I am still here. It is just that I have been way busy for the last two weeks. Blogging unfortunately has to take a backseat in times of extreme work. I have been busy doing something cool though. We have been working with Tyson (SVI, the company I work for) to help them equip and raise up its next generation of leaders and in the meantime we are going to feed some needy people in Mexico.

For the last two days people from Mexico and the U.S. have gotten together to do some thinking about how to make a struggling food bank in Mexico flourish. It will be an uphill battle and the problem is multi-faceted and fluid, but who said leadership was easy.

There was a lot of work needed to make sure this event went off and all in all I would have to say it was a great success.

Now on to the ongoing project that was just kicked off. Our hope is that the food bank will be stronger, growing, and more self-sufficient a year from now.

I wrote about Josh Wolf, the infamous internet journalist who had the unenviable title of the longest incarcerated individual in the name of journalism, last month. It is a sickening story of government run amok. Freedom of speech should never be taken for granted lest we lose the part of our country’s heritage that makes us great.

Enough with the high minded rhetoric… Hooray, Josh is Free! Way to go Brosive!

Finally there is some good news coming out of Washington. After years of anti-consumer laws when it came to digital content, two congressmen, Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA) have introduced a bill called the “Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship” or FAIR USE. The aim of this bill is to reverse some of the overly-limiting mandates of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

For years, it has been legal for a person to make a backup copy of content and even share that content with a friend. It is a legal precedent established back in the 1970’s called fair use. In 1998, lawmakers did an end around on fair use by passing the DMCA which made it illegal to circumvent Digital Rights Management of any kind.

On the face of it that doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize that the DMCA makes it illegal to put movies that you purchased on your video iPod. What? Are you serious? The DMCA breaks decades of fair use and freedom. It’s a bad law.

Enter Rick Boucher and John Doolittle. Finally two lawmakers I can believe in! Bravo men, for not taking the money of the Hollywood lobby and standing up for your constituents, the people who just want to watch the movies they own the way they want. Bravo.

It is the first time in a long time I am proud of any lawmakers. It seems trivial when compared to the war in Iraq and some of the other awful thing going on in the world, but get us out of Iraq and I will make another glowing blog entry. But until then, Congressmen Boucher and Doolittle are heroes! (If I could vote for you, I would…you listening Arkansas lawmakers?)

Maybe you have heard about Net Neutrality or maybe you haven’t at any rate, you need to check out this video. It is an open source documentary about Net Neutrality that does a great job of explaining the issue and what it means to everyone who uses the Internet in a quick and entertaining way.

There is a lot at stake in the future of the Internet right now. The future of how we interact with each other over the Internet is being written right now and we need to be involved with that decision.

If I pay for a connection to the Internet then I expect to get that full connection. Why should the phone companies decide what sites I have a good connection with and which sites I have a limited connection. Something about that just doesn’t sound right. At least get educated. This film is only about 10 minutes long, and is pretty cool.

Special thanks to Doc Searls who posted this video in his blog!