Marvin Ammori

Today, I figured I’d catalog some of the recent press hits for the UNL Space & Telecom Program, a program with which I am affiliated as a law professor at the U-Nebraska College of Law.

We had a stellar conference last week in DC, which resulted in at least six news stories.

Four of them were in the Washington Post and the Post online, and pertained to statements and ideas mentioned in a Keynote Conversation at our conference, on Thursday Nov. 19, between Andrew McLaughlin of the White House and Tim Wu of Columbia Law School.  Numbers 2 and 3 mention the conference by name: (1, 2, 3, and 4).

The Hill covered the keynote opening address by Alec Ross, of the State Department.

I wrote a Huffington Post story about an issue in these stories.

Broadband Census also covered the conference.

Outside the conference, this month, my thoughts were featured both in the Post (about set top boxes) and the Hill (on online shopping and policy).

Apparently, the first Monday after Black Friday is a big online shopping day, as Americans go back to work … and shop online.  Whether CyberMonday is hype or not for retailers, it’s a good day to celebrate Internet openness.

For years, a debate has raged in DC over whether phone and cable companies should be allowed to block, discriminate against, or otherwise interfere with users’ access to everything online.  The millions of people and hundreds of groups favoring Internet openness advocate for a network neutrality law, ensuring this openness.  Many favor net neutrality because of free speech concerns.

But let’s not forget that an open Internet supports American business.  Any company, or person, can sell any products online without permission.  Any person can go to any site–not one with a special deal with the phone or cable company–to buy any gift for any loved one.

It’s for business reasons that net neutrality proponents include Amazon, EBay, Sony, Google, and Expedia. It’s why top venture capitalists argue that, in the 21st Century, investment in new businesses and entrepreneurs–and therefore job growth–rests on net neutrality.

So enjoy the open Internet today–and maybe interrupt your CyberMonday shopping for a moment of work for net neutrality–whatever your day job…

Last week, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law’s Space & Telecomm Program organized a conference in DC.

Discussions at the conference about  free speech, diplomacy, and foreign policy have resulted in quite a bit of press.  Government speakers mentioned the obvious: that if we don’t protect Internet freedom at home–from public or private gatekeepers–then we undermine our strength abroad in arguing for Internet freedom and for citizens’ increased access to participatory technology tools.

The Hill and Washington Post reported on some statements at the conference, and the Post covered the follow-up debates.

I wrote a post at the Huffington Post about the principle of network neutrality and its influence on our diplomacy and foreign policy objectives.

In addition to prompting this healthy public discussion, we at UNL were fortunate to have an exceptional lineup of influential speakers over two days and were excited that our LLM students could join us–and that an alum, who is now a legal advisor in the U.S. Air Force JAG on cyberwarfare law, was able to present.