Wirelessnorth.ca

Toronto WirelessNorth.ca readers may want to check out (tonight):

An open forum for Toronto’s tech/web/media communities hosted by:

Matt Thompson, SavetheInternet.com and SaveOurNet.ca
Steve Anderson, SaveOurNet.ca and The Campaign for Democratic Media
Mark Kuznicki, Remarkk.com, Open Community Evangelist, TorCamp

Date/Time: Tuesday, June 24th, 6:00pm
Location: Fionn MacCool’s, 181 University Avenue @ Adelaide, Toronto
Snacks will be provided, cash bar
Your donation/sponsorship to help cover costs can be made by purchasing special tickets above.

Canada’s digital future is at a crossroads, and our community has an historic opportunity to help protect and shape that future for the next generation.

Bell Canada’s bandwidth throttling of third party ISPs has thrust the political battle over Net Neutrality and related issues, which have raged for some time in the United States, onto the front-page in Canada. The stakes are high. Canada’s digital future must be shaped by citizens, entrepreneurs, Internet innovators and the free market….

This forum will be introduced by Matt Thompson, campaign strategist for SavetheInternet.com and co-founder of the new Canadian coalition SaveOurNet.ca. Matt will sketch out the two opposing visions and plans for the future of Canada’s Internet and innovation economy… He’ll also brief us on recent victories for the U.S. Net Neutrality campaign, and what they may mean for Canada.

Also on hand will be SaveOurNet.ca co-founder Steve Anderson, to report on the trajectory of Saving Our Net in Canada, his recent meetings with industry and public interest groups and highlight the newest additions to the SaveOurNet.ca Coalition.

Mark Kuznicki will serve as moderator and facilitate a town hall-style conversation on a number of key questions.

Digital access, ICT competitiveness and net neutrality encompass some big issues that potentially everyone in Canada. Metrics show that Canada is slipping behind other OECD countries in ICT competitiveness. Meanwhile, all mainstream media formats are shifting rapidly to digital formats. Important decisions made now will affect to what extent you favorite wired or wireless network operators will also be able to legally manage, throttle or otherwise limit competition for all the content and applications that flow on “their” networks.

The potential problems are clear, however, the solutions and prudence of specific proposed solutions (like manadated net neutrality) are amply debatable.

WirelessNorth.ca encourages folks from any side of the issues to come out and learn, discuss and debate Canada’s networked future. See you there.

UPDATE: facebook event page
Facebook group for future events in your area.