Thoughts on The PDF’s Challenge to Candidates
All the excitement talent and capital flowing into online video related companies can make it tough to put things in perspective. Following a week of major news and industry events it is a good time to take stock of where we really are now, and where we’re headed.
At PDF2007, Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry issued a call to 2008 presidential candidates to endorse six “very specific technology policy goals.” These also work as a great framework for considering the industry issues that exist at this early stage in new media.
As we move toward an age of advanced interactivity and the whatever you want whenever you want it information economy, where are we now, where will we wind up and what is needed to get us there?
The PDF Goals (full version here) along with my thoughts are as follows -
1. Declare the Internet a public good in the same way we think of water, electricity, highways, or public education.
Thoughts: The internet is valuable to nearly every aspect of life in the developed world. But is the internet a commodity or a universal need, or both? And how do we best serve the needs of the different organizations of people using it?
Declaring the internet a public good would help get the internet into places where it currently is not - spreading information and empowering new groups of individuals who don’t currently have a high speed connection in the home. But to do so would require regulation and a greater level of federal involvement than most people want.
2. Commit to providing affordable high-speed wireless Internet access nationwide. Do this by creating an Internet Innovation and Investment Fund with a minimal budget of $20 billion (half of what we spend on highways in a single year)
Thoughts: At the Future of Broadband Conference last week I spoke with some folks from the NCTA about the current state of U.S. broadband networks. While we have massive dark fiber networks in some of our major cities, rural areas are lagging behind and it is clear that the U.S. could be doing a lot better.
According to a OECD report, the U.S. now has about 59 million broadband subscribers representing about 19 of every 100 people. While the metric is odd (households is probably a better one and that number is closer to 50%) the study is important because it places the U.S. right in the middle of the pack when it comes to broadband adoption.
Government spending would bring broadband infrastructure to places where major NSPs won’t invest (think of the IIIF as a sort of Tennessee Valley Authority for the 21st century.) This would speed broadband adoption to bring poor parts of the U.S. in line with the rest of the country and the U.S. as a whole in line with the rest of the developed world.
3. Declare a “Net Neutrality” standard forbidding Internet service providers from discriminating among content based on origin, application or type.
Thoughts: Net Neutrality has a certain fairness appeal to it but internet infrastructure costs money to build and maintain. Businesses have more at stake in the event of network failures, and as we become more internet dependent certain organizations will demand higher-priority access than others.
As we move toward wider use of VOIP, and emergency services become more dependent on IP communication, it is imperative that they not be hindered by net congestion. It is more important that people have access when dialing 911 than it is when watching Fios TV. As networks get smarter, there will be new ways to prioritize efficiently and fairly.
4. Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” our goal should be “Every Child Connected.” The digital divide in our country is worse than it was 10 years ago before our schools were wired.
Thoughts: When I first heard this my immediate thought was to dismiss it as a throw-away catch phrase replacing another throw-away catch phrase, but the concept is actually right on.
The internet is a terrific learning tool - it provides easy access to information not available offline in most places. It has replaced libraries as the place most kids go for information not only because it has more information but because it has made that info more current and simpler to navigate.
One of the greatest arguments for government intervention in facilitating the advancement of the internet is the advancement of education. It is an advantage for any child growing up to have a broadband connection in their home.
This is even more true in the developing world, 60 Minutes on Sunday had a great piece on Nicholas Negroponte’s one laptop per child project which is worth watching. View it here.
5. Commit to building a Connected Democracy where it becomes commonplace for local as well as national government proceedings to be heard by anyone any time and over time.
Thoughts: The democratization of media is here for good and ease of access to information should be used to make Washington more accessible.
The development of long tail distribution is the result of years of media segmentation since the origination of cable television. Now that the cost of broadcasting to many users has also been diminished we should find ways to use this to our political advantage. While private companies continue to seek the rights to broadcast important government events and proceedings, the government should not give up its rights to online distribution.
It remains to be seen how many people will actually engage in politics no matter how local the process is made. The explosion of online video and web 2.0 is driving self-sustaining communities that hold huge potential in creating new political discourse. This discourse needs to be supported in every way possible by the government.
6. Create a National Tech Corps, because as our country becomes more reliant on 21st century communications to maintain and build our economy we need to protect our communications infrastructure.
Thoughts: There will no doubt be a greater need for technically skilled individuals in emergency response but do we really need a national corps of them? It is an interesting idea, but we already have specialized technically skilled people in every emergency response organization.
A new governmental organization would create an unneeded layer of bureaucracy. Creating guidelines and standards for unified operation in the event of an emergency is where government can make the biggest impact.
Conclusions: Internet technology will move from the computer to other screens in the next few years. The development of IPTV and Rich Internet Applications will make it possible to do everything done online on a mobile device or on the TV in your living room, while turning it into a two-way experience.
Internet technology will start to even the playing field between the poor and the wealthy and between the west and developing nations by providing new educational and revenue opportunities for them.
The role of Governments should be limited to facilitating development of international standards, speeding broadband adoption and making technology more widely available in the places it is not.