A recent study performed by the American Consumer Institute outlined how network companies employ twice as many employees and invest twice as much, dollar for dollar, compared to non-network (edge) IT companies. Click here for NextGenWeb’s coverage around the ACI study.
Gary Kim, Contributing Editor atTMCnet.com, has chimed in on this vantage point of the Net neutrality debate. As was detailed in his recent article on TMC.net, there is a significant gap in the number of people employed between opponents and proponents of increased Internet regulation:
“If one adds up all the employees working at firms that have filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission that opposed ‘network neutrality,’ compared to the number of employees of firms that say they favor such rules, you would find that firms opposed to net neutrality directly employ 1,440,021 workers while supporters directly employ 148,936 workers.”
These numbers demonstrate that investments by network providers are a very significant factor in the Internet ecosystem. Investments underpin jobs and the policies in place over the last few years have helped stimulate major network investments, factors that should be considered in the current policy debate.
The FCC’s open Internet proceeding has spawned much conversation – and debate – over whether or not new regulations are required for the Internet of tomorrow. The Internet of tomorrow – just stop and think about what that means for a moment. While there are no doubt a handful of smart people out there who ten years ago may have envisioned the Internet of today, we feel safe in saying that the dynamic platforms that have exploded onto the scene these past few years weren’t on the radars of many. From YouTube to Twitter to rapid growth in eHealth and online commerce, the Internet has been a beacon of light in a rather stormy economy.
It’s hard to imagine whether these and countless other innovations would have manifested themselves on an Internet stifled with regulation. But what good is hindsight. Looking down the road, we have to ask what will our open Internet look like should the FCC issue rules that many fear (see below) will put a stranglehold on a thriving Internet and broadband marketplace. But you know where we stand – so you shouldn’t just take it from us. You should read the public comments filed during the FCC’s Net neutrality NPRM proceeding.
In addition, we caught up with Harry Alford, President of the National Black Chamber of Commerce and Justin Nelson from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to make sure they had a platform here on NextGenWeb to be heard. In these interviews you will hear important leaders from the minority community talk about the importance of a National Broadband Plan, and why Net neutrality is a step in the wrong direction when it comes to ensuring the rapid adoption of high-speed Internet by those Americans who are missing out on the promise.
It’s a critical time – and we want these voices to be heard.
President Obama is facing a number of serious challenges as his second year in office gets underway. A struggling economy, job losses, a growing number of foreclosures … the list goes on. As he often does, the president took to the Internet as a means to converse with the American people on these important topics. Less than a week after his State of the Union, he gave a live interview on YouTube.
The first question caught the attention of former Clinton Administration economist, Ev Ehrlich, a good friend to NextGenWeb.
The Big Ideas Big Action (BIBA) conference, sponsored by iStrategyLabs and FedScoop, took place at the Wooly Mammoth Theater in Washington, DC earlier this week. Hundreds of people self-identified on their nametags as “.edu,” “.mil,” “.org,” and “.com” to better exchange ideas after a morning of speakers who told their personal success stories of taking ideas from conceptualization to ACTION.
The fact that people identified by their web address domains spoke not only to a modern order of societal organization, but also to the central theme that emerged from the conference — how the Internet empowers everyone to execute their idea. From market research to development, the broadband-enabled web was the tool most cited for success.
Watch this video, produced by Erica Anderson, to get an inside glimpse into the conference:
On February 2, Third way hosted an event titled “Bigger, Faster, Louder; Broadband & Economic Growth.” Click below to watch archived footage of the event.
NextGenWeb had the opportunity to again live stream the Silicon Flatirons Digital Broadband Migration Conference this year in Boulder, CO. In case you were unable to watch the sessions live, we have made the archived footage available below.
Day 1, Morning Session
Welcome
* Dale Hatfield
Executive Director, Silicon Flatirons Center
Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado
Former Chief Engineer, Federal Communications Commission
Overview Address
* Phil Weiser
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice
Overview Panel: The Internet Ecosystem in Perspective
* Brad Feld
Managing Director, Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital
* Dale Hatfield
Executive Director, Silicon Flatirons Center
Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado
Former Chief Engineer, Federal Communications Commission
* Larissa Herda
Chairman, CEO, and President, tw telecom inc.
* Michael Powell
Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
Senior Advisor, Providence Equity
* Meredith Attwell Baker
Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission
* Marc Berejka
Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce
* Lisa Tanzi
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Business Division, Microsoft Corporation
Moderator
* Phil Weiser
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice
Day 1, First Afternoon Session
Evolving Business Models and Policy Challenges for the Content Industries
Moderator
* Jonathan Sallet
Silicon Flatirons Senior Adjunct Fellow, University of Colorado
Managing Director, The Glover Park Group
Presenters
* Mark Cooper
Silicon Flatirons Senior Adjunct Fellow, University of Colorado
Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
* Ellen Goodman
Professor of Law, Rutgers University-Camden
* Mark Lemley
William H. Neukom Professor of Law, Stanford University
Discussants
* Michael Gallagher
President and CEO, Entertainment Software Association
* Preston Padden
Executive Vice President, Walt Disney Company
* Gigi Sohn
President and Co-founder, Public Knowledge
Day 1, Second Afternoon Session
Industry Structure and Opportunities for Innovation
Moderator
* Ari Fitzgerald
Partner, Hogan & Hartson
Presenters
* Carl Shapiro
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
* Howard Shelanski
Deputy Director for Antitrust, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission
* Daniel Weitzner
Associate Administrator for Policy, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
Discussants
* Kathryn C. Brown
Senior Vice President, Public Policy & Corporate Responsibility, Verizon
* Jon Nuechterlein
Partner, WilmerHale
* Stephen Williams
Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
Day 2
Keynote Address
* Jack Waters
Level 3 Communications
The Governance Challenges of Cooperation In The Internet Ecosystem
Moderator
* Paul Ohm
Associate Professor of Law, University of Colorado
Presenters
* Pierre de Vries
Silicon Flatirons Senior Adjunct Fellow, University of Colorado
* Michael Froomkin
Professor of Law, University of Miami
* Frank Pasquale
Professor of Law, Seton Hall University
Discussants
* Edward Felten
Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, Princeton University
* Brent Olson
Assistant Vice President, Public Policy, AT&T
Day 2, Closing Address
* Larry Strickling
Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce
The Free State Foundation held their Annual Winter Telecom Policy Conference last Friday, drawing in a packed crowd to hear experts and leaders from the FCC discuss issues like investment, net neutrality, and the national broadband plan. The morning kicked off with a keynote address from FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who says the FCC must “first, do no harm,” also believes that if the FCCC were to adopt stringent Net neutrality regulations, the question of the agency’s legal ability to do so would likely go to court. You can read the full text of McDowell’s speech here.
Speaking on behalf of the FCC, Paul de Sa, Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, offered his insider view of the FCC’s soon-to-be-released Broadband Plan. de Sa reminded the audience and fellow panelists that what’s not in the strategic plan is as important as what’s in it. “The point of the plan is to figure out what our focus should be,” he said.
The panel on Net neutrality was, of course, the most impassioned. There is core agreement that the Internet is a unique ecosystem and that we want to promote innovation, and even transparency. However, there is an outstanding question of whether there is even a problem to be solved by regulation and if so, who has the authority and oversight to do so? Verizon’s Tom Tauke says solution is in industry self-governance, suggesting the processes at the FCC are too slow for the rapid pace of the Internet. Similarly, Rob Atkinson of ITIF believes that we should be especially cautious in about potential harms of regulation on our thriving Internet ecosystem and innovation.
Professor Christopher Yoo brought a new dynamic to the Net neutrality dialogue, beginning with a discussion of how the current architecture of the Internet is fundamentally inefficient. “The Internet was designed for point-to-point connection,” he said, noting that we now have needs like security, mobility, interactive media, cloud computing, and more. With that, he urges that without even consensus among technical experts and the engineering community about how the Internet should run, we should refrain from imposing regulations.
Watch the video below or click here for more of Prof. Christopher Yoo’s views on Net neutrality.
A group of experts took the stage last week to discuss “Transforming Government Through Technology” at the State of the Net conference. Moderated by the White House’s Andrew McLaughlin, voices representing government agencies, the public interest, and technology innovation not only joined the Gov 2.0 chorus, but added the importance of a cultural shift to the usual conversation.
Dr. Robert E. Neilson, representing the U.S. Army, is excited that he can now access his network anywhere. He says the Army now uses a wiki for their training doctrine, which means that any time a field manual is going to change they post to the wiki. He mentioned his latest initiative, “Apps for the Army” as the first time he won’t have to go through an acquisition process for technology – a great example of the cultural shift. Now his greatest challenge? Bringing these changes and technologies to the DoD, Navy, Marines, etc.
Clay Johnson of Sunlight Foundation was the strongest advocate for the cultural shift. He hopes to not only see cultural change in the technologies, but more importantly in those who create and implement policies. Johnson believes we need more rewards for being open and taking risks inside of government and believes we need to change the incentive model to do this. “One of the greatest inventions in baseball was the RBI. We need an RBI for government effectiveness.”
Jim Geringer of ESRI said that technology should be much more than an accounting project – that we need to fundamentally change the way we govern. He believes we need to go beyond open government and go to the external, to the democratization of information and participation. He believes that we are already moving towards Internet-based delivery of government services, but thinks we can do more to make information usable, especially with visualization.
Director of Government Operations for the FCC, Eugene Huang urged strongly to allow government to take advantage of technology and innovation to truly reach its full potential. He noted that although crisis brings together shared communities, that we now have the ability to create shared communities of interest before or without a crisis.
Huang also gave some tips on what we can look forward to in the National Broadband Plan, naming innovation, investment, inclusion, and improvements in government as key points.
The American Consumer Institute hosted an event on Capitol Hill today to release their latest study, “The Internet Ecosystem: Employment Impacts of National Broadband Policy.” The study offers a third path to addressing today’s economic challenges. Instead of looking to traditional fiscal and monetary solutions, the author, Dr. Larry Darby, suggests identifying the sectors, like technology, that are creating jobs and avoid adding additional regulatory burdens that might interfere with them.
Dr. Darby, along with co-authors Steve Posciask and Dr. Joseph Fuhr, demonstrates in the study the dramatic impact Net neutrality regulations would have on network investment. “And you don’t get jobs without investment,” Dr. Darby said. He urged the room of Hill staff to consider not only the past failures of other government-run Internet networks, but to think about the long term economic opportunities with companies that consistently reinvest their capital. Nowhere is this more relevant than in this most recent study where empirical data shows how much investment broadband providers commit to America’s communications infrastructure.
You can watch the event in its entirety below. Click here to download a copy of the report.
The Congressional Internet Caucus not only delivers a comprehensive policy discussion at the State of the Internet conference, but also lets the audience experience the technology hands-on at the Kickoff Technology Policy Exhibition. The reception area was packed last evening with members and staff perusing exhibit booths, which included demonstrations from broadband companies that included AT&T.
One of the busiest booths was that of Connected Nation, the organization that facilitates public-private partnerships to deliver broadband to underserved areas. Connected Nation has teamed up with ESRI to create interactive broadband coverage maps. This new mapping application, called BroadbandStat, analyzes the broadband landscape and will help with stimulus tracking, consumer information, and economic development.
Take a virtual walk through the floor and watch an interview with Connected Nation and ESRI below!!
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