Fast Company

Network neutrality is one of business and government's biggest ongoing debates. But even though our lives are increasingly influenced and determined by online interactions, many people have no idea what the phrase means.

A recent Pew Research Center report put a point on how little the debate seems to be engaging the public. Out of the 203 articles that even mentioned net neutrality in 2014, 139 were in the same six papers. Twenty-five out of nearly 3,000 TV news programs discussed the issue. That's 0.8%.

The story's very different on Twitter, where nearly all the 650,000 tweets on the topic expressed support for an open Internet. Then again, Twitter's not even close to a representative sample of the US population.

A separate VentureBeat poll revealed similar findings. Of 714 people surveyed through Google, nearly 60% reported that they didn't even know enough about what net neutrality was. (And these are people already savvy enough to spend enough time on the Internet to take Google surveys.)

So where does that leave us? Well, it leaves journalists with more of a responsibility to report on tech stuff that isn't the sexiest app or most titillating group selfie.

But it's also a strong reminder: Some of the most important fights for public resources aren't made in front of the public. They're made in fluorescent-lit corporate conference rooms, on the least engaging parts of C-SPAN, or in tiny, esoteric debates that only circulate among a handful of people. And sometimes there's only mainstream news about them when it's too late.

With the Snowden revelations, we learned a lot more about how the government snoops into the lives of US citizens and how technology companies help them do it. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's latest "Who Has Your Back?" report doesn't exactly reveal which companies are helping the NSA most. But it paints a picture of those companies that are taking the most action on privacy matters, and those that have more important things to worry about.

The report looks at the policies of 26 Internet companies -- from Internet service providers (ISPs) and email providers, to telecoms and blogging platforms -- across six categories "to assess whether they publicly commit to standing with users when the government seeks access to user data." Nine companies -- Apple, Credo Mobile, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sonic, Twitter, and Yahoo -- gets stars in all categories. Twenty-three companies require a warrant. And 20 companies tell users about government requests. All the companies received at least one star.

A few companies stand out for their lack of policy. Snapchat only scores in one category ("publishing law enforcement guidelines"). "This is particularly troubling because Snapchat collects extremely sensitive user data, including potentially compromising photographs of users," the report says.

But AT&T and Comcast aren't much better. Neither require a warrant before allowing the NSA to view content, and neither tells users about government requests. And neither has sought to protect user rights by lobbying in Congress.

Matt Cutts, a senior member of Google's webspam team, announced in early 2014 that Google is working on a new version of their algorithm designed to help small businesses by pushing spammers and content mills into far less prominent search results.

But because algorithms aren't perfect and lack human editors, Google may have accidentally made search results from many small websites less prominent over time.

Netflix’s streaming service's chief product officer, Neil Hunt, hinted at what the Netflix of the Future might look like. "Our vision is, you won't see a grid and you won't see a sea of titles," said Hunt.

It won't be able to magically pick the perfect movie for you. But there is a "powerful possibility" that future versions will present viewers with just three or four manageable choices at a time.

An internal report obtained by BuzzFeed reveals that the New York Times is, by admission of its own employees, struggling to adapt to a digital publishing landscape.

The Times's "Innovation Report," commissioned by chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and conducted by his son, Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (a journalist at the paper), reveals a newsroom "falling behind" in the "art and science of getting our journalism to readers."

The Times "has watched readership fall significantly." "Not only is the audience on our website shrinking," notes the report, "but our audience on our smartphone apps has dipped, an extremely worrying sign on a growing platform." Per BuzzFeed, the Times is getting trounced by savvier online competitors like the Huffington Post, which are leveraging the Times' reporting to generate traffic.

According to late-night HBO comedian Bill Maher, there are only two ways a nincompoop in the House of Representatives could lose a seat. "You literally have to die or tweet a picture of your penis," he said.

In 2012, when congressional approval ratings dropped to what was then a record low of 10%, Americans somehow reelected 90% of their representatives that same year. But going into the 2014 midterm elections, Maher's strategy has changed. He isn't only using political angst for bits; he's using a segment of the show to try and directly influence a midterm race.

Maher's "Flip a District" project has already begun taking video and social media nominations of representatives his 4.2 million weekly viewers would like to see ousted. The left-leaning Maher has vowed to narrow down a 16-person bracket to one contender and do his best to drive a stake through his or her incumbency.

[Commentary] “Do you know how many great business ideas die in the bank parking lot?” a Colorado woman asked then-First Lady Hillary Clinton 20 years ago. The aspiring entrepreneur had just been turned down, again, for a credit line critical to her technology startup. Today, women still struggle to access the capital they need to spur economic development.

While women entrepreneurs are now understood to be an accelerator of global growth, their difficulty accessing capital is a pernicious global brake. The opportunity cost is profound, given that women’s economic impact is magnified by a "multiplier effect"; women are more likely than men to plough earnings back into their communities, fostering prosperity and stability.

[Ambassador Verveer is executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security and partner at Seneca Point Global, a global women strategy firm; Azzarelli is a partner at Seneca Point Global]

These countries have digitized governments that will put our Healthcare.gov problems to shame, fast broadband Internet speeds beyond comparison, and instead of hookup apps, you’ll see innovations in energy alternatives.

• Estonia: Estonians are the brains behind Skype and Kazaa, an early file-sharing program, and has one the fastest broadband Internet speeds in the world.
• South Korea: The South Korean government promotes its startup economy by pouring $2.7 billion in funding startups and offering tax breaks for big companies that invest in startups.
• Israel: The country boasts more startups per capita than any other country and currently has 70 companies listed on the Nasdaq, making it third only to the US and China on the stock exchange. Not bad for a population of 8.2 million.
• China: With its massive 1.3 billion strong population, entrepreneurs in China will be the ones who can identify unmet needs and use their resources to provide services and tools to meet those needs. Entrepreneurs outside of China can only dream of being able to fill gaps in this massive marketplace.

[Commentary] The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology just released a report analyzing future "big data" scenarios we all may face, alongside a 90-day review of the big data practices led by White House advisor John Podesta.

Health care, crime, smart homes, education, law enforcement, employment -- these are all areas in which big data has promised to deliver miracles. But are the tradeoffs of privacy for convenience (like Rodriguez's) something we really want? If they are, how do we make sure that individuals maintain control over how our information is being used?

You might not be worried about it, but here are three ways in which big data practices might one day affect you. Job Discrimination. Criminal Discrimination. Consumer Discrimination.

When sexism happens on the Internet or in a high-profile setting, Rachel Sklar usually gets a “bat signal” in the form of an e-mail, text, or hashtag alert.

If a high-profile company event lacks female representation, she goes if she can. Someone just made a biased statement about women or diversity? Don’t worry. She’s on it.

Sklar, a former lawyer who writes about media, politics, culture, and tech, became the poster-woman for gender equality when she created the hashtag #changetheratio.

The effort was in response to a 2010 New York magazine story about tech entrepreneurs that featured mostly men. After noting that one of the few women in the photos had her face obscured by the startup owner’s foot as he was being held upside down, “I just thought that was a problem,” she says.