Yes, it’s a bit of slacktivism, but my concern about Net Neutrality is real enough. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has made sending a comment to the Federal Communication Commission as easy as possible.
Librarians should pay attention to this issue (and they are). We rely more than ever on internet resources for our livelihoods. As it is, we have regular down times and slow-downs of connection times on our public PCs. Being told to pay more for that level of intermittent service is just obnoxious.
But don’t listen to me. Lynne Bradley of the ALA says it better than I can:
Net neutrality is really important for libraries because we are, first of all, in the information business. Our business now is not just increasingly, but dramatically, online, using digital information and providing services in this digital environment. That means that we need to have solid and ubiquitous Internet services.
We’re interested in network neutrality for consumers at the home end, but also because it’s key to serving our public. And that means the public libraries, the academic libraries from two-year community colleges to advanced research institutions, as well as school librarians in the K-12 community.
Network neutrality issues must be resolved, and we hope to preserve as much of an open Internet policy as we possibly can. The public cannot risk losing access to important services provided by our libraries, our schools and other public institutions.
The point is that only by creating a flood of public commentary on this issue will the FCC even notice us. That’s fair and proper, condisering that what we call the Internet as developed with public money for an essentially public use. You don’t have to agree with me (or anyone) but please take five minutes and send the regulators the message that public resources should stay public.
My Books
[author_books amount=”3″ size=”150″ type=”random” name=”jonfrater”]