| Consumer Advocacy Groups | |
| Groups generally supportive of Community Internet projects and Big Broadband. | |
| Organization | URL |
| AARP | www.aarp.org |
| Alliance for Public Technology | www.apt.org |
| American Civil Liberties Union | www.aclu.org |
| American Public Power Association | www.APPAnet.org |
| Brookings Institute | www.brookings.edu |
| Center for Digital Democracy | www.democraticmedia.org |
| Connect USA, advocating fair Internet policy | www.connectusa.org |
| Consumer Federation of America | www.consumerfed.org/ |
| Consumers Union | www.consumersunion.org |
| Digital Divide Network | www.digitaldivide.net |
| Electronic Freedom Foundation | www.eff.org |
| Free Expression Policy Project (NYU school of law) | www.fepproject.org |
| Free Press | www.freepress.net |
| Milken Institute | www.milkeninstitute.org/ |
| Progress and Freedom Foundation (opponent) | www.pff.org |
| Public Benefit Broadband | www.pbbroadband.org |
| Rural Telecommunications Congress | www.ruraltelecon.org |
| TechNet (CEOs promote growth of tech industries) | www.technet.org |
| Telecommunications Industry Association | www.tiaonline.org |
| Telecommunity Resource Center | www.tcrc.net |
| Telework Coalition | www.telcoa.org |
| Texas Municipal League | www.tml.org |
| Trans-Texas Corridor Watch | www.CorridorWatch.org |
| World Teleport Association | www.worldteleport.org |
| Community Networks | |
| This is just a starter list of community networking projects and support. | |
| Organization | URL |
| All Optic (company) | www.alloptic.com www.go-ctt.com |
| Alliance for Community Media | www.alliancecm.org |
| Association For Community Networks | www.afcn.org |
| Austin Wireless City | www.austinwirelesscity.org |
| Communities of the Future | www.communitiesofthefuture.org/ |
| Community Technology Centers' Network | http://ctcnet.org |
| Fiber-to-the-Home Council | www.ftthcouncil.org |
| Intelligent Community Forum | www.intelligentcommunity.org |
| MuniWireless: reports on municipal wireless & BB | www.muniwireless.com |
| NYC Wireless | www.nycwireless.org |
| Save Municipal Wireless (Texas grassroots) | www.savemuniwireless.org |
| Taylor CNET (Taylor, TX) | www.taylorcnet.org |
| Technology For All (Houston, TX) | www.techforall.org |
| Texas Cable & Telecommunications Assn | www.txcable.com |
| Washington Internet Project | www.cybertelecom.org |
| False Advocacies | |
| ASTROTURF: Industry lobbyists often employ what they call “grassroots” organizing to make a narrow corporate agenda appear to have broad-based support among voters. Skeptics call this “Astroturf.” Beware of misinformation coming from organizations that conceal the fact that they represent incumbent service providers and build artifical grassroots support (astroturf). They hire academic researchers to give their reports a sense of credibility and balance and reference each other's reports, but look deeper and you'll uncover their hidden agendas. Here are just a few examples from many: | |
| American Legislative Exchange Council | www.alec.org |
| ALEC is a membership based organization that publishes model legislation, including a Municipal Competition Act, which bans municipalities from installing broadband services that might compete with private service companies, even if they don't yet offer such service. What is not disclosed is that ALEC members include the incumbent carriers that will benefit from such a ban, and only these members can view this model legislation. | |
| Cato Institute | www.cato.org |
| Cato promotes itself as a non-profit public policy research foundation that supports limited government. In order to appear independent, they accept no government funding, but they do get contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Some of their biggest contributors include Comcast, Freedom Communications, SBC, Time Warner and Verizon. | |
| Heartland Institute | www.alec.org |
| Heartland pretends to be scientific and objective but really represents industry clients, such as in their 2/1/2005 article, "Why Muni Wi-Fi Is a False Hope." The report is designed to scare consumers and policy makers with FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt), saying that Muni Wi-Fi is yet another example of "government spending taxpayer dollars in questionable ways, using money they probably don’t have on a project that probably won’t work." | |
| New Millennium Research Council | www.newmillenniumresearch.org |
| In a report titled "Not in the Public Interest - The Myth of Municipal Wi-Fi Networks," the NMRC pretends to be unbiased but is anything but. NMRC is actually a subsidiary of Issue Dynamics, Inc. (IDI), a consumer and public affairs consulting firm that promotes solutions to complex policy issues, representing a client list that includes Ameritech, BellSouth, Comcast, Pacific Bell, Qwest, SBC, Sprint, U.S. West, Verizon, and Verizon Wireless. | |
| Progress and Freedom Foundation | www.pff.org |
| PFF describes itself as "a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its impact for public policy." They too have published reports that promote an agenda of clients such as Bell South, Comcast, Nextel, Qwest, SBC, Sprint, Time Warner, and Verizon. | |