I’ve just returned from Rome, where I participated in a debate on the hugely important and difficult subject of net neutrality and what it means for social entrepreneurs.

The debate was organised by the Italian members of the British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020 (TN2020), the British Council, Italy and the American Embassy in Rome.

As a UK member of TN2020, I was invited to speak alongside fellow member Matt Guilford from Chicago.

Net neutrality touches all of us – it’s an issue that the US, UK and Europe are currently grappling with at the highest levels of power.

There’s a lot at stake. Should anyone – be it a company or government – have the power to control what content, data and services flow through the internet? What does all this mean to open-data movements and social enterprises?

In Rome, Matt and I gave an overview of what the US and the UK are doing about net neutrality from a government, corporate and citizen perspective. You can watch my presentation in the video at the top of this post.

Matt spoke about the city of Chicago’s programmes and how they have been feeding into the US’s global broadband strategy. I gave a few examples of how the UK has started to open up its data to let people better understand how it is being used.

After our briefings, there was a fascinating debate. Marco Montemagno, an Italian web entrepreneur and our excellent MC for the evening, encouraged the audience to think about how net neutrality affects Italy and what the country can learn from the global stage.

The audience needed no prompting. We split into teams, exploring how social enterprises could bring about change or tackle issues in Italy and beyond. The ideas were inspiring and challenging, including a foursquare for social good, an online exchange between high schools and universities, and a site similar to Facebook around food and consumer greed.

We finished the evening with networking, exchanging ideas, anxieties and dreams.

I’m looking forward to progressing the great ideas developed with my transatlantic friends. I hope we’ll be able to utilise TN2020 to turn these ideas into reality.

Wil Stephens is a BAFTA award-winning digital producer who founded interactive production company Cube in 2006, one of the leading digital companies in the UK. He is a member of TN2020, a British Council network for action which brings together 150 of Europe and North America’s most dynamic emerging leaders to revitalize transatlantic and global links for the future.

To find out more about TN2020 and opportunities to get involved, visit www.britishcouncil.org/tn2020.htm