Perhaps overshadowed by the Tuesday election results from my home state, and by the google china squabble, Hilary Clinton gave an address yesterday in which she outlined 5 key internet freedoms that the United States supports. Her speech shows a surprising and wonderful degree of understanding of the value of an open internet. Check it out:
We stand for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas … Blogs, email, and text messages have opened up new forums for exchanging ideas
I took particular delight in reading the 5th freedom:
The final freedom I want to address today flows from the four I’ve already mentioned: the freedom to connect — the idea that governments should not prevent people from connecting to the Internet, to websites, or to each other. The freedom to connect is like the freedom of assembly in cyber space. It allows individuals to get online, come together, and hopefully cooperate in the name of progress. Once you’re on the Internet, you don’t need to be a tycoon or a rock star to have a huge impact on society
What an outstanding stake in the ground for the US to take — defining a vision of the future of the internet, the most awesome tool for communication ever invented. Kudos Madame Secretary, you clearly get it!
As longtime STJ readers know, David Isenberg has organized a conference in the Washington DC area for years titled “Freedom to Connect“. I think I’ve got the T-shirt from each one. It’s so fitting that the “f2c” phrase he coined in his conference title made it into official US policy position. Way to go David, you have had a huge impact on society.