OneWebDay Speech

This is the text of the speech I gave on Saturday at OneWebDay:

I want to thank Susan for inviting me here to speak for a few minutes today, and say what an honor it is to be among people who are doing such good work.

Over the past 7 years, NYCwireless has built free, public Wi-Fi hotspots in parks and public spaces throughout New York City. We’ve succeeded beyond what we imagined possible. Today, many parks throughout New York City, including the most popular parks in Manhattan, offer residents and visitors the ability to connect freely to the wireless internet. We’ve inspired people throughout the world, where similar community wireless groups have not only created hotspots, but have lit up entire cities and changed national policy.

We’ve accomplished this great feat because of the dedication of many people. NYCwireless is an all-volunteer organization. We are People Powered, and these people have built and invented amazing things, such as a Linux based Operating System (called pebble) and an open source hotspot management system built by Île Sans Fil in Montreal. We’ve turned around and shared all of the great inventions we’ve created with the rest of the world. Just as many others here today, we see the value in what I believe are the three fundamental pillars of the internet: Participation, Openness, and Sharing. Indeed, these principles are not new—they have been a part of all great civilizations and are fundamental to our culture.

These three principles have powered the internet’s very creation, and have powered many of the great achievements since. Participation, openness, and sharing are essentially people-focussed principles. They drive us to work constructively with one another and broadcast our accomplishments, information, and code globally, freely and openly. This is the power of the internet and the web—connecting people to each other. And NYCwireless and all of the hundreds of other community wireless networks around the world have been trying to extend the reach of the internet, bringing the internet to the people, where the people are, and connecting them with the internet’s global community.

The last decade was about bringing people together online while they are sitting alone at their desks. This next decade will be about bringing people together face-to-face, and enabling them to reach out to the rest of the world. Making this kind of localism a part of the global internet is critical to building a more participatory and open internet. People accomplish more when they work face-to-face. This is the promise of public, open wireless networks, and we’ve seen it played out countless times locally and globally.

We stand on the precipice of this future, and yet there are still dangers ahead for the evolution of the internet. There are still people in this very city who cannot get high-speed connections, to say nothing of the millions of Americans who are cut off from this great resource. And there is a serious lack of competition within the telecom and cable industries that prevents the distribution of affordable, ubiquitous connectivity and the availability of truly high-speed networks, like the hundred megabit and gigabit ones that exist in parts of europe and asia. Cellular companies have created walled gardens and usage limiting policies that don’t allow open and complete access to the entirety of the internet. And the threat of a non-neutral internet in America threatens the communications of the millions of individuals and small companies that have filled the internet with the richness of their ideas and their information.

The culture of the monopolistic phone and cable companies and proprietary software companies have polluted the openness of our society and our information. The greatest successes of the digital age have been driven by those same fundamental principles of the internet: participation, openness, and sharing.

Each and every one of us must continue to work to ensure an open and participatory internet. NYCwireless and other wireless activists, including even large companies like Google, are working to reform this country’s spectrum and telecom policies. The amazing creation of community wireless networks happened because we had this tiny bit of unlicensed spectrum that was given back to the people and made available for free use by all Americans. Technology companies ran with this sliver of wavelength, and created an entire industry around Wi-Fi. But it is not enough. We’ve accomplished so much with only 50 Mhz of shared spectrum. Imagine what we could accomplish with more.

All of us have the responsibility of continuing to grow the internet through its founding principles of participation, openness, and sharing. We, as a culture, have done great things, but there are countless more great things to do, and more battles to be fought. Beware those who would lock away the keys of our society behind paid gateways and closed networks. Participate in building open networks. Creating free and open information resources online. Share your knowledge with the rest of the world. And bring the internet to the people.

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