isen.blog

Senator Dick Durbin put out a call for participation, a request for help drafting broadband policy, yesterday on the OpenLeft blog. He writes:

What should be America's national broadband strategy?
Sun Jul 22, 2007 at 13:06:58 PM EDT

Today I'm writing to invite you to participate in an experiment -- an interactive approach to drafting legislation on one of the most significant public policy questions today: What should be America's national broadband strategy?

Starting this Tuesday, July 24 at 7pm EST on OpenLeft.com, I will be engaging in a series of four nightly broadband policy discussions with the online community. During those four nights, I am looking for the best and brightest ideas on what Congress should do to promote and foster broadband.

I will begin each night's discussion with a conversation about some of the core principles I think are important, and then I'll ask for you to contribute your ideas that will help me craft legislation.

He seems to be doing it for all the right reasons . . .

I think we need more public participation and transparency in the way Congress crafts significant legislation. This is an approach to legislation that has never been tried before. If it's successful -- as I believe it will be -- it may become the way lawmakers approach drafting bills on other issues like education, health care, and foreign policy.

. . . broadband policy is one of the most important public policy issues today. Frankly, America does not have a national broadband strategy, and we are falling behind.

I'll be there tomorrow at 7PM!!!

Thanks to Matt Stoller for this pointer.

Technorati Tags: Broadband, Democracy, Internet, Politics, USLosingLead