August 2008

On Thursday, Sen John McCain's campaign released his proposed technology policies. The paper claims John McCain has a broad and cohesive vision for the future of American innovation. His policies will provide broad pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America, a commitment to a skilled and educated workforce, and a dedication to opening markets around the globe. He's committed to streamlining burdensome regulations and effectively protecting American intellectual property in the United States and around the globe. The campaign also says Sen McCain is "uniquely qualified to lead our nation during this technological revolution" because of he is the former chairmen of the Senate Commerce Committee. "Under John McCain's guiding hand," the paper reads, "Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park."

As President, John McCain promises to: 1) Encourage investment in innovation, 2) Develop a skilled work force, 3) Champion open and fair trade, 4) Reform intellectual property protection, 5) Keep the Internet and entrepreneurs free of unnecessary regulation, and 6) Ensure a fully connected citizenry.

Speaking for Sen Barack Obama's campaign former Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard, said, "Senator McCain's technology plan doesn't put Americans first -- it is a rehash of tax breaks and giveaways to the big corporations and their lobbyists who advise the McCain campaign. This plan won't do enough for hardworking Americans who are still waiting for competitive and affordable broadband service at their homes and businesses. It won't do enough to ensure a free and open Internet that guarantees freedom of speech. It won't do anything to ensure that we use technology to bring transparency to government and free Washington from the grip of lobbyists and special interests. Senator McCain's plan would continue George Bush's neglect of this critical sector and relegate America's communications infrastructure to second-class status. That's not acceptable."

[Commentary] Sen John McCain's plan has good points: supporting research and development, increasing H1-B Visas, tax breaks for R&D, supporting national broadband buildout, increasing government transparency, reforming the patent system. Good points, in fact, that Sen Obama has included in his plan released last November. But there are contrasts, too, on Network Neutrality, Diversity of Media Ownership, Lowering Corporate Tax rates, and their General Worldview Towards Technology. Meinrath notes this nugget: "Offering simple common sense solutions to real problems is at the core of the McCain's innovation agenda." And writes, "[T]his McCain worldview that scares the hell out of me. Technology is complicated -- and the solutions we need are fairly complex -- they require an in depth understanding of the problem if you're going to formulate a solution. And McCain clearly doesn't understand some of the core problems."

While the distance between Philadelphia and Washington is less than 140 miles down Interstate 95, the federal appeals courts in the two cities are worlds apart when it comes to proposed rules on media mergers. And with the legal battle over the Federal Communications Commission's controversial limits on media ownership one step closer to fruition, media companies and consumer groups are eagerly watching where the challenge will land next. In theory, it shouldn't matter which venue gets the case, but the two circuits with the most experience in media ownership issues have opposite leanings on media consolidation and deregulation. The last major ruling on FCC ownership rules came from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which in 2004 struck down the agency's attempt that year at deregulation. The D.C. Circuit has generally favored loosening media ownership rules, insisting that was the clear intent of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Corporate groups are pushing to bring the case to D.C. while consumer groups want to send it back to Philadelphia. For now, there's nothing to do but wait for a decision from the 9th Circuit on jurisdiction.

[Commentary] On September 8th television stations in Wilmington (NC) will be turning off their old analog signals and going all digital. For such a test to be truly useful it needs to take place in as typical an environment as possible, but in a whole host of ways the Wilmington experiment will be anything but typical. Wilmington has been awash of late with people interested in making sure the area's transition comes off as successfully as possible. No other community in the country is going to receive anywhere close to the kind of government attention and resources now being thrown at Wilmington. Because of that, the valuable lessons the Wilmington experiment might otherwise have been expected to provide will likely be rendered useless to the thousand of other communities facing the DTV transition next February. Additionally, the Wilmington area is tightly packed and basically flat. That means TV signals don't have to travel over very long distances and are not subject to the reception problems caused in other areas by mountains, hills, valleys or even tall buildings. There's also just a small percentage of the Wilmington-area residents relying on over-the-air broadcasting. Expect the FCC, the broadcast industry and others with vested interests in drawing a positive picture of the Wilmington experiment to do just that following the September 8 cutover. Unfortunately, the most likely result of the Wilmington test will be a false positive.