Dialogue
Open MIC believes in the power of community to help address the challenges of 21st century media. We’re all consumers of media, we all have opinions about media and – these days, thanks to technology – most of us are also capable of creating media.
Open MIC Discussion Boards are designed to encourage and enable registered users of this site to delve into some of the issues critical to the future of democracy and the media business. We’re launching with a limited number of subjects, but we can and will expand as Open MIC – and the dialogue on open media – continues to grow.
The Open MIC Blog involves us talking to you. It’s our way of putting ideas on the table, with registered Open MIC users encouraged to comment.
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The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the use of broadband wireless devices in the “white space” radio spectrum that will be freed up when U.S. television broadcasters switch from analog to digital transmission in February 2009. Commission chairman Richard Martin says opening the white spaces "will allow for the creation of a WiFi on steroids. It has the potential to improve wireless broadband connectivity and inspire an ever-widening array of new Internet based products and services for consumers."
Over a hundred million Americans have high-speed Internet access. Most of them likely assume that, in return for paying a hefty monthly fee, they can use their Internet service privately, for whatever purpose they want, as long as it’s legal. They’d be wrong.On Friday, for example, a bi-partisan majority of the Federal Communications Commission ordered Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, to stop blocking Internet access for some of its subscribers and "secretly degrading” their service.
A smaller piece of a much bigger pie. That’s the very simple, but very powerful, thinking behind much of the latest news in wireless communications in the U.S. It’s helping to create a media environment that’s potentially much more open, diverse and innovative – which would be good news for consumers as well as investors in wireless stocks.