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June 20, 2006
"Save the Net" Viral Ad Contest Winner Announced
Congratulations to Chris Burke for claiming the US$ 1000 prize in our "Save the Net" Viral Ad Contest. We intend to use the submission to spread the word in policy circles to ensure that government crafts policy that best advances the open Internet to allow for maximum creativity and innovation.
Chris' winning entry is available at:
http://www.thisspartanlife.com/video_temp/Blog05_New_Titles_S3.mov
Here are a few of the better runners-up:
http://www.anders.com/video/save-the-net.mov
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7050009655852167999&q=save+the+internet
***
Here Comes Round II:
We are now launching Round II of the "Save the Net" Contest. And we are upping the prize. The Winner will receive US $5,000 for Round II. Resubmissions or revised submissions are acceptable. Our goal is to get as many cool ideas out there as possible, to harness it and become a marketing force to advance the open Internet.
Please make submissions to www.pulver.com/savethenet by August 31, 2006. We will announce the Winners at Fall 2006 VON in Boston, Sept. 11-14.
***
A Brief Epilogue for Round I:
A little Monday morning quarterbacking on "Save the Net" Round I and the battle to protect and advance the open Internet:
While I was pleased with the quality of the top submissions, I still have grave fear that we are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the legislators and policymakers. They do not see what the Internet could be if we are afforded the best policy framework to innovate on the open Internet.
So, for now, the Jury is still out on the future of the open Internet and our role in protecting it. The Internet community has not yet been found Guilty - we are not yet complicit in the destruction of the Internet and communications.
But in a parallel Civil trial, the Internet community has been found Negligent. In our act of nonfeasance (turning a blind eye to activities in DC and in the corridors of power), the Internet community has not risen to its own defense, and the penalty is death, or at least a life sentence of mediocrity.
But in a Kafka-esque allegory, the trial is never really over. And we will have to continue to fight to protect the open Internet for many years to come. The price of Internet freedom is eternal vigilance.
We have to dig deeper into our creative core and figure out how to combat the US$ 100 million Madison Avenue campaigns of the largest established corporate players. We don't have US$ 100 million to wage a war to Save the Net, but we do have the collective and individual genius of all of us innovating on the open Internet. Send us your best ideas (video, flash ads, songs, poems, cartoons) that you think might illustrate to policymakers and the public what the Internet could become if allowed to evolve with user-created input. Help us to win over the hearts and minds of those writing the rules that will shape our future.
Again, send us the link to your submissions to http://www.pulver.com/savethenet.
(We had a few unfleshed out ideas that were very clever but incomplete. I encourage those of you who submitted only seeds of submissions to try to finalize those products.)
Tags: Save the Net, Net Neutrality, Congress, Internet Marketing Contest, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on June 20, 2006 12:24 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: Watch PrimeTime TV Shows | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
Jeff,
The mistake that the internet gurus and entrepreneurs made on net neutrality was a political one. The issue got championed very early by liberal Democrats (Markey and Pelosi).
Accordingly, you are fighting a two-front war in Washington (the RBOCs and Republican majority). This makes the battle even harder because you can't even get to the substance of the issue with Republicans (or conservative Democrats). When you say "Net Neutrality" - these lawmakers think -Moveon.org...
This is the dilemma you need to solve and it shouldn't take $100 million to solve it. As we know, David killed Goliath...
Posted by: Hammer at June 20, 2006 09:44 AM
Congratulations Chris :)
Posted by: YuGiOh at June 20, 2006 09:13 AM
Another Online News guy poking his head up. Hi Jeff! Hi Chris!
Anyhow, I think I found a compromise that will satisfy the stated goals of both net neutrality sides. Even better, it should actually work, and work in the consumers' interests. The idea is Tariff Rebate Passthrough -- i.e., the ISP can charge by byte for QOS (but only by byte) and the information service provider (Google) can rebate the costs directly to the consumer (but only to the consumer). This works because it meets the need to pay for differentiated QOS, without letting the telecom companies' control over that payment become actual control over content. I.e., all the good parts of net neutrality are preserved, but there's no need to give something costly away for free.
The idea is spelled out at http://www.monashreport.com/2006/06/19/net-neutrality-tariff-rebate-passthrough/
Posted by: Curt Monash at June 20, 2006 06:16 AM