Tag Archives: Internet

April 3, 2011 · 8:07 pm

Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband

For those who think only the Federal Government is bought and paid for, here is more news from home.

Time-Warner owns the NC House in Raleigh…

From ThinkProgress.org:

The mantra of the modern conservative movement in the United States is that the government isn’t capable of doing anything as well as the private sector. This idea is constantly perpetuated among conservative intelligentsia and as a rallying cry by conservative politicians.

Yet conservative ideology can’t explain the success of Wilson, North Carolina’s, Greenlight fiber optic broadband service. In 2008, Wilson decided that all of its residents deserve access to affordable broadband service and shouldn’t have to put up with a private monopoly. So it established its own broadband service called Greenlight, which offered speeds more than twice as fast as private competitors for a similar price. Soon, Greenlight’s success spread, as several other municipalities in the state started their own public broadband services, giving residents a public option that was cheaper and more effective than the private monopolies.

But the state’s primarily broadband monopoly, Time Warner, decided that consumers shouldn’t have this option. It organized with the other telecoms, and the sector donated over $600,000 to politicians in the state over the last election cycle. And on Monday, every single Republican in the state house along with 15 Democrats voted for a bill that severely restricts the ability of municipalities to operate their own broadband networks, including a provision that disallows them from offering services at below cost — essentially eliminating their ability to provide affordable rates to residents:

via ThinkProgress » Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband.

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March 30, 2011 · 7:24 pm

North Carolina bill would prohibit cities from upgrading Internet access | The Raw Story

More proof that Time-Warner is Evil…

And more proof Republicans are owned by the Corporations that fund them…

The Republican-dominated North Carolina State Assembly this week approved a bill that would prohibit communities from upgrading their internet access, forcing individual municipalities into a private monopoly of managed broadband services by companies like Time Warner and Comcast.

Both firms have been restricting the amount of bandwidth users can consume, even though bandwidth itself is not a tangible, meter-able commodity.

The bill, which was heavily supported by telecom giant Time Warner, comes on the heels of several communities successfully launching their own fiber-optic broadband programs. One program in Wilson, North Carolina, called Greenlight, even features speeds up to 100 Megabits-per-second (Mbps) at a lower price than its corporate competitors.

That’s because Greenlight is a public utility, instead of a profits-making scheme, that places access and quality of service above harvesting dollars off customers. Instead of focusing on margins or how to impose fees on metered bandwidth use, they’re able to focus on simply providing the best the Internet has to offer.

Prior to the arrival of Greenlight, most Internet users in Wilson only had access to 7 Mbps speeds, at a much higher price than the public utility’s plans. For about the same price as the slower connection, Greenlight users get access to 20 Mbps speeds, with options to upgrade to 100M for about $150 a month.

However, in a Monday night vote, North Carolina assemblymen voted 81-37 to bring that to a halt, banning any other communities from upgrading their own connections and forcing them to continue patronizing private providers.

Currently-existing community broadband services like Greenlight, which five North Carolina communities have already set up, would not be affected should the bill clear the state senate.

The cities of Asheville, Bladenboro and Momeyer have all passed resolutions condemning the statewide bill.

via North Carolina bill would prohibit cities from upgrading Internet access | The Raw Story.

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March 17, 2011 · 6:19 pm

The Internet and Campaign 2010 – Pew Research Center

Some interesting data…

I think it’s only a matter of time before the internet passes Newspapers and Television…

Summary of Findings

More than half of all American adults were online political users in 2010

Fully 73% of adult internet users (representing 54% of all U.S. adults) went online to get news or information about the 2010 midterm elections, or to get involved in the campaign in one way or another. We refer to these individuals as “online political users” and our definition includes anyone who did at least one of the following activities in 2010:

Get political news online – 58% of online adults looked online for news about politics or the 2010 campaigns, and 32% of online adults got most of their 2010 campaign news from online sources.

Go online to take part in specific political activities, such as watch political videos, share election-related content or “fact check” political claims – 53% of adult internet users did at least one of the eleven online political activities we measured in 2010.

Use Twitter or social networking sites for political purposes – One in five online adults (22%) used Twitter or a social networking site for political purposes in 2010.1

Taken together, 73% of online adults took part in at least one of these activities in 2010. Although our definition of an online political user has changed significantly over time, the overall audience for political engagement and information-seeking has grown since the most recent midterm election cycle in 2006 — using a different array of activities to measure online political activity, we found at that time that 31% of adults used the internet for campaign-related purposes.

As an example of the changing landscape for online politics since the last midterm contest, the proportion of internet users who viewed campaign-related videos online jumped from 19% in 2006 to 31% in 2010. Similarly, as recently as the 2006 election cycle just 16% of online adults used online social networking sites; today roughly six in ten online adults are social networkers, and these sites have emerged as a key part of the political landscape in the most recent campaign cycle.2

via The Internet and Campaign 2010 – Pew Research Center.

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March 1, 2011 · 7:42 pm

Study: Facebook helps your self-esteem – CNN.com

No need to feel guilty for all the time we spend on Facebook, now!
It’s actually good for us!
Who knew?

(CNN) — Feeling a little down on yourself? Just check Facebook.

A new study suggests that spending time with the online you — the one with the hundreds of friends, the witty status updates and all the unflattering photos untagged — might help your self-esteem.

Researchers at Cornell University, who conducted the study, say looking at Facebook, where we all tend to put our best digital foot forward, appears to provide a quick ego boost.

“Unlike a mirror, which reminds us of who we really are and may have a negative effect on self-esteem if that image does match with our ideal, Facebook can show a positive version of ourselves,” said associate professor Jeffrey Hancock. “We’re not saying that it’s a deceptive version of self, but it’s a positive one.”

via Study: Facebook helps your self-esteem – CNN.com.

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