Jan. 06, 2010 - Issue #742: Daybreakers

Media Links

OPEN INTERNET

Year wide open: Could 2010 be the year the Internet becomes truly open?

Some of us have made New Year's resolutions to exercise more, eat healthier, spend more time with friends and family etc. While these are important personal goals, it may be the right time to also have a loftier collective resolution: to drastically open up our media system in 2010.
I've written before about how the combination of big corporate media's self mutilation and the increasing proliferation of the open Internet has created a historic opportunity to transform Canada's media system, and even our concept of citizenship, government and institutions in general. What I have been somewhat remiss in discussing previously is the third and most important factor leading to transformative change in media—what I'm calling the open-media movement.

The burgeoning open-media movement is really a constellation of interconnected-yet-distinct communities that are advancing open communication and defending our communication rights and values. These communities include those that have come together around open-source software, open data, open Internet, open web, open content, open education, open government and many more. What brings all these thriving communities together is of course the value of "openness."

At first glance, open media is simply about the issues listed above with insidious values such as accessibility, choice, collaboration, diversity, openness and transparency. While these values intersect to create an essential nucleus for media innovation, they are only starting points. For example, access and choice, in addition to putting value in real choice for online content and Internet service providers, also touch on the need for media literacy, knowledge and media production programs. Closing the digital divide is about more than just providing access to the Internet. Having access to the Internet without the time and knowledge needed to fully utilize it is a half measure at best.

Likewise, diversity and innovation are not simply abstract concepts. A media system that supports diversity and ground-up innovation includes enabling mechanisms for different ownership models, including independent, non-profit, campus, community and public media. The best way to support cultural creators, media workers, citizen producers and consumers is by developing an underpinning of diversity that we can tap into.

It looks promising that 2010 will be the year when the open-media movement coalesces. This year the Mozilla Foundation will launch an initiative specifically focused on supporting and advancing the open web. Considering that Mozilla's Firefox browser is used by over 300 million people, or one in every four web users, it's exciting to hear that they plan to take a more active role in advancing the open web.

The open-data community is also poised to reach new heights this year. 2009 saw open-data focused Change Camp events in several cities across the country. Vancouver enacted an "Open Motion" and local governments in other places like Toronto and Calgary, are now pursuing similar policies. Now that some social infrastructure exists and experiments such as VanTrash are underway, open data could prove explosive in 2010.
And let's not forget about the open-Internet movement. In 2009, there were town hall events in four cities, over 12 000 comments sent to the CRTC, and Liberal and NDP support in parliament, along with a competitive broadband campaign that saw nearly 100 000 letters sent to parliament. This year we can expect the open-Internet community to broaden its focus and push for a broadband plan for Canada.

Those who understand the importance of having open media should take this year to step up efforts. We have a window of opportunity to re-imagine media in Canada right now. But that window can and will close if we don't quickly put the pillars of an open media system in place. Together, we can ensure that media at the end of 2010 will be more open than the start. V

Steve Anderson is the national coordinator for the Campaign for Democratic Media. He is a contributing author of Censored 2008 and Battleground: The Media. Media Links is a monthly syndicated column on media issues supported by CommonGround, The Tyee, Rabble.ca, Vancovuer Observer and Vue Weekly.

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