WASHINGTON, January 13, 2010 – The consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge on Tuesday hosted the first-ever World Fair Use Day. “Fair use” refers to the defense, under the copyright statute, that permits individuals and businesses to make use of others’ copyrighted material under certain circumstances.

The keynote speaker was Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Penn., who told the attendees how Congress as a whole sees the issue of mixing and mashups – they don’t understand it.

December 23, 2009 – The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration is launching accounts to share more information with the public through the social networking sites Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, according to an internal email sent to NTIA employees last week.

WASHINGTON, December 9, 2009 – The importance of quality of service and the divisive effect of Net neutrality rules were key topics at the Federal Communication Commission’s Technical Advisory Process Workshop on Tuesday.

“The fundamental issue,” said Paul Sanchirico of Cisco Systems, “is ‘is my behavior affecting your experience?’ When it’s congested, I want to make sure I’m protecting everyone’s experience. There’s a greater good.”

Sanchirico suggested methods for improving network performance. Fundamental to maintaining quality of service (QoS) is establishing the prioritization of information packets.

WASHINGTON, December 8, 2009 – The White House on Tuesday sent an open government directive to every federal department and agency with instructions on actions that should be taken to make their operations more open to the public, according to a blog entry from Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold a staff workshop at 10 a.m. on October 28 to explore possible revisions to the FCC’s current ex parte rules. The stated aim is to increase transparency of the Commission’s actions, while at the same time not scaring regulated interests away from sharing information that they have traditionally shared in closed-door meetings.

NEW ORLEANS, October 1, 2009 – Top officials from Connected Nation, BroadbandCensus.com and One Economy will discuss key issues in broadband data and mapping – including controversial questions about public disclosure of carrier information on broadband maps – here on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, February 20, 2009 – Watch Brock Meeks, Director of Communications at the Center for Democracy and Technology, speak with Andrew Feinberg of BroadbandCensus.com about his the role of transparency in the administration of President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON, February 17, 2009 – The new administration of President Barack Obama has a limited window to fulfill its promise of transparency in government, said Center for Democracy & Technology officials.

WASHINGTON, February 11, 2009 – Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps said he had “no idea” how long he will hold the gavel, but he has no intention of being a mere seat-warmer.

WASHINGTON, November 1 – BroadbandCensus.com applied on Saturday for a News Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The application, which can be viewed online at the newschallenge.org web site, lays out a plan of action for the future work of this web site.