« Tony Walsh on Vivox and Second Life: | Main | SOS Heard: Thanks for Continuing to spread the word about our Post-Disaster Communications Petition at the FCC »
April 13, 2006
SOS to the Blogosphere: Please Comment and Spread the Word on our Post-Disaster Communications Petition at the FCC
On Monday the FCC put out for public comment the Post-Disaster Communications Petition that Tom Evslin and I filed back in March. While there was some “blogosphere buzz” around the initial filing of the petition, now that it is out for public comment, we need to engage the public to comment on the petition.
So if you agree with the simple request in the Petition, I ask URGE you to participate in the Comment cycle and spread the world amongst others that might care.
Comments are due by: April 27, 2006 so the window is short for both spreading the word and for submitting comments.
The FCC has made the electronic comment filing procedure VERY simple. All you really need to do to weigh in is go to: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi, enter RM-11327 in the first line where it requests the "Proceeding" (this is the Petitions "RM" number), fill in the other minimal contact info requirements, and submit a brief statement in support.
If you are a blogger and if you would also like to see something positive put in place before the next public disaster, so that refugees and other victims who have lost access to their phone number and traditional mode of communication are assured a communications life-line, PLEASE spread the word of this petition, and take a moment and submit your own comments.
Special thanks to: Bruce Stewart and VoIP You for already blogging about this. I can only hope that more people take a moment and add themselves to this list.
Tags: Post-Disaster Communications, FCC, Katrina, Tom Evslin, Jeff Pulver
(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)
Posted by jeff on April 13, 2006 08:24 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
We at voip-weblog have gone ahead and support your cause. A worthwhile mention has been made in my post javascript:void window.open(%27http%3A%2F%2Fdel.icio.us%2Fpost%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.voip-weblog.com%2F50226711%2Fjeff_pulver_and_tom_evslin_post_disaster_communications_petition_goes_public.php%27%2C%27popup%27%2C%27width%3D600px%2Cheight%3D480px%2Cstatus%3D0%2Clocation%3D0%2Cresizable%3D1%2Cscrollbars%3D1%2Cleft%3D120%2Ctop%3D100%27%2C0%29
Posted by: gautam at April 21, 2006 06:12 AM
i have gone ahead and supported your petition in my blog. We are with you tom and jeff.
Posted by: gautam at April 21, 2006 06:09 AM
A very worthwhile cause. We just put up an editorial on VoIP-News about the effort and linking to the relevant spots to read and make comments http://www.voip-news.com/news/fcc-disaster-comment-period-041406/
Posted by: Owen Linderholm at April 14, 2006 07:28 PM
A valid effort indeed, approaching the matter of removing restrictions in terms that help play upon the political games that the telecoms are already playing. They claim safety concerns to restrict VoIP. You claim safety concerns to remove those restrictions. Of course, in the case of disasters like Katrina, there is HARD evidence that VoIP was not only essential in maintaining communications between relief organisations and even within the government, but also in assisting refugees. It was for this reason that the Dept. of Homeland Security started looking at VoIP as a required method of communications within the government, and it should be clear that placing restrictions on it for 'safety' reasons is simply attempting to muddy the waters.
Posted by: Neil Fusillo at April 14, 2006 07:17 AM
Jeff,
Have you spoken to home insurures. They would probably like this. It is another service that they can offer home owners.
Example, when you get home insurance you can sign off that you give them permission to list your home number under their block of numbers to move to a backup VOIP service which they have a long term emergency contract with.
They can also start offering some small protection for those that can not really afford full protection. Ex: for x per year they would offer emergency evactuation insurance which includes telephone service, a few nights of housing and food.
No, paragraph breaks fun fun fun. I guess I just never learned moveable type sorry.
Posted by: crazyman in NYC at April 14, 2006 05:38 AM
Jeff, maybe more people would repost messages like this for you, if you didn't have such a strict copyright notice at the bottom.
Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 03:08 PM