “unreasonable, [...]

Update: Read letter to the Federal Communications Commission by MAP, Free Press, New America Foundation, and Public Knowledge on this issue, filed on November 30, 2010.
For Immediate Release:
November 29, 2010
Earlier today, modem manufacturer Zoom Telephonics filed a complaint at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against Comcast, setting out a string of facts which [...]

Today’s item is admittedly somewhat abstract for those who are still working off their Thanksgiving L-Tryptophan, but it is worth the slog. Media scholar Henry Jenkins offers some provocative thoughts about how social media will impact the very nature of journalism.
Why Spreadable Doesn’t Equal Viral: A Conversation With Henry Jenkins
For years, academic Henry Jenkins [...]

Today’s RoadMAP article by Sir Tim Berners-Lee has generated a good bit of interesting debate in the blogosphere. The Atlantic Wire has a round-up.
Is Facebook Really Killing the Web?
On Monday, Tim Berners-Lee, the MIT professor widely credited with inventing the World Wide Web, published a 3,800-word manifesto on the future of the Internet. One [...]

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, has written an article in the Scientific American reflecting on openness, standards and the threats they face. He warns of the erosion of the founding principles of the Web, and the dangers posed by social networks.
Long Live The Web: A Call For Continued Open Standards [...]