Monday, February 20, 2006
Silicon Flatirons Telecom Summit
I'm just about to begin my second day at the Silicon Flatirons Telecom Summit, one of the great annual physical-world concentrations of network brainpower. The brainpower is heavy on lawyers and regulators, and (with the exception of Bob Kahn) light on technologists, investors, visionaries, entrepreneurs and application providers (with the exception of incumbent apps like TV and telephony)! Paul Kapustka is doing a fine job of live-blogging it here, here, and undoubtedly Paul will post more today. Thanks to Phil Weiser and his crew, who did a fine job organizing and executing the conference!
Yesterday I was amused with Paul Glist's recitation of all the ways, since 1949 that the government regulationist approach has failed. He did the whole thing tongue in cheek, saying, e.g., I just knew that unbundled network elements was the right way to go so I mandated it. It was brilliant. There's another opposite story to be told, of course, one where the government kept its hands off while kleptocratic monopolies abused their power. Glist didn't tell that one.
I was also impressed with Susan Crawford's talk. She is the most articulate defender of Internet Freedom here, maybe anywhere. She speaks with conviction, dignity and grace. She points out that the Internet is like no other good, indeed, unlike no other technology -- ever -- in its capacity to bring benefits to many. She says that even though the infrastructure of the Internet is owned, the important benefits that the Internet distributes are mostly gifts. She firmly believes that the builders of the infrastructure of the Internet should be paid for their assets, so, she says, we (the people) should simply buy it from them.
Back to the meeting now. There's a panel with Former FCC Chairman Powell and a closing keynote from Jim Crowe.
Yesterday I was amused with Paul Glist's recitation of all the ways, since 1949 that the government regulationist approach has failed. He did the whole thing tongue in cheek, saying, e.g., I just knew that unbundled network elements was the right way to go so I mandated it. It was brilliant. There's another opposite story to be told, of course, one where the government kept its hands off while kleptocratic monopolies abused their power. Glist didn't tell that one.
I was also impressed with Susan Crawford's talk. She is the most articulate defender of Internet Freedom here, maybe anywhere. She speaks with conviction, dignity and grace. She points out that the Internet is like no other good, indeed, unlike no other technology -- ever -- in its capacity to bring benefits to many. She says that even though the infrastructure of the Internet is owned, the important benefits that the Internet distributes are mostly gifts. She firmly believes that the builders of the infrastructure of the Internet should be paid for their assets, so, she says, we (the people) should simply buy it from them.
Back to the meeting now. There's a panel with Former FCC Chairman Powell and a closing keynote from Jim Crowe.
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