The Art of the Possible

For folks like me who have been toiling to open up closed networks to the public for decades, what makes the Internet so earth shattering is that it turns our old system of command and control communications networks on its head. For the first time, rather than begging for scraps of access from the largest media companies, it is possible to put the power of those networks into the hands of ordinary people, so that they can speak and be heard without permission. But notice that I used the word “possible,” which ties nicely into the theme of this meeting -- “The Art of the Possible and the Future of Broadband in America’s Future.” While the Internet makes possible the ability for everyone, and not just the most powerful among us, to speak to millions unfiltered, we are still much too far from that goal.