My 2014 resolution: stop my country from becoming a surveillance state | Dan Gillmor

This will be a vital year in the fight for privacy and an open internet. All Americans should join the cause before it's too late

Our New Year's resolutions tend to be well-meaning and hard to keep. That's because we resolve to change our lives in fundamental ways – get fit, etc. But inertia and habit are the enemy of change, and we usually fall back into old patterns. It's human nature.

Despite all that, I've made a resolution for 2014. It is to do whatever I can to reverse my country's trajectory toward being a surveillance state, and to push as hard as possible for a truly open internet.

I realize I can't do much on my own, and hope many others, especially journalists, will join in. This year may be pivotal; if we don't make progress, or worse, lose ground, it may be too late.

Thanks to whistleblowers, especially Edward Snowden, and the journalists who've reported on what they've been shown, the citizens of many countries have a far better idea than before about the extent to which security and law enforcement services have invaded their lives. We've learned about the stunning capabilities of the National Security Agency and others to create a real-life Panopticon, spying on and recording everything we say and do. We've learned that they abuse their powers – because that is also human nature – and lie incessantly, even to the people who are supposed to keep them in check. And we've learned that the technology industry is, if not in bed with the surveillance state, its chief arms dealer.

Meanwhile, the telecom industry – and its corporate and political allies – have been working hard to turn the internet into just an enhanced form of cable television. They are trying to end any vestige of what's come to be known as "network neutrality", the idea that we users of the internet, not the corporate middlemen, should make the decisions about what bits of information get delivered to our devices.

These forces of centralized control are pushing laws and policies that amount to an abrogation of free speech and free assembly. They don't just chill our ability to communicate. They also threaten innovation and our economy.

Yet there has also been some progress. Earlier whistleblowers who didn't have Snowden's documentation have been vindicated. Members of Congress who've been warning, obliquely, about what was happening have been proven right, and have made dramatic inroads with colleagues who want to rein in some of the spying. Several technology companies are claiming to be outraged by what's been going on, and say they're taking steps to bolster their customers' and users' security. Several federal judges have chosen to uphold their oath of office by ruling that some of the NSA's activities violate the constitution. Public opinion is evolving.

The open internet isn't dead, either. The new head of the Federal Communications Commission has said he wants to protect net neutrality (though he's also made troubling suggestions about fast lanes for certain content). New technology initiatives are emerging that could help protect us as well, such as the Open Technology Institute's just-launched Commotion project to create c