I've been reading a lot of prediction lists in the last week ('tis the season!), but nothing made me laugh as much as this bit from John Battelle's blog:

9. The massive telephony industry will begin to crush mammals left and right as its core business model continues a long and painful death dance. "Mammals" are defined as anyone who happens to be in its way as it attempts - scarily but unsuccessfully - to force a two-tiered Internet onto all of us.

This is the best description of what's happening at the telecoms that I've run across yet. I think the question of ubiquitious Internet access is essential not only to nonprofits, but to civil society. What could YOU or YOUR ORGANIZATION do if Internet access were free for everyone?

We will be doing a couple of sessions about this question at the NTC. I hope that they are well attended and that we get a good dialouge started, because I'd love to see the sector do more to act on this issue.

If you want more information on this and other important media reform issues in the interim, check out "The People's Guide to the Telecommunications Act of 2006," from the Community Media Review.

06NTC