FCC Workshops to Cast Wide Net for Broadband Data, Use Cases

The Federal Communications Commission will cast a wide net in crafting a national broadband plan, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told staff Wednesday during an "all-hands" open meeting in preparation for the first of several workshops on use cases for crafting the plan. The Commission is "looking for everyone's ideas," Chairman Genachowski said -- and that the agency would seek input not only from within, but from as diverse a range of opinion as to include users of the Second Life online community. The FCC "town hall" meetings will be simulcast in Second Life, he confirmed. But with the Commission facing a deadline of February of next year, Chairman Genachowski acknowledged he is well aware that time is short, and with seven months to go there remains much to do, "The plan is unwritten," he admitted in an interview following the meeting. But he is confident the FCC can meet its commitments by looking for "opportunities to move the plan forward" by any means. Blair Levin, who joined the Commission as a "broadband czar," compared the national strategy to the E-Rate program established under the 1996 Telecommunications Act.