The continuing saga and AT&T v. FreeConference
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/30/2007 - 11:29Back on March 14th, I posted a blog entry about AT&T blocking calls to FreeConference.com. In that call, I described my experience and noted that I filed a complaint with the FCC. Well, yesterday, I received a phone call from Rosalyn Young at AT&T’s Office of the President about my complaint.
Unfortunately, I was on the road at the time in an area where there is poor Cingular Wireless cellphone coverage, and the call cut out partway through. I suggested that we talk later in the day, but when she called later, I was also out of range. I’m not sure if there is some hidden message there.
Anyway, this morning, I called her back to follow up. We had a good discussion. She explained that AT&T gets charged for calls to Freeconference.com, so technically their not free. I’ve been reading up various posts about the issue, such as the one on e Pluribus Media, so I was prepared for the discussion.
I asked her if the charges were different from the standard termination fee that Interexchange carriers (IXCs) are required to pay Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) as part of the FCCs Rural Communications rules. She didn’t seem exactly clear about what I was asking, so I put it this way. Yesterday, I called Gavin TV and Appliance in St Marys, Iowa. The same town where Freeconference.com’s interconnection is. Is there some sort of termination fee that AT&T has to pay Freeconference.com or the LEC that is different from what AT&T pays the LEC for a termination fee for me calling Gavin TV and Appliance? She did not know the answer and said that she would get me information on the different termination fees and get back to me.
Stop Cyberbullying Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/30/2007 - 09:54Spending time on political blogs, you get used to some very inappropriate comments. I’ve had people attempt to interfere with my professional life. Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan certainly have experienced cyberbullying, and Kathy Sierra has written about some particularly offensive cyberbullying, including death threats that caused her to cancel her ETech presentations.
As she notes in the title of her blog post, “Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech"”. Andy Carvin has blogged about this on his PBS blog and has set up Stop Cyberbullying social network on Ning.
Robert Scoble talked about taking the week off from blogging as a response. Wesley Fryer is talking about “blogging fast in response”. Andy comments, “Actually, I’m not sure if I was proposing a blog fast per se - more like ruminating on the idea”
I don’t know how we Stop Cyberbullying, but spreading the word seems to be a key way that bloggers deal with any sort of threat, so please, spread the word about Stop Cyberbullying day.
Voices in Conflict get "Courage in Theatre" award for its "non-performance."
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/29/2007 - 17:36I got this forwarded from David Isenberg:
Constitutions and Debts
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/29/2007 - 14:01Twenty years ago today, the people of Haiti voted to adopt a new constitution to “Ensure their inalienable and imprescriptible rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; in conformity with the Act of Independence of 1804 and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1948.”
Yet having a new constitution is not enough when you are saddled with debt. Earlier this month, Rep. Maxine Waters introduced H. Res 241, “Urging multilateral financial institutions to cancel completely and immediately Haiti's debts to such institutions, and for other purposes”, aka the Haiti Debt Relief Bill.
Jubilee USA is urging its supporters to contact their Representatives in Congress today, to become co-sponsors of this bill.
For those of us who live in the Constitution State, I can think of no better way of living up to our heritage and celebrating Haiti’s constitution than contacting our Representatives and urging them to become co-sponsors of H.Res 241.
Perspectives
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 03/28/2007 - 10:37Yesterday, Montana Maven pointed me to Jay Rosen’s recent entry on Huffington Post. Jay, together with Arianna Huffington, is searching for ways to get more people to “Participate in Politics by Covering the Campaign”. It is a great idea, which I wish them luck in, but that also raises a few concerns.
Back in January, I wrote a New Year’s resolution post for Gather.com. It was part of my preparation for Journalism that Matters conversation in Memphis. My resolution was to “to help people find their voice”. In Memphis, I refined it further to become, “to help the voiceless find their voice”.
I hope that Jay and Arianna’s efforts will help people find their voice in the political discourse. However, I worry that it might be the same rich white ivy school educated young men that I run into on the blogs and the conferences across our country. I worry that the discourse might end up being not substantially different from the nasty, horse race, Coke or Pepsi type coverage that we see in the traditional mainstream media.
