i2Coalition Turns Three, Continues To Fight The Internet Killers

Today we are proud to mark the occasion of i2Coalition’s third birthday. That’s three years of fighting for innovation on the cloud – three years of building a legacy of advocacy, education and best practices that is making the Internet a better, safer place for the countless businesses that make up the cloud. Thanks to each and every one of you, we’ve built a collective voice for Internet infrastructure companies to ensure that this industry continues to survive and thrive – and we’ve made a huge difference.

We came together over SOPA/PIPA. It was a critical moment, not just for our industry, but for every Internet user. Now, after everything from the NSA revelations to Ashley Madison, consumer confidence in the cloud has been heavily eroded. The Internet needs us more than ever.

To commemorate our third birthday and everything we’ve accomplished, let’s take a brief look back at how we came to be, and what is yet to come.

Before there was the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, we organized an informal group called Save Hosting Coalition, which was laser-focused on fighting COICA, the precursor to SOPA & PIPA, and then to SOPA & PIPA when they came along. We became national players in that fight with our letter writing cmpaigns, op-eds, Congressional fly-ins, and our bold advertising campaign warning the U.S. Congress of hese Internet killers.

That’s why we started the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, or i2Coalition – to keep the Internet killers at bay and to protect the Cloud and its innovators. The basic premise is simply to be the collective voice of the Internet infrastructure industry, the companies that build the Internet. Since we build it, we should have a say in what happens to it. It’s obvious that legislators (and most people) don’t fully understand how the Internet works, as evidenced by the sometimes misguided laws that get drafted, so we collectively take responsibility to teach and guide. Education is our best source of advocacy.

In the past three years, we’ve endeavored to take our fight beyond the U.S. and into the global arena. No matter where we go, we’re always underdogs. When we talk to legislators, many of them have the impression that the Internet is something that AT&T and the telcos built, and that a few companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple use. They don’t realize that small and medium sized businesses make up the heart and soul of the Internet economy. They don’t know that there are 35,000 companies building the infrastructure to connect people and bring them online. They don’t understand that these companies bring not just jobs, but jobs that help every business around the world grow and thrive.  

Over the past three years we’ve found that it isn’t just a lack of Internet education that we need to overcome. To some, the equalizing, democratic, messy, uncontrolled and rivalrous effects that flow from the Internet’s open nature are bad, not good. The open Internet poses a real threat to the established economic and political order – and their long term plan is to, step by step, ensure that their established order prevails. Our job is ensure that those efforts don’t roll back the progress we’ve made, or limit our ability to innovate.

When we look at the next three years we want to see more members helping us do more. It takes a lot of time and money to make a difference, and those of us already participating can’t do it alone. By growing our membership we can continue to grow our already impressive voice on issues like patents, cybersecurity, Internet privacy, information sharing, data flows, IANA, trade negotiations and encryption just to name a few.

One way members can help is to join us this November. The Third Annual Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) Washington D.C. Fly-In is November 17th and 18th, 2015. We’re inviting representatives from our member companies to join us in Washington D.C. for a chance to meet directly with U.S. legislators to discuss the issues that face our industry in-depth and in-person. Members who have attended in previous years have let us know that they’ve gotten tremendous value out of joining. It’s a wonderful networking opportunity, and one of the most substantive things you can do to make a difference in fighting for this industry. Please sign up if you are interested in attending, and we will follow up with hotel and travel information.

Do so by clicking here: http://flyin.i2coalition.com

Thanks to all who have supported i2Coalition’s efforts in its first three years of fighting the Internet Killers and here’s to the next three!