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Campaign urges the European parliament to save EU net neutrality.

Following what is widely regarded as a victory for strong net neutrality in the US, the battle to maintain a level playing-field online has now moved to the European Union, with the relaunch today of the campaign site "Save the Internet: Defend Net Neutrality in Europe." Its aim is to head off an attempt by a majority of the 28 EU Member States in the Council of the European Union to derail earlier proposals to enshrine net neutrality in European law, as Ars reported last month.

The EU's net neutrality bill began as a 2013 proposal from the European Commission. It contained a number of major loopholes. In particular, it would have allowed "specialized services" that had privileged access to the Internet—and thus broke net neutrality. The proposal also explicitly allowed the discriminatory blocking of websites, applications, and content, a clear threat to freedom of expression in Europe.

What started as groupware in the business world is providing better ways for governments to collaborate with citizens

 Mar. 12.─ As we explore the role of new technologies in changing how government makes policies and delivers services, one form of technology is emerging that has the potential to foster decision-making that's not only more effective but also more legitimate: platforms for organizing communication by groups across a distance.

Long known as groupware in the business world, such tools now are either being adapted or purpose-built to facilitate conversation and collaboration between government and citizens with the goal of enabling democracy that is more participatory and inclusive of diverse voices.

Whether the goal is setting an agenda, brainstorming solutions, choosing a path forward and implementing it, or collaborating to assess what works, here are some examples of new tools for participatory democracy:

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves strong net neutrality rules

Washington, DC., Feb.26.─ The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the first time classified Internet providers as public utilities Thursday, a landmark vote that officials said will prevent cable and telecommunications companies from controlling what people see on the Web.

The move, approved 3 to 2 along party lines, was part of a sweeping set of new “net neutrality” rules aimed at banning providers of high-speed Internet access such as Verizon and Time Warner Cable from blocking Web sites they don’t like or auctioning off faster traffic speeds to the highest bidders.

LATE last month Amanda Filipacchi, an American writer, discovered that the editors of Wikipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopaedia, were re-categorising female American authors from "American Novelists" to to "American Women Novelists". No corresponding "American Men Novelists" subject area existed at that time. The process seemingly happened sub rosa, through the actions of several editors. After she published an article in the New York Times pointing this out, Ms Filipacchi found that her own Wikipedia entry was edited numerous times for spurious and sometimes vindictive reasons. "Wikipedia is created and edited by its users," she observed. But when it comes to recategorising novelists, or vetting changes to individual pages, who actually makes the decisions?