April 2009

[Commentary] South Carolina Public Service Commission member Mignon Clyburn, President Obama's nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, has, over the past ten years, gone along with the normal pro-Bell tilt to the Commission. As one telecom attorney with experience in southern state put it, if a competitive carrier went to the South Carolina commission to argue that the sky was blue, and AT&T (the former BellSouth) argued the sky was purple, the PSC would rule in favor of purple. The Bell companies have an unrivalled story of success in the South Carolina regulatory system and legislature, as they do in many southern states. AT&T is a politically potent force, as Mignon Clyburn and her father well know, and there will doubtless be pressure on her to follow the policies that veteran telecom attorneys from the region acknowledge she has long supported. Those philosophies, however, will come into sharp contrast with the expected progressive policies espoused by the President Obama's campaign.

[Commentary] During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama made clear his distaste of the news cycle and its trivial obsessions. Skeptics said this would hurt his chances: that to win, a candidate must dominate the news day-by-day, minute-by-minute, with attacks that keep the opposition off-balance. Yet the Obama campaign managed to win by emphasizing a longer-term strategy over the hair-trigger approach. But on Jan. 20, for all intents and purposes President Obama became the news cycle. His ambitions for toning down Washington's nasty partisan warfare -- and with that, creating better prospects for his agenda -- depend on his ability to nudge the news cycle away from the cable network- and Drudge-driven obsession with transient panics and cultural outrages. On that front, he's been only partially successful so far. But more so than many of us thought going in.

In the mid-1990s, the Internet took off because its technological time had come. Years of steady progress in developing more powerful and less expensive computers, Web software and faster communications links finally came together. A similar pattern is emerging today, experts say, for what is being called smart infrastructure — more efficient and environmentally friendlier systems for managing, among other things, commuter traffic, food distribution, electric grids and waterways. This time, the crucial technological ingredients include low-cost sensors and clever software for analytics and visualization, as well as computing firepower. Wireless sensors can now collect and transmit information from almost any object — for instance, roads, food crates, utility lines and water pipes. And the improved software helps interpret the huge flow of information, so raw data becomes useful knowledge to monitor and optimize transport and other complex systems. The efficiency payoff, experts say, should translate into big reductions in energy used, greenhouse gases emitted and natural resources consumed. Smart infrastructure is a new horizon for computer technology.

Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) is circulating a draft letter that asks Senate Rules Chairman Charles Schumer and ranking member Bob Bennett to modernize the way the chamber provides information about roll call votes, thus increasing Senate transparency. For a number of years, the House has provided roll call votes to the public in a format that allows them to be easily read, processed, and shared but the Senate continues to make available its votes in what government watchdogs have complained is an antiquated fashion that prevents easy analysis and dissemination. Utilizing an XML format would allow the public to use computers to search, sort, and visualize voting records in new ways, the letter states, noting that the costs associated with the transition would be negligible but the impact would be profound.