If you can make it to Washington, D.C. in March, check out the Freedom to Connect conference. It was started by David S. Isenberg, most famous for a 1997 paper that many think set the whole environment for understanding developments on the Internet up to and including Web 2.0–David introduced the term “stupid network” into the conversation.

These past few years have seen accelerated change in the Internet, combining evolution on the user side (Web 2.0 participation), the server side (billion-dollar consolidations), and the infrastructure between (as telephone companies finally started providing fiber, and the network neutrality debate broke one). All these things will be brought together by Freedom to Connect, whose speakers include Yochai Benkler, Susan Crawford,Dan Gillmor, Reed Hundt, and many other interesting folks.