Personal Democracy Forum 2008
Note by Mr. John Breyault:
If you were President - What would you do on tech policy on Day 1?
Vint Cerf - I'd get rid of the FCC and get Congress to set down and come up with a national policy for broadband
Claudio Prado - Comprehensive IP bill of rights
Alec Ross - Create a national CTO - cabinet level position
Vint Cerf - Technology administration disbanded by the Bush Administration.
Josh Silver - Need to educate ppl re: how media is transitioning to digital and what that means. Open up TV white spaces, net neutrlaity, protect muni BB, transition universal service program to BB, make competition a priority
Vint Cerf to Alec Ross - Please expand on what national CTO would do?
Ross: One of the advantages of the Obama Administration will be that it has benefitted from being a citizen-centered campaign. Big challenge in January 2009 - How will you live the values you've lived over the past 18 months. One of the reasons he's at conference is that a lot of the ideas for how to implement politics online don't come from poltiics, they come from journalists, outside US, and entrepreneurs, not Washington. Very complex process. Most important is value in what you bring to the purpose.
Cerf: Part of what we're worried about is the problem of an incomplete technology infrastructure in this company
Ross: Only Obama is talking about bridging the Digital Divide. Notes need for USF to set a date certain for the transition from voice support to broadband support.
Eric Schoenfeld (Techcrunch) - additional panelist
Q Rasiej: Can you comment on citizens stepping in and solving problems without the government needing to step in?
Prado: In Brazil, this is already happening, activists are in government making this happen
Ross: Credit to Free Press for InternetForEveryone.org for creating grassroots change for making national broadband an issue
Cerf: Evolution to mobile is creating interesting developments. Home entertainment solutions will be interacted with through the Net via mobile devices
Prado: If that happens (ref to Cerf), then regulatory processes have to be reformed to handle this
Cerf: What does Free Press think about Lessig's idea of rewriting copyright?
Silver: In a lot of ways, the phone and cable company are extremely badly-behaving brats. They want the debate over the Internet to happen in one of two ways: 1) telcos/cablecos vs Cerf/Google OR 2) telcos/cablecos versus radical left-wing groups (ie Free Press). We need to make it udnerstood that the American public's needs should trump telco/cableco profits
Rasiej: With deck stacked by telco/cableco, how do we do change?
Cerf: We need to change Congress to get the politicians who are captured by the telco/cableco's replaced.
Silver: We need something like France has - 7 providers competiting to provide triple-play for 30 euro per month
Schoenfeld: We need to open up white spaces as part of a new way of looking at spectrum policy, not including auctions with unlimited term. President should appoint someone to the FCC with a technical background
-Q&A-
Q Jeff Jarvis: If you kill the FCC, what are the necessary functions of govt to make the broadband world work?
A Cerf: Let's think about telecom resources in the same way we think about roads. People can put whatever vehicles on them and build what they want around them. Maybe we should accept the idea that the Internet infrastructure is more like the road network than the purpose-driven telephone and cable networks. Maybe the underlying basic transport layer should be owned by the government, in the absence of facilities-based competition.
Q: Why not more outrage over price of broadband?
A Cerf: Other countries are gaining more ability to compete
A Schoenfeld: There's a talent problem in education in the US but we need to address this through immigration through increasing quota for H-1B visas
A Silver: Broadband connectivity is an economic/racial class issue - seeing dramatically lower rates of adoption among low-income and people of color
Q: What are the next killer apps?
A Ross: Still a wide disparity in content online - most is in English and w/o diversity - Killer app will be public-purpose media (NPR, PBS, etc). Notes Pew Research showing that the number one ppl reason don't go online is fear of the medium (so need to educate re: safety) and the idea that there's nothing online of interest. Need to recognize that there is a value in creating public media 2.0.
Q Rasiej: None of the candiadtes have Spanish-language sites as detailed as their English-language sites
A Ross: Notes that his mother was not interested in Internet policy until she was engaged by MoveOn in the SaveTheInternet campaign. This is an example of an issue that energizes. Need to simplify message on Net policy to appeal to average citizen - framing is key.
Q Al Chang: Have you seen a country that's successfully employed a tech policy?
A Scheonfeld: People aren't really participating in the political process beyond voting and donating money
Q: What do you do when Congress and Agencies build firewalls to e-mail against mass-email campaigns? How do you address lack of ASPs?
A Cerf: Give the Freedom of Information Act more teeth to make government transparent. Information sharing is a very powerful thing. We'd have to mandate openness and transparency
A Silver: We have to get creative. Must deliver real letters w/photo opp. E-mail is not working the way it was when MoveOn was growing so rapidly
Vint Cerf - I'd get rid of the FCC and get Congress to set down and come up with a national policy for broadband
Claudio Prado - Comprehensive IP bill of rights
Alec Ross - Create a national CTO - cabinet level position
Vint Cerf - Technology administration disbanded by the Bush Administration.
Josh Silver - Need to educate ppl re: how media is transitioning to digital and what that means. Open up TV white spaces, net neutrlaity, protect muni BB, transition universal service program to BB, make competition a priority
Vint Cerf to Alec Ross - Please expand on what national CTO would do?
Ross: One of the advantages of the Obama Administration will be that it has benefitted from being a citizen-centered campaign. Big challenge in January 2009 - How will you live the values you've lived over the past 18 months. One of the reasons he's at conference is that a lot of the ideas for how to implement politics online don't come from poltiics, they come from journalists, outside US, and entrepreneurs, not Washington. Very complex process. Most important is value in what you bring to the purpose.
Cerf: Part of what we're worried about is the problem of an incomplete technology infrastructure in this company
Ross: Only Obama is talking about bridging the Digital Divide. Notes need for USF to set a date certain for the transition from voice support to broadband support.
Eric Schoenfeld (Techcrunch) - additional panelist
Q Rasiej: Can you comment on citizens stepping in and solving problems without the government needing to step in?
Prado: In Brazil, this is already happening, activists are in government making this happen
Ross: Credit to Free Press for InternetForEveryone.org for creating grassroots change for making national broadband an issue
Cerf: Evolution to mobile is creating interesting developments. Home entertainment solutions will be interacted with through the Net via mobile devices
Prado: If that happens (ref to Cerf), then regulatory processes have to be reformed to handle this
Cerf: What does Free Press think about Lessig's idea of rewriting copyright?
Silver: In a lot of ways, the phone and cable company are extremely badly-behaving brats. They want the debate over the Internet to happen in one of two ways: 1) telcos/cablecos vs Cerf/Google OR 2) telcos/cablecos versus radical left-wing groups (ie Free Press). We need to make it udnerstood that the American public's needs should trump telco/cableco profits
Rasiej: With deck stacked by telco/cableco, how do we do change?
Cerf: We need to change Congress to get the politicians who are captured by the telco/cableco's replaced.
Silver: We need something like France has - 7 providers competiting to provide triple-play for 30 euro per month
Schoenfeld: We need to open up white spaces as part of a new way of looking at spectrum policy, not including auctions with unlimited term. President should appoint someone to the FCC with a technical background
-Q&A-
Q Jeff Jarvis: If you kill the FCC, what are the necessary functions of govt to make the broadband world work?
A Cerf: Let's think about telecom resources in the same way we think about roads. People can put whatever vehicles on them and build what they want around them. Maybe we should accept the idea that the Internet infrastructure is more like the road network than the purpose-driven telephone and cable networks. Maybe the underlying basic transport layer should be owned by the government, in the absence of facilities-based competition.
Q: Why not more outrage over price of broadband?
A Cerf: Other countries are gaining more ability to compete
A Schoenfeld: There's a talent problem in education in the US but we need to address this through immigration through increasing quota for H-1B visas
A Silver: Broadband connectivity is an economic/racial class issue - seeing dramatically lower rates of adoption among low-income and people of color
Q: What are the next killer apps?
A Ross: Still a wide disparity in content online - most is in English and w/o diversity - Killer app will be public-purpose media (NPR, PBS, etc). Notes Pew Research showing that the number one ppl reason don't go online is fear of the medium (so need to educate re: safety) and the idea that there's nothing online of interest. Need to recognize that there is a value in creating public media 2.0.
Q Rasiej: None of the candiadtes have Spanish-language sites as detailed as their English-language sites
A Ross: Notes that his mother was not interested in Internet policy until she was engaged by MoveOn in the SaveTheInternet campaign. This is an example of an issue that energizes. Need to simplify message on Net policy to appeal to average citizen - framing is key.
Q Al Chang: Have you seen a country that's successfully employed a tech policy?
A Scheonfeld: People aren't really participating in the political process beyond voting and donating money
Q: What do you do when Congress and Agencies build firewalls to e-mail against mass-email campaigns? How do you address lack of ASPs?
A Cerf: Give the Freedom of Information Act more teeth to make government transparent. Information sharing is a very powerful thing. We'd have to mandate openness and transparency
A Silver: We have to get creative. Must deliver real letters w/photo opp. E-mail is not working the way it was when MoveOn was growing so rapidly
