Transforming Google "Mobile Movement" and Facebook's "Profile" Changes into a Public debate on Digital Future

We must become proactive stewards of a sustainable digital environment.  That means not allowing the major digital marketing companies, such as Google and Facebook, to determine what the "digital destiny" will be for our communities and the Republic.  As we noted in the last post, we believe that concerned members of the online community must take action to ensure that the forces unleashed to generate greater local advertising, data collection, targeting of individual users and groups (such as via social media advertising) will serve the greater "common good."   Rather than allow the commercial market to determine the structure and impact of localized online services, we should help shape the "digital gravity" to promote sustainability, equity, community and democracy.
 
Google touts what it call the "Mobile Movement."  Facebook alters its format to capture more data to better serve global advertisers.  All of these changes reflect the further transformation of the digital media environment that will not automatically democratize how economic resources and political power are shared in our society.  What's happening isn't really a "Movement," as Google suggests.  In Google's vew, sadly, it appears to be primarily the rapid growth of technological innovation to be tapped for more ad and marketing revenues.  Mobile should be a "Movement" for digital democracy--where ads have their place supporting what needs to be done to reinvigorate our democratic culture. We have a window of opportunity to assert again what the public intererst should mean in the digital era.