Blogs

Things don’t turn out so well when the boundaries of a debate are determined by just one side. It’s all but impossible to carry on a vibrant national dialogue when the parameters of our conversations are demarcated by powerful interests that profit from limiting the discussion and that know how to use the tools of communications to keep contrasting viewpoints off-limits. The civic dialogue that results is neither civic nor is it a dialogue. It is a ballgame that is fixed before the first pitch is thrown.

:

Achieving a Strategic Bandwidth Advantage

And a Psychology of Bandwidth Abundance

To

Drive High-Performance Knowledge Exchange

Fujitsu Conference on

Paving the Road to Unlimited Bandwidth:

Technologies and Applications for a Connected Age

What a curious year for communications policy reformers! Those of us who consider ourselves activists in the causes of media democracy, ubiquitous broadband, an Open Internet, more competition in our communications industries, and helping minorities and women to equal opportunity in owning and managing these businesses find ourselves stymied by half steps (or, too often, no steps) and a campaign season where the choices are shaping up as four more years of the same or, alternatively, four years of something worse. What’s a reformer to do?

Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps
Remarks at Freedom to Connect Conference
May 21, 2012

It was the best of oversight hearings, it was the worst of oversight hearings. Oh, who are we kidding – we’ll never pull off a Dickensian metaphor throughout this week’s roundup. But we did note the coincidence that the three agencies most responsible for extending the reach and affordability of broadband in the US were called before Congress for oversight hearings this week.

At last: a full Federal Communications Commission! After months of seemingly interminable delay (due to a confirmation process high-jacked for non-related purposes) a full complement of five Commissioners is now available to pursue the people’s business in communications. And serious business it is.