In more central news today, Slashdot notes a good indicator for President-Elect Obama’s stance on net neutrality. The Obama-Biden Transition Team announced that “Susan Crawford, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, member of the board of directors of ICANN, and OneWebDay founder, as well as Kevin Werbach, former FCC staffer, organizer of the annual Supernova technology conference, and a Wharton professor, will lead the Obama-Biden transition team's review of the FCC.” As usual for Slashdot posts, the entry says little more, but it is always interesting to read the normally pithy and modded Slashdot commentary. Elsewhere on the web, Will Richardson at Weblogg-ed is also happy about this. The idea that broadband internet access should be considered a utility like electricity or water--something necessary for the common good and survival--is a huge change from the corporate-centered view that considered it a luxury or entertainment and concentrated mostly on how best to control access for the purpose of maximizing profits. Granted, business needs profits, but people also need basics for life, and free access to information is a core concept in the United States, the necessary flip-side of freedom of speech.

*Update*

More evidence of Presidency 2.0--Obama follows through on his promise to have weekly YouTube “fireside chats.” Here is the first (found via Gizmodo). YouTube clip after the jump: