Bloggers have access to the same potential audience as the New York Times. Artists of all kinds have equal opportunities to find an audience based on their talent and drive and not on money or privilege. Two students in a dorm room with a good idea, a little ingenuity and some skill can create a multi-billion dollar company. That's freedom of speech!

And it gets better since every internet user is pretty much guaranteed access to any site they want, whenever they want it and at the fastest available speed. It does not matter if you log on to Google or eBooks About Everything, the internet access is equal.

There are always those who are suspicious of freedom. People who want to control a good thing; for profit, for morality or just because they think they can. So it is not surprising that big telephone and cable companies (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner) have set their sites on controlling access to the internet and its content.

These (and other) big companies lobby the Federal Government every day for control of internet access, speed and content. In essence they want to transform the freeway model of networking to a toll road version. They are offering (magnanimously) to allow the government to collect part of the toll as tax if they can controll who has the right to use the fast lanes.

Some of us are fighting back. A large number of internet pioneers. industry leader, technology pioneers, influential bloggers and ordinary citizens belive that the internet should provice equal access and that that access should remian equal. We actually believe that the world does not need one more thing controlled by Government and/or Big Business!

Since freedom of speech is still allowed a movement call Net Neutrality has sprung up.

Net Neutrality simply means that internet access will always be free, fast and available. That innovation, not money or politics, will determine who succeeds in the market place of ideas and technology.

To find out more, do a simple Google Search on Net Neutrality or a scan of Wikipedia; you will get more information than you can absorb in one sitting.

I love the idea that the internet is the wild west; open and free. I suppose it is the last vestige of my 60's rebel persona. And as a former rebel, nothing makes me sit up and notice faster then when the government (or anyone else) wants to start controlling something.

As we move into election season protecting our freedoms has become an increasingly important agenda for me. I have a few action items:

I will only support and vote for canditates who take a strong stand FOR net neutrality.

-I am stepping up my writing/email campaign to my current representatives to tell them that Net Neutrality is vitally important to economic growth and development

-I have joined Save the Net (http://savethenet.org) and Hands off the Internet (http://www.handsofthenet.org)

-I will support these organizations with money and time

I am asking my family, friends and you to join in this effort and take these four simple steps to protect your freedom of speech.

One of the things I have learned over the years is the awesome power of fingers on keyboards. Enough of them pointed at a single target can change the world. That is freedom in action!

Copyright (c) 2007 Gigi Reynard