Being a communications consultancy that bridges the two worlds of Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, we're often asked by media about the impact of blogs on the public policy advocacy process. Most of the questions come in reference to the perceived power of blogs in shaping the net neutrality debate.
We don't think there's a right answer here. The Web, the numbers who use it, and how it's used is just evolving too fast. But, we won't duck the question and will continue our history kick...
Despite the fascination with bloggers, bloggers blogging about net neutrality and bloggers blogging about themselves blogging about net neutrality, there has been online activism almost as long as there has been a public Web.
The net neutrality fight has many parallels to anti-Communications Decency Act battle that raged beginning in 1995. Online activists were emboldened by free-speech issues and teamed with established companies to fight the legislation. The activists lost the fight in Congress and with President Clinton who signed the bill, but generated enough momentum and support that they rallied considerable resources to their side to win in the Supreme Court, which struck down the law.
The activists...