Brooklyn Ron

Boom, Like That. Obama White House Sets Standard for Net News

Fast as the speed of sound, the Obama White House put up its new website, replacing names and faces of the Bush administration, whose term now seems to have ended eons ago.

But much more than the names and faces have changed.

This is the dawning of a new day, the entrance of a crew so savvy to 2.0 communications that it's scary.

No wonder so many in the White House press corps seem so pissed. The world is changing around them, like so many bolts of converging lightning, and they don't seem to know how to deal with it.

In a scene that spread with Net alacrity, as Obama paid a visit to the White House corps, Politico reporter Johnathan Martin bypassed the hellos and handshakes of common relations, and went after Obama with a tough question about lobbyists that, under normal circumstances, would have seemed appropriate, but here seemed like a spoiled child demanding a toy.

Obama's coolness in the situation reflected confidence that his people have things under control, on the communications front.

The new White House website is an amazing display of IT talent, to be expected, we suppose, of those who took the Net, along with cell phones and Twitter, to political heights that Howard Dean's folks five years ago never imagined.

The web site offers so much information -- for sure partisan, in all meaningful senses of the word, but, grief, lots and lots of information -- that the routines of reporters there will surely have to undergo serious self-examination.

It makes the sites of local elected officials in New York seem like old one page, paper press releases.

Seriously, we (and I mean Huffington, Politicker, Politico, AfroNetizen, BrooklynRon and many, many other journalist/web sites and bloggers) have to come up with new chairs and whips to handle the new political lion.

(See the White House site here.)

The words of Mark Knopfler in his song "Boom, Like That" come to mind:

"These boys have got this down,
Ought to be one of these in every town.
These boys have got the touch.
It's clean as a whistle
And it don't cost much."

Knopfler was singing of the rise of Ray Kroc, late founder of the McDonald's fast good chain. But he just as well may have been singing an ode to the Netizens of the Obama White House.

For the heck of it, maybe you'd just want to see and hear Knopfler doing the above tune, which, we warn you, is a little eerie in chord arrangement and other ways.

Fears Grow That Verizon, Comcast and Others Will Restrict Web Access

                          SUPPORT 'NET NEUTRALITY'

Fears are growing that Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and other Internet Service Providers are going to limit Web access of their smaller, less powerful customers or -- in a potentially grave threat to the First Amendment -- restrict downloading capabilities of sites they find (for reasons political or otherwise) offensive.

This is leading to enough concern that members of Congress are becoming involved and, in fact, a bill recently was introduced addressing the matter.

Congressman John Conyers of Michigan said:

"Americans have come to expect the Internet to be open to everyone. The Internet was designed without centralized control, without gatekeepers for content and services. If we allow companies with monopoly or duopoly power to control how the Internet operates, network providers could have the power to choose what content is available."

The legislation introduced on May 8th by Democrats requires Internet Service Providers "to operate their network in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner so that all content, applications and services are treated the same and have an equal opportunity to reach consumers."

Republicans and ISP's have opposed the measure, saying it is a "solution in search of a problem."

But some believe that Comcast in particular has already been found to limit access of smaller customers, especially during times of heavy Net traffic.

The movement against this perceived ISP threat is being called "Net Neutrality," which is defined as "the fundamental principle that prevents service providers from discriminating against websites or services based on their source, ownership or destination."

And the group that is pushing the issue, and trying recruit Netizens into its cause, is SaveTheInternet. [Click the opening image or the link to the left of here to find out more about them and/or how to join the movement.]

Bill Moyers, for one, has been expressing serious worries about this threat to the free nature of the Internet.

The Democracy of the Net is at stake, and it's extremely meaningful that figures of Moyers' stature are becoming so involved.