Forget superPACs, the web's got a bus

One of the only things it appears both parties in this year's election agree on is that the media has done an awful job of tackling the issues that really matter. And Alex Ohanian is in that same boat.

Ohanian is the 29-year-old Internet entrepreneur behind what is probably my favorite website, Reddit.com, which he sold to magazine-giant Conde Nast straight out of college.

Zach White

Since then he has started several new websites and has been a vocal advocate of keeping the Internet as free and open as possible.

Ohanian and I agree that preserving the freedom of the Internet is one of the most important issues of our time, yet it is nearly ignored by both candidates.

That's why, last week, Ohanian announced he will be embarking on an "Internet 2012" bus tour, partially funded by contributions made on the online fundraising site Indiegogo.com.

"We want to meet you — the awesome Americans using the Internet to start businesses, sell your crafts on Etsy, build manufacturing studios in your garage, launch political campaigns, raise money for teachers. We want to tell your stories," the donation page says.

The bus itself will be half red and half blue, to demonstrate how Internet freedom is everyone's concern.

"We want the candidates to one-up each other on this issue, to try and out-open-Internet each other. That's the goal of this," Ohanian said in a story on Forbes.com. "The Republican party is going to be more concerned with the government screwing up the open Internet, and the Democratic party will be concerned about large corporations screwing up the Internet. We don't want anyone to screw up the Internet. Let's take advantage of this common ground."

The tour, scheduled for October, will travel from Denver, where the first presidential debate will happen, to Danville, Va., the location of this year's only vice presidential debate.

The massive community on Ohanian's first project, Reddit, have pledged to cover the majority of the costs of the tour, like the bus, with gas and driver, while the online pledges from http://www.indiegogo.com/internet2012 will go "to get a graphic wrap for the bus, host events across the country, and document and share the stories we find with the whole Internet," according to that site.

I really hope it's effective. So far both candidates have been pretty quiet on these sorts of issues.

Mitt Romney has come out against net neutrality, the concept that it should be illegal for your Internet service provider to treat parts of the web differently. Net neutrality advocates fear this could lead to a web of the highest bidder, where only the websites with the most money would work well. In fact Comcast was in hot water earlier this year for putting limits on video streaming services like Netflix, but not on their own Xfinity program, giving themselves an unfair advantage.

Barack Obama has, as on many issues, tried to keep quiet. The only time I recall him making a statement on Internet freedoms was his announced intention to veto worrisome Internet bills SOPA and PIPA earlier this year. But it wasn't too courageous to speak against a bill that filled popular hubs like Facebook, Google and Wikipedia. And he was never called on it since, so who knows.

What I do know is that I am glad Sen. Joe Lieberman is not anywhere near this race, because no, Mr. Lieberman, our government does not need to be any more like China's.

(Zach White is a Havre Daily News reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].)