Let's ground Bell Canada over usage-based billing.
Bell Canada
Make 2011 the year of Internet innovation
In my January 2009 column I encouraged readers to make opening the media in Canada their 2010 resolution. I asserted that 2010 would be a pivotal year for communities working to open communication in Canada and beyond. And so here we are at the end of the year, and it appears that indeed there is a growing community focused on openness, with the open Internet at its core.
TV versus the Internet
Which side are you on?
It makes sense that many people believe that cable and Internet are two separate services, brought to us through distinct wires. And why wouldn't we think this, after all, these services are also in competition for our business. The reality is that television services actually go through the same wires as Internet services. Why is this important? Because it raises serious questions about both the practice of slowing access (throttling) to Internet services and the new imposition of broadband download caps by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Are telecom companies discriminating against the open Internet in favour of their own gatekeepered digital TV services?
The UBB fight starts with a simple message: Sell Bell
Bill Wittur explores how we can resist the increase in the cost of Internet services in Canada by cancelling and boycotting services related to the companies behind these increases. Focusing on just one company -- Bell Canada or BCE Inc -- makes it that much easier to funnel concern about what's happening to Canada's digital infrastructure.
I used to work with a marketing agency that did "Day in a Life" stories about typical consumers. That's you and me and what we do every day so that they could push ads at us... every day from every place and space we occupied.
Long live unintended consequences
At Fresh Hot Type, the after party for the Fresh Media Festival on Oct. 24, local media arts group W2 provided a letterpress with which partygoers could experiment. The idea was that as the DJs spin in the background, participants could creatively express themselves by using the letterpress, ink and paper. Not satisfied with what seemed like the natural limits of the medium, participants soon began writing words and expressions on both their own and each other's bodies and acting out the words on the dance floor.
Embracing an innovation agenda
Big telecom's monopolistic control over the Net is threatening to leave Canada with a last generation Internet. We have fallen behind many European and Asian countries in terms of Internet access, speed and cost, moving Canada from second to tenth place within the 30 OECD countries. Our broadband connection speeds have also fallen below the OECD average, and we rank 27th in terms of cost versus speed.
