10. Ensuring Diversity of Viewpoint
In the final analysis, the value of the digital communications infrastructure will depend not on the seeming cornucopia of choices that the entertainment industry is determined to bring to our doorsteps, but rather on the options that independent and alternative voices--including those from within our own communities--have in contributing to that media mix. Our goal, in short, should be to ensure that the diversity and democracy that have long defined the Internet are preserved in the new broadband systems that will increasingly become the information and communication lifelines of our communities. Projects such as the Independent Media Center (a network of over 50 collectively run media outlets around the world), Transom.org (which uses the Internet to introduce new voices to noncommercial radio), and NewMusicJukebox (an online library and listening room operated by the American Music Center) provide models for the kinds of do-it-ourselves programming that represents the best chance for achieving true media diversity.