Netgain Challenge

How do we expand the constituency that won the right to communicate? Net neutrality captured the minds of millions because of how personal our relationship is with the internet. We need it to work, learn, love and to change the world. In the United States, our access to the internet is almost always mediated by America's richest and most powerful cable and telecom companies - Comcast, Verizon, AT&T. In half of the cities in the United States, we still negotiate our contracts with those companies - "franchise agreements" - to serve our cities, counties, and towns. We can bring the netroots into the streets and City Halls if we make huge, dizzying demands of our City Councils and Mayors when they negotiate and vote on franchises – deals that often last for a generation or more. If we want workers, low income communities, local technologists, pastors, and others to work for a just internet, we must show them how powerful we can be when we demand internet justice on our home turf.