'Tis the Season for Transition Meetings

[Commentary] On Tuesday, individuals representing two dozen public interest organizations and foundations attended an intense and deeply substantive meeting with Federal Communications Commission Agency Review Team Co-Chairs Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach, who were joined by Larry Strickling of the Presidential Transition Team. The topics ranged from improving access to broadband to spectrum reform, to Network Neutrality, to text messaging to how to improve the FCC's processes. A second meeting with Alec Ross of the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform Policy Working Group focused on "Public Media 2.0," with presentations by independent media and technology producers and distributors such as the Independent Television Service (ITVS), Public Radio Exchange and the National Public Lightpath Initiative. The groups urged the transition to think of public media as more than PBS and NPR, and to provide opportunities for more grassroots oriented public media.