[Air-L] Open Data on Net Neutrality

Shulman, Stu stu at texifter.com
Wed Aug 6 06:00:49 PDT 2014


Yesterday the FCC released the public comments on Net Neutrality:

http://www.fcc.gov/files/ecfs/14-28/ecfs-files.htm

The FCC has asked the public to help make "visualizations" to help find the
substantive comments and surface key themes:

http://www.fcc.gov/blog/fcc-makes-open-internet-comments-more-accessible-public

Quoting the FCC:

"We recognize that not everyone may have the requisite technical skills to
build visualizations and analyze raw XML data.  (Members of the public
will, of course, still have the option of reviewing and searching the
record via ECFS).  However, we’re hoping that those who do have the
technical know-how will develop and share these tools for the public to
use."

Texifter has tools to allow anyone not versed in raw XML extraction to
search and code this data, among other things, then export the results as a
CSV file, including the relevant metadata. We have loaded the data and
started a project using DiscoverText, which was built specifically for
crowd-source public comment review by US federal agencies. We invite you to
join our collaborative, web-based effort to find substantive comments and
visualize what the public said about Net Neutrality. You can work directly
with me and others to crowd source the review of the non-duplicate
comments, or you can conduct your own parallel project with the same data.
To get involved, sign up for the free trial DiscoverText account and note
in the comment box that you want to work with the FCC data.

https://app.discovertext.com/Home/SignupContactTrial

You might be interested in these preliminary stats based on what we
downloaded yesterday:

+ 446,667 items posted to the FCC web site
+ 300,172 items after de-duplication
+ The largest group of exact duplicates is 105,320 identical items that say:

"Net neutrality is the First Amendment of the Internet, the principle that
Internet service providers (ISPs) treat all data equally. As an Internet
user, net neutrality is vitally important to me. The FCC should use its
Title II authority to protect it. Most Americans have only one choice for
truly high speed Internet: their local cable company. This is a political
failure, and it is an embarrassment. America deserves competition and
choice. Without net neutrality, a bad situation gets even worse. These ISPs
will now be able to manipulate our Internet experience by speeding up some
services and slowing down others. That kills choice, diversity, and
quality. It also causes tremendous economic harm. If ISPs can speed up
favored services and slow others, new businesses will no longer be able to
rely on a level playing field. When ISPs can slow your site and destroy
your business at will, how can any startup attract investors? My friends,
family, and I use the Internet for conversation and fun, but also for work
and business. When you let ISPs mess with our Internet experience, you are
attacking our social lives, our entertainment, and our economic well being.
We won'tstand for it. ISPs are opposing Title II so that they can destroy
the FCC's net neutrality rules in court. This is the same trick they pulled
last time. Please, let's not be fooled again. Title II is the strong,
legally sound way to enforce net neutrality. Use it."

-- 
Dr. Stuart W. Shulman
http://people.umass.edu/stu

Founder and CEO, Texifter
http://texifter.com

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartwshulman

Twitter
https://twitter.com/StuartWShulman



More information about the Air-L mailing list