This year, Media Access Project is hosting the third annual MAPPING CHANGE public policy forum series 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 builds on topics raised in the two former series, to continue to drive debate and collaboration among audiences in Silicon Valley and Washington DC. Among issues discussed in previous years were broadband deployment and adoption, journalism and social media, green energy technologies, the management of broadband networks, and other topics relating to the future of access and innovation in the United States.

MAP’s 2010 series focuses specifically on policy solutions to support disruptive digital technologies and practices – ones that show particular potential to engage or dissuade individual participation in the creation of content, or to boost or limit public access to information.

Online Censorship – Implications of Content Filtering At Home and Abroad

Held on Friday, June 11, 2010 at Dickstein Shapiro, Washington D.C.

Internet content and applications providers face a large and growing number of challenges from governmental filtering and censorship in countries around the globe.  Companies such as Google and Facebook have developed a range of responses to practices adopted by governments in China, Turkey, Australia, and elsewhere. The filtering practices themselves, and content providers’ responses to them, have domestic ramifications and relevance for policy debates in the U.S. about privacy, freedom of expression, and access to online content.  In the first event of its 2010 forum series, MAP will lead a dialogue between experts on filtering and representatives from affected providers to discuss the consequences of control over access and speech in the domestic and international contexts.

Keynote speaker: Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Panel 1: Online Censorship Technologies

• Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Internet Policy
• Jonathan Zittrain, Co-Founder and Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• Rob Frieden, Professor of Telecommunications, Penn State University

Panel 2: Policymaking on Content Filtering Online

• Wendy Seltzer, Fellow, Silicon Flatirons Center at University of Colorado Law School
• Robert Boorstin, Director of Corporate and Policy Communications, Google
• Michael “Wes” Macleod-Ball, Chief Legislative and Policy Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

See PHOTOS of the event here.

See VIDEO FOOTAGE of the event here.

To request a free DVD copy of this or other Mapping Change events, email Kamilla Kovacs at kkovacs@mediaaccess.org.