Open standards and open source are essential to local self-reliance.  Citizens and communities should have the right to modify the technology they use in order to improve it and solve problems.  Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, has compared software to a recipe.  When cooking, you do not need permission to alter the pancake recipe to your taste.  When you come across a problem in software that you are using, you should have the right to fix it. More

One year after FCC Chair William Kennard introduced a tentative plan to legalize low power FM stations, the FCC finally enacted rules for microradio on January 20, 2000. "Every day it seems like we read about more and more consolidation in the broadcast area...what low-power FM radio will do is create an important new outlet and spark a whole new outlet for creativity and and new ideas and new music that we don't often hear on the radio." FCC Chairman Kennard proclaimed after the decision was announced. More

For instance, in major cities facades of buildings as well as whole buildings are plastered with a single ad. The Gap and other stores project advertisements from lamps onto sidewalks at night. Public beaches are imprinted with adveretisements for iced tea and television shows. More

The Internet as we know it developed within a framework of "open access" or “common carriage.” That is, people could choose their own Internet service provider (ISP), view any web site, and transmit any information they desired.  The phone company owned the phone lines but had to offer wholesale access to competitors.  

Open access did not happen by chance, but rather by regulation. Many years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required that, for a reasonable fee, local phone companies allow their wires to be used by competing ISPs. More

Rules to encourage wireless networks - offering both universal and hotspot coverage.  Some are owned by the local government, other are groups of citizen activists organizing to solve their own problems. More

The U.S. has fallen behind other countries both in the percentage of our population that has access to high-speed Internet connections, and in what we consider “high speed.”  Almost all homes and businesses in Japan and South Korea have access to connections that are literally thousands of times faster – for which they pay considerably less than do we. More