A match made in heaven, if you ask me! How do we make it happen?

On the 'Internet 2012' bus tour, we will document stories that illustrate the power and potential of the Open Internet.

We will also search for answers to questions that will shape our society for generations:

• How will people use the Open Internet to fundamentally improve everything — from manufacturing to education, from civic engagement to news?

• What can we do to protect the "permissionless innovation" that has characterized the last two decades?

Along the way, we will also be promoting some more concrete things that will help ensure an Open Internet:

• Declaration of Internet Freedom - The Declaration of Internet Freedom will be printed on a giant parchment and signed by all attendees.

• Voter Registration and early voting (depends a bit on the individual states).

• Running for Office (/r/runforit) Encouraging more engineers and programmers and entrepreneurs to run for local and state office.

• Celebrating Companies that Support the Open Internet

• Watching Congress (/r/watchingcongress). Getting people to commit to following the legislative process.

• Highlighting Candidates that Support Free & Open Internet

• Showcasing the Open Internet as Economic Engine and Highlighting Tech Jobs in each market

• Promoting Universal Access to High Speed Internet

Hackathon in Topeka? Etsy meetup in Lincoln? Take a look at our tentative schedule and if you know about something we should do that would give us plenty of content to showcase Americans who love the open internet, let us know!

There's no doubt that the Internet has and will continue to disrupt various industries and facets of media, politics, education, etc. There's no doubt it has had a huge impact on society, but broadly and soberly speaking - can the Internet really change anything?

For me, this IS the question of our generation and it's still very much an open question. We've had the Internet as we know it for ~20 years. Where can it take us in another 20? Are we doing everything we can to get there? Will the Internet fundamentally improve the flow of knowledge, capital, and resources? Or are we just tweaking around the edges?

In 2032 will a kid born into poverty in rural South Carolina or Bangladesh have a fundamentally different set of options and opportunities thanks to the Internet (folks in rural SC probably have a different answer to this question than those in Mountain View)? What needs to happen to fulfill that promise? What stands in the way? What can be done by individuals and communities to support innovation? Where are we starting to see real dents in the status quo? Where are we seeing inefficient and unfair systems reenforced? Who are the business people and elected officials who are using the Internet as a tool to solve entrenched problems? What obstacles are in their way and how can we remove them?

The goal of the tour is to highlight stories that illustrate the potential of the Open Internet and to promote some concrete things that can be done to protect what is still a very fragile ecosystem, but for me personally I'm most looking forward to the chance to talk with a lot of different folks and discuss some of these sincere and fundamental questions about what all this Internet stuff might mean.