NEWS Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974). News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: October 27, 2009 Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253 Email: mark.wigfield@fcc.gov FCC EXPANDS USE OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS FOR OPEN INTERNET INQUIRY Washington, D.C. – Easy-to-use, interactive, collaborative web tools – known as Web 2.0 applications – will be a key part of the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to involve the public in the Open Internet inquiry launched last week. The FCC has already established the OpenInternet.gov web site as a portal for public participation in the discussion about preserving the free and open Internet. Among the links included on the site is one to Idealscale at http://openinternet.ideascale.com/, which allows the public to evaluate, rank and discuss the ideas regarding the open Internet. The page breaks the discussion down into ten open Internet topics that have generated widespread interest, including freedom of speech, innovation, transparency/disclosure, and others. Also available at OpenInternet.gov is a blog at http://blog.openinternet.gov/, which provides an additional forum for public comment and debate. Comments from the blog and the Ideascale page (other than anonymous comments) will be included in the official public record of the Open Internet inquiry, along with comments filed through traditional channels at the FCC. And one of those traditional channels – the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) at http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs2/ – became much easier to use and search this month with the launch of ECFS 2.0. These new and improved pathways for communication are part of a broader effort at the FCC to encourage and facilitate public participation. Other efforts include the FCC Live page, http://www.fcc.gov/live/ , which provides a link to more robust web-streaming capabilities for Commission events, including its public meetings, while providing easy access to the public documents that provide the backdrop for these events. During the Commission’s October meeting on the Open Internet inquiry, two-and-one-half times more viewers watched the web stream compared to earlier meetings. The FCC previously announced the use of other popular social media sites to increase public participation, including Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FCC , YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/fccdotgovvideo , and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/FCC. Over 90,000 people are now following the FCC’s tweets. Another new page, www.broadband.gov, was launched to encourage public participation in the Commission’s development of a National Broadband Plan. In August, the FCC launched a portal for RSS feeds at www.fcc.gov/rss, and continues to increase the catalog of data feeds available as part of its commitment to opening government data and furthering transparency. -FCC- News about the Federal Communications Commission can also be found on the Commission’s web site www.fcc.gov.