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July 05, 2006
A Cataract-Eyed Vision of an Internet-disabled Future:
As some of you may know, the US Senate Commerce Committee held a series of hearings and a multi-day mark-up of communications "reform" legislation that culminated last week in the Committee's passage of a kluged-together bill, a bill which demonstrates a remarkable misunderstanding of the nature of the Internet and the future of communications.
This lack of understanding is underscored by the very words of the Committee Chairman. Parsing through Chairman Stevens' analysis of the Internet and communications cannot do justice to the degree of misunderstanding. Best for you to hear his words (and the words of his colleagues) with your own ears. My analysis would be dismissed as "hyperbolic hyperbole squared." I direct you to the "abridged truth." For those of you who do not want to waste time sitting through the inane discussion, or simply can't stomach it, a few transcribed highlights are available at: Wired Blogs. The full audio can be found here.
A few personal highlights from the audio of Alaska senator Ted Stevens' comments at the Markup re: Net neutrality:
"An internet was sent by my staff..."
"We don't know enough to turn the Net into a two-tier system, which is exactly what Net neutrality would do"
"We're using the Internet for personal communication. We're not using it for commercial purposes."
Did I mention that this is the man in charge of writing the rules that will govern the future of the Internet and communications?
We actually were on tap to testify before the Senate over the past couple of months, but, for some reason, our invites were revoked, leaving virtually no one to communicate the needs of the Internet community to the Senate.
Ten years ago, our friend, perpetual iconoclast, cognitive dissident and original peripheral visionary, John Perry Barlow wrote "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace." In the manifesto, which has grown in import as government has attempted to reign in the Internet, Barlow declared to all governments that cyberspace was "naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us....Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are based on matter. There is no matter here."
Barlow's "Declaration" came in response to Congressional passage of the 96 Telecom Act. Barlow, in a prescient moment, wrote, "This bill was enacted upon us by people who haven't the slightest idea who we are or where our conversation is being conducted. It is ... as though "the illiterate could tell you what to read."
At least, ten years ago, we had an FCC that had a forward-looking vision and eye towards advancing communications and the Internet, an FCC that did not seem as captive to large corporate interests.
Ten years later it would be great if we could somehow make sure that every legislator and regulator has some level of "Internet competency" before they are allowed to weigh in on our digital future, but in reality this is just a dream or a nightmare in the making depending upon your perspective. We now have to deal with the fact that while many Senators and Representatives are not clued in as to the nature of the Internet, they are the same people who are attempting to rewrite the rules that will shape the future of the Internet and communications. Sounds like a bad plot twist in a science fiction novel. Unfortunately this is our reality. Once again, I give you Chairman Stevens and the Senate Commerce Committee's rearview mirror view of communications.
So now, I don't know where to turn. We have some luddites in Congress moving legislation without any vision of what an IP-enabled future could be. We also have a few junior luddites at the FCC captive to the "moral" right and corporate interests. Maybe it is the time to think about joining the campaign of someone who might become the next US President with the hope of addressing these tech policy issues after the 2008 elections.
Then there are some who say that none of the political debate really matters. Like the Zax in the Dr. Seuss allegory of a world that grew up in spite of those stubbornly clinging to the past, many in our community genuinely believe that government in consort with the corporate establishment cannot stop the inevitable progress of the Internet. I do hope they are right, but we cannot trust that they will be right.
Whether we ultimately prevail in our efforts to revolutionize the ways in which we interact in an IP-enabled world, I do think that politicians and policymakers can do a lot of accidental damage along the way. Maybe, I am just impatient for the inevitable revolution, but I think it is still essential for us to engage government if we are going to see the fruits of progress in our lifetimes. Whether we like it or not, we do not live in a virtual vacuum exempt from the influence of real-world politics.
This is a time to be engaged and to make sure your voice is heard in Washington. By staying quiet in this process you are only ensuring that voices other than your own will prevail.
Tags: VoIP, Congress, Net Neutrality, FCC, 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.)
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Posted by jeff on July 5, 2006 07:21 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: Internet TV Online Guide @ Network2.tv | Voice on the Net Conference | Video on the Net Conference
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Posted by: lee at December 19, 2006 06:40 PM
Contact Senator Ted Stevens at:
Posted by: Mike at July 7, 2006 10:53 AM
Listening to Senator Ted Stevens, it's hard to fathom by what stretch of the imagination anyone felt that this man was well qualified to make policy decisions regarding IP communication. Everything that comes out of his mouth reads like a voip-themed mad libs.
It sounds like he had his secretary cut random words out of tech magazines, then open up an internet tube and woosh the whole mess up to his office. Because that's how the internet works, oh yes. Just like your bank's vacuum delivery system at the drive-through teller. I bet when all his secretary's many hours of word snipping fly out of his computer's ejection tube, it looks like a ticker tape parade. $10 says he uses the words that land butter side up on the desktop.
Congress drives me nuts. I need an open internet. That's how I make my living. Before broadband and voip, waaaay back in 1997, something incredible happened that most of the rest of the US could care less about. I had a baby. So what? Happens all the time.
Except that you, and every other tax payer, helped me raise him for the next 5 years. Because he has achondroplastic dwarfism and health problems. The loss of a second income put us at just above the poverty line, making our family eligible for SSI. I'm grateful for the program, and the health coverage that came with it, but I'd rather be a productive member of society.
Fast forward 9 years, and with broadband and voip, I can meet my deadlines whether I'm sitting in my home office, telecommuting from an out-of-town hospital room, and even file my articles while traveling. My clients can always reach me, even though life sometimes gets chaotic.
These people making decisions in Congress want to pull me out of the tax paying citizen category and send my family back to welfare purgatory. And I'm not alone. There are tons of people out there whose lives just don't fit into a 9-5 job. If everybody is on welfare, who will pay the taxes???
I've written to my Congressional representatives and talked to every one I know. In the end, all I'm left with is a big bruise on my forehead, where I've beaten against the walls. I loved your save the net campaign; maybe people need to understand how the loss of net freedom will affect their bottom line.
Posted by: T. Willie at July 6, 2006 08:01 PM
Tying yourself to a presidential candidate, except maybe Governer Schwartzeneger (who won't be able to run this time around) will leave you stuck with a lot of political baggage.
IMHO, you need to find a former President or Vice President who no longer wants the oval office and have him speak out, like Al Gore is doing for global warming. A Washington insider who can "work" both sides of the street.
Geoff.
Posted by: Geoff Mendelson at July 5, 2006 08:56 AM