In his announcement this morning that he will open a new regulatory proceeding aimed at expanding the role of government “to preserve the open Internet,” FCC Chairman Genachowski talked about the importance of transparency and reasonable network management.
We have championed these concepts here at NextGenWeb. One reflects the basic belief that consumers should be informed about their broadband service and the other allows network engineers—on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis—to keep the Internet secure and highly functioning for the country and the world.
There was much to find encouraging in Chairman Genachowski’s remarks. He reveled in the innovation and investment our nation has enjoyed over the last 40 years, ever since “a bunch of researchers in a lab changed the way computers interact and, as a result, changed the world.”
It also was encouraging to hear him note the importance of broadband-fueled investment and innovation to the future of health care, education, energy and other vital national priorities that a robust, well-managed Internet helps advance.
But most importantly, he pointed out a critical and central fact to the coming debate. “We cannot know what tomorrow holds on the Internet,” he said, “except that it will be unexpected.”
It’s my hope that reasonable folks on both sides of the “net neutrality” debate hear the implications of that statement. It makes a compelling case that we proceed with caution when it comes to greater government involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Internet. Even the best and brightest innovators have trouble predicting and planning for the future. Can Washington do a better job?
Chairman Genachowski rightly notes that broadband is “an unprecedented platform for speech, democratic engagement, and a culture that prizes creative new ways of approaching old problems.” It is our hope many people will use the Internet to have a voice in these proceedings. In fact, the FCC started a new site today, www.openinternet.gov, just for this purpose. At the same time, we hope the debates will remain “fact-driven,” something the Chairman has said is of primary importance to something this critical to our nation.
We will have a lot to say during these proceedings. Much of it will be supportive because we’re big believers in transparency and network management. But at times, we may also serve as a respectful voice of dissent, warning about the laws of unintended consequences and making the case for policies that support investment and innovation in the networks that allows consumers to have the kind of Internet experience they want. And, you will hear us talk about the true state of competition and consumer choice in the U.S. broadband market.
*All Americans enjoy an open Internet today. But all of us also deserve robust and innovative broadband networks in the future. That’s the meaning of the asterisk on my headline: An open Internet is a good thing. But the success or failure of the specific policies that aim to advance it lies in the details.
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September 28th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
[...] influential voice of dissent to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal to dramatically expand and codify so-called “net neutrality” principles into [...]