Keep free Monday evening, 7 pm, October 26th 2009.
The place is the Dal Student Union Building's storied McInnes Room (capacity 600), a favorite place of choice, for the last 40 years, whenever Canada's PMs and other heavyweights deign to address Canadian students and academics.
The event is an overdue Town Hall on citizen concern over the direction the Internet is going, in Canada and around the world.
Its all part of the DSU's (Dalhousie Student Union, University Avenue, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada) Annual Speakers Series -- part of the DSU's outreach to the broader community .
This town Hall/Panel discussion is co-sponsored by Chebucto Community Net - one of Canada's oldest free-access-to-all internet providers.
Chebucto has always been concerned about citizen access to an increasingly commercially-controlled internet - that is the very reason they were formed.
Students, like those that the DSU represents, are leading users of the internet in just about every possible way - from downloading songs to searching for information to complete a term paper or thesis.
Various international bodies this year have revealed that Canada pays more for less service right across the gambit of internet and cell phone services.
HALIFAX: ONCE A LEADER, NOW A LAGGARD
Closer to home, Halifax and Nova Scotia - believe it or not - were once leaders in internet usage - now the city and province even lag behind the smaller and poorer sister province of New Brunswick and its tiny capital Fredericton.
The troubles citizens face on the commerce & government heavy internet are too numerous to begin to list .
Perhaps the most eye catching recently has to be this summer's 'Big Brother-like' secret removal of the e-book "1984" off of the Kindle e-book readers of Amazon customers (after they had paid for them and the e-book), all without telling them !
If Hollywood dared put this in a movie, we'd snicker at the implausibility and the sheer PR-stupidity of going Big Brother on Orwell's book, of all books, - but fact , again, out-trumps fiction...
Mark down the date/ be there....
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