An ars technica article reports that the Federal Communications Commission is looking for a bidder to provide nationwide free broadband service. A spokesperson for the Commission has told Ars that the FCC wants it to include “content filters.”

Students from the Space Systems Engineering program at the University of Michigan have worked on designing a low-cost system for internet connectivity in developing countries. This presentation focuses on their proposed solution to delivering such capabilities to the rural populations of Africa. In addition, upcoming technologies are discussed that will impact similar missions in the future.

Thanks to Graham Webster of CNET’s Sinobyte, we have audio of Tim Berners-Lee’s press conference at the WWW2008 conference in Beijing last week.

Here is video of a colloquium last week at NYU.

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The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a full committee hearing this morning on that popular current topic ‘The Future of the Internet’. Amongst those testifying were Kevin Martin of the FCC and Larry Lessig of Stanford.

A RealVideo webcast is available which isoc-ny has transcoded to mp3 for convenience.

Pulvermedia’s VON TV service will webcast the FCC’s en banc Hearing on Internet Practices at Stanford Law School on Thursday April 17.

The sessions run from (EST) 3pm-5.15pm and 6pm-10pm.

Here is video of Jonathan Zittrain’s talk last Friday in NYC:

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In a recent article In Slate, part of a series where contributors suggest policy initiatives for the next administration, Prof. Tim Wu of Columbia University calls for, amongst other things, the creation of the post of national Broadband Czar.

Tim was interviewed on NPR last Friday and will be speaking at the colloquium on Wednesday.