Save the Internet!!!

OK, I know that I have been really bad about not writing much lately, with work and 10,000,000 other things, guess what falls by the wayside. In my random surfings earlier this evening, I came upon something that I wasn't sure about at first, but I now see that it is something that should be of the utmost importance to us all.

Network Neutrality.

Huh? What is that? I confess that when I first found these words, it sounded like a set of words that meant absolutely nothing that some guy got payed way too much to make up. That's what I thought. Until I looked around a while. Let me give you the skinny on Network Neutrality.

Imagine you are searching for a recipe or trying to locate a family website. You'd go to Google (or some other search engine) and search away. Now, imagine the website your looking for is restricted. That's right. A 100% clean website would be deemed unaccessible. This is a possibility with respect to certain pieces of legislation that could be handed down to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Why would the FCC do this?

Like anything else, it would be for money. There is a wide-area communications medium that they currently have very little control over. They would have web hosting facilities pay a fee to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) for their internet connection. Organizations that do not pay this fee, will not be given QoS and therefore not be accessible (or at least not as easily). This is a huge problem!!! Many private or non-profit organizations provide content that is useful, unique, inspiring, and not available, in some cases, anywhere else on the internet. Imagine such content being wiped off of the face of the internet. In my mind, this is one step closer to big brother being fully realized.

I urge you as soon as you can to look into Network Neutrality. For more information, visit http://www.savetheinternet.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality. If nothing else, please be aware of what this legislation is and what it could do. The internet was partially founded as a means for wide-area educational purposes. Don't let someone tear this textbook in half.

To let the FCC know what you think, visit http://www.savetheinternet.com/yourstory and fill out the form. Be aware that as of today (July 8, 2007), we only have 7 days to make a difference. Please help keep the internet open.