Tuesday, December 02, 2008

three updates

i haven't updated here in a while - been busy with work, mostly, and non-work projects like going through the publication process for a paper. my apologies. the election was kind of a big deal, of course, but by now we've moved on, we have recovered from the champagne hangovers, and we are all thinking about policy and politics for 2009. the Cabinet is being assembled, and other important positions (like the CTO and the Chairman of the FCC) will follow at some indeterminate future point. many future deep thoughts about the possibilities of progress depend on these appointments, and little can be said until then.

if you will indulge my briefly, i submit for your temporary amusement a brief post on a few of the most important things that have happened, in my opinion, in the last few weeks.


1) one high-ranking
Senator is planning to introduce a new Net Neutrality bill in January. the Comcast victory was great, don't get me wrong; but the FCC's order is being contested in court, and i prefer to have clear, well-defined statutory provisions, to protect net neutrality with more than the discretion of the FCC's Chairman and Enforcement Bureau.

2) Canada's leaning in a different direction, having chosen not to stop Bell Canada's wholesale p2p throttling. i recognize that this is a very different context than the limited Comcast case, and that the same decision opened a rulemaking process to investigate a more general response to such industry action, but the CRTC had an opportunity to make real progress and to lead the rest of the world in going down a path that, for the United States at least, appears inevitable (not to mention *correct*). i'm not sure i was expecting a different outcome, but i was hopeful, at least.

3) the change.gov team is doing everything the way i would, if i were in charge. embedded YouTube (and other formats) for Presidential addresses. creative commons licensing for content. putting high-profile, experienced academics at the top of the FCC review team. makes me wish i was more of a part of it - though, i'm not sure what else i would suggest they do.

that's all from my world, off the top of my head. apologies if i failed to mention your favorite issue, but, well, get your own blog.