Articles by Carl Gipson
Carl Gipson is the Director for the Center for Small Business, Technology and Telecommunications at Washington Policy Center. He regularly writes opinion pieces, Legislative Memos, and Policy Notes focusing on current technology policy issues and is the author of The Fallacy of Network Neutrality, RFID: Balancing Technology and Privacy, Restrict VOIP Regulations to Federal Standards and more. He also is a voting member of the Telecommunications and I.T. Task Force with the American Legislative Exchange Council. Carl holds a degree in Political Science from Western Washington University.
I recently wrote an op-ed for the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Inside ALEC publication. It’s decidedly non-technical, as most correspondance with a majority in the legislative branch must be. In my dealings with those in state government positions, it seems that only in the last few months have many of them become aware of the FCC’s Net Neutrality proposals — or even the issue itself. I don’t blame them. State legislators are often more concerned with local issues such as solving their budget deficits or finding funding for critical government operations.
But it’s important that they also keep an eye on what’s happening in “the other Washington,” (as we Washington state-ers like to call it) as the policies from Congress, the Administration and federal agencies trickle down to affect each and every one of us.
The text of the op-ed is after the break.
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For those of you inclined to read protracted legalese filings, NBC Universal, Comcast and GE submitted their Public Interest Statement to the FCC this week. You can read the filing here.
Many conspiracies have been touted, claiming that public control of communication mediums will be wrested away from the public because of this venture and that consumers stand to lose the most. Adam did a good job debunking these concerns earlier this month. The fact is that this merger in no way would result in the dreaded “M” word, aka monopoly.
Whatever the case, this process is still bound to take another year or so before finalization, which gives you, dear reader, time to process the entire 145 page document. Happy reading!
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel addressed the Brookings Institution earlier this week calling for government to get involved to enhance the safety, security and privacy of the “Cloud.” (Here’s a transcript of his remarks)
Smith alluded to the fact that cloud computing is undergoing a powerful transformation and correctly pointed out that, even though millions of Americans are using cloud computing platforms today (and have been for years), a far majority of them have no real concept of what cloud computing actually is or does — and neither to most policymakers.
This speech was very well timed, given the current Google-China kerfuffle from the past couple of weeks. Essentially, who is in charge of the data in the cloud? How can we guarantee that best practices are being used by providers? And, what role will the federal government play in the regulation of this powerful emerging technology? Continue reading →
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Posted in: Broadband & Neutrality Regulation, Telecom & Cable Regulation 
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