This short presentation is a wee bit technical... and might go over most folks' heads. Here, one of the people I look up to and admire most - Lawrence Lessig - is talking about an initiative which I've been looking out for, for a long time.

Over the last several years, there has been a nasty spate of consolidation of control over the internet as people move from narrow band (dialup) internet to broad band speeds. A lot of small internet companies have been bought out by larger ones, and some smaller companies simply closed their doors and boarded the windows.

In order to live robustly and breathe freely, the internet - because of it's nature - has to be decentralized. It cannot be subject to the whims and controls of those who run the pipes along which information travels. With the telephone companies, we have laws guaranteeing that they would be "common carriers" - which means that people can use their telephone service for any purpose whatsoever. People can talk to anyone in the world, and say what they want, and use whatever fax machines or other kinds of new equipment might be invented which can use the telephone lines. There is no such guarantee with the provision of broadband internet. For the most part, companies do this, and in some cases the FCC has stepped in to prevent discrimination. But it seems to me, that it is impractical to regulate large companies who conduct all the traffic through the net. It seems eminently more practical in the long run to encourage competition from many small businesses and small providers who also want to provide internet access.

The answer to this little quandry is materializing. There is a movement afoot to encourage the government to set aside the spaces which the television channels are leaving in the vhf spectrum when they switch over to digital broadcasts - so it can be used as freely as coffee shops and others currently use the spectrum devoted to such things as wifi service.

Because of how radio waves act, the vhf television frequencies are far better for things like citywide wireless internet access, or "wimax" as it is called.

So here is Lawrence Lessig talking about this next hope and dream.