What can be done about Internet2? You (Alex) mentioned going political with the Internet2 issue. That's not going to work. The general public is generally ignorant of the workings of the Internet, and aren't worried about censorship in general enough to be activated. Politicians are even worse. It seems to be part of the Congressman's job description to be ignorant of technology.
I've been wondering if what we need is a "FreeNet". Internet2 will shut down the free Internet that allows the free propagation of ideas. This spells death for the freedom and patriot movements. But it also spells death for the Free Software Movement.
People involved today in the Free Software Movement were instrumental in setting up the good parts of the Internet today. They understand the benefits of open communication, and they are technical geniuses. What we need is a fusion of the Patriot and Free Software Movements on the Internet Censorship Issue.
But what will we gain from allying with Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds? What we can do is provide a counter to Internet2 with a faster, more decentralized, truly more secure and more Free "Internetwork". The Internet runs on top of Free Software, including the censors like Google and Yahoo!. (Incidentally these are the people who prefer to call Free Software "Open Source". Open Source means the corporatists get to use the code written by enthusiasts, hobbyists, and Free Software advocates gratis.)
Since the Internet runs on top of Free Software, a new even freer network could run on top of it just as well. I'm not sure how to ally with the Free Software Movement or how to get businesses with the hardware (ISPs) on board for this, but to save the Internet we're going to have to make a truly better Internet.
(About ISPs, most people get their Internet from huge telecom companies. The local ISP has become a thing of the past. Where I live, in Utah, there is only one old-school ISP: XMission.com. XMission is an avowed supporter of Free Software (they use the ultra-free Debian GNU/Linux Distribution), and these are the kind of ISPs what will help us with a "FreeNet".)
There needs to be more communication with the Free Software, Libertarian, and Patriot groups. What can we do to get the Free Software Foundation on board? And EFF? And truly Free Software companies like Red Hat and Canonical? I know you are busy, but is there someone else who can lead some effort to bring the Free Software and Patriots together? Can his be done on the grassroots level? (If anybody are experts in Internet grassroots it's the Free Software "hackers".)
Like you've said, when this Internet2 thing comes through we are going to be completely silenced. This cannot happen, and what we need is a truly open, truly secure, and truly free pubic computer network, or the Internet will not exist.
Your Friendly Libertarian Patriot Hacker,
Josh "CelloFellow" Gardner
http://helpdesk.infowars.com/cgi-bin/ttx.cgi?cmd=ticket&key=27966Z2864426082663461483
