Net Neutrality Pledge Week

by on August 13, 2010 · 6 comments

The release of a joint policy framework from Google and Verizon this week touched off even more activity in the never-ending saga of Net Neutrality than the rumors about the possibility such an agreement was in the works did the week before.

Op-ed pages, business and technology news programs, and public radio’s precious moments were overrun with anxious talking heads denouncing or praising the latest developments, or even a few of us trying just to explain what was and was not actually being said and done.

That’s not how August is supposed to be in policyland, when Washington reverts to the swamp from which it came.  (John Adams left early one summer during his Presidency and refused to return long after the heat had broken.)  I had hoped at long last to get around to finalizing last year’s tax return or maybe fixing my perennially-broken irrigation system, but oh well.

In case you’re not yet exhausted by the debate that dares not stop speaking its name, I offer some additional content, all of it of the shamelessly self-promoting variety. I won’t even insult your intelligence by pretending to apologize.   Not that my publisher seems to remember this, but I still have a book to hawk.  (See “The Laws of Disruption”)

  • American Public Media “Future Tense,” August 13, 2010 (five minutes)

  • “Give Technology a Chance,” The San Francisco Chronicle, August 13, 2010
  • CNET, “Reporters Roundtable, August 13, 2010 (thirty-five minutes)

And more to come.

By the way, for a view of the current state of the net neutrality non-crisis by someone other than me, I highly recommend Steven Pearlstein’s editorial in today’s Washington Post.  This is simply the best summary of the real issues in a short space I’ve seen yet.

And, alas, I’ve seen a lot.

Next week:  Seattle and the Privacy, Identity and Innovation conference, followed by family duties in the Midwest for a a few days.  So please, no more net neutrality or Title II developments.

SHARE: 6 comments

Larry Downes / Larry is Project Director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy and a Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for High Performance. His new book, co-authored with Paul Nunes, is Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation (Portfolio 2014). His previous books include the New York Times and Business Week best-seller Unleashing the Killer App and The Laws of Disruption:  Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age. He writes regularly for the Washington Post, the Harvard Business Review, CNET News.com and Forbes.com, as well as other publications.

Previous post:

Next post: