It's Rey Ramsey's fourth week on the job as the new chief executive of TechNet, an industry coalition with 120 members that range from venture capital firms to the biggest tech companies in the world.
He says he's still finding his footing in his new role, but he's already jetting off to tech-centric regions--this week, Portland; next week, San Francisco--to meet with CEOs about TechNet's agenda under his leadership.
"It's important to foster innovation in all areas of the country," he said in an interview. "I'm not suddenly going to be the D.C. guy with tunnel vision."
Ramsey is best known for co-founding One Economy in 2000 with three others in a basement. The organization now has more than 80 employees in four countries and aims to spread the benefits of technology to low-income and disadvantaged regions of the world. Ramsey still remains chairman of the non-profit, which is currently searching for a new CEO.
His roots in broadband expansion have colored his early priorities for TechNet. He said so much of the path toward universal broadband hinges on the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which is due to Congress mid-March.
A large chunk of the $7 billion in broadband stimulus funds is going toward creating maps of broadband coverage. Connected Nation, a non-profit organization, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the mapping grants so far.
Connected Nation has partnered with 12 states and Puerto Rico. The grants to these states for broadband mapping total $25 million. In some cases, Connected Nation is receives the funding directly; in others, it is the subcontractor to the state.
The organization has been criticized for taking funding from big telecom companies, potentially creating a conflict of interest when it then creates maps depicting those companies' broadband coverage. It will be in town this week at the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's "State of the Net" conference to show off its new interactive mapping tool.
I talked with Brian Mefford, the CEO of Connected Nation, about the the map-making process, the broadband plan and the funding criticism. Mefford, the son of a BellSouth lobbyist, started out at Connected Kentucky back in 2004 to bring broadband to rural parts of the state. The group then morphed into Connected Nation to form similar programs in other states.
How do you go about making the maps?
What that requires is reaching out to all the broadband providers in a particular state. We begin outreach to every single provider, regardless of the type of technology they provide or the size of the company. The initial discussion is intended to raise awareness and establish a relationship so they understand the process that we are going through.
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The wireless industry isn't a fan of the proposed net neutrality regulations under consideration at the FCC. CTIA says the rules will deter investment in broadband networks--the same broadband networks that the FCC and Congress hope will soon be expanded to reach unserved areas.
In its comments to the FCC, CTIA says there is no reason to justify net neutrality rules. "It would be unlawful and unwise for the Commission to change course by adopting prescriptive rules based on speculative predictions of consumer harm," the group said in its filing.
I sat down with Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, to talk about the issue.
Sen.-elect Scott Brown’s (R-Mass.) Web guru, Rob Willington, has become one of the country’s most sought-after online political strategists overnight .
Willington's inbox was flooded with requests for his expertise before Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race on Tuesday night was even official.
“I'm getting lots of requests to do workshops for other organizations and campaigns,” said the 31-year-old Willington, who managed online outreach for Brown, a Republican who snagged the Democrats' all-important 60th Senate seat in what was thought to be a liberal bastion.
A former political director for the Massachusetts Republican Party, Willington had both campaign and social media know-how.
LAS VEGAS--Following FCC Chief Julius Genachowski around the massive CES show floor over the weekend revealed a little more insight about what makes the top communications regulator tick.
First of all, he wanted to see everything. If it weren't for his intrepid tour guide, FCC press secretary Jen Howard, who kept things moving at a quick pace, he could have spent an hour at every booth.
The second thing that struck me was Genachowski's ability to envision real-world applications for otherwise over-hyped technologies.
At our first stop at Powermat, (at left) a company that makes wireless charging stations that refuel your devices by placing them on a flat mat rather than plugging in each individually, Genachowski wanted to know more about the energy savings it could provide.
At the Intel booth, he played around with a giant touch-screen that called up social media accounts and other visuals by dragging your finger. He examined the tiny microprocessor that makes it work.
The company isn't commercializing the giant touch-screen--it was just for show. So I asked Genachowski what he thought a practical application could be. I have to admit, other than the neat visuals, I didn't see much use for it.
"You can imagine an entertainment system that uses that kind of visual for its navigation," he said. "Instead of a scrolling menu with words, it could show you the front of a DVD cover... Or say you wanted to pull up family photos. Would you want to see thumbnails, or great graphics like that?"
A former executive at IAC, Barry Diller's entertainment and media company, it was his job to predict the "next big thing" in how media was distributed and how consumers wanted to interact with it.
His next big challenge is finding new ways to compel consumers to interact with broadband to reinforce the Obama administration's goal of Internet access for all Americans.
LAS VEGAS--FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell was impressed by Web-enabled TV sets and technologies designed to combat distracted driving. He predicts 3-D television will be slow to take off with consumers.
LAS VEGAS--FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told Hillicon Valley what impressed her most on the CES show floor. Apparently, 3-D video left an impression.
LAS VEGAS--I caught up with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) today to ask him about Sillicon Valley, how government can spur innovation and the lobbying ethics rules that discouraged some Washington folks from making the trip to the show.
The problem with reviewing a book about Google, even one as insightful and authoritative as Ken Auletta has written, is that it becomes out of date even before you’ve finished reading it.
Case in point: As I write this review of Auletta’s aptly named book, Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, I discover that Google has taken another step toward its goal of becoming the dominant — and dominating — force in the algorithmic world of instantaneous information retrieval and data-mining by announcing it has started streaming live news on its investor site, Google Finance.
Net neutrality supporters say the government has to ensure Internet service providers can't impede access to content on the Web. That would be a violation of consumers' First Amendment rights.
Not so, says Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. In fact, he says that argument has turned First Amendment principals "upside down."
"By its plain terms and history, the First Amendment is a limitation on government power, not an empowerment of government," said McSlarrow while speaking at a luncheon held today by the Media Institute. "Making these arguments is, ironically, almost proof that First Amendment rights are being implicated...let’s not forget that the First Amendment is framed as a shield for citizens, not a sword for government."
He reiterated that all Internet service providers say they have no desire to block customers from reaching lawful content and applications. Doing so would be competitive suicide. If customers found one provider was hindering their access to content they want, they will simply go to another provider. He said imposing net neutrality regulations could actually infringe First Amendment rights by not allowing Internet operators to provide "managed" or premium services to consumers.
"ISPs can’t prioritize all content, due to the physical limitations of their systems. And it may be entirely too costly--as well as unnecessary and inefficient--to offer the same quality of service that a video game service requires to every single content provider. And so the effect of such a rule would be simply to prevent the offering of services consumers might want that require such enhancements. Does the First Amendment really allow the government to prohibit a content or applications provider from paying to acquire the means to distribute its content in the form or manner it wishes? Such a rule would ultimately decrease the overall amount of speech on the Internet, thus harming, not helping, First Amendment interests."
"I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than this: Internet Service Providers do not threaten free speech; their business is to enable speech and they are part of an ecosystem that represents perhaps the greatest engine for promotion of democracy and free expression in history."
"It's important to foster innovation in all areas of the country," he said in an interview. "I'm not suddenly going to be the D.C. guy with tunnel vision."
The organization has been 
Sen.-elect Scott Brown’s (R-Mass.) Web guru, Rob Willington, has become one of the country’s most sought-after online political strategists overnight .
First of all, he wanted to see everything. If it weren't for his intrepid tour guide, FCC press secretary Jen Howard, who kept things moving at a quick pace, he could have spent an hour at every booth.
The problem with reviewing a book about Google, even one as insightful and authoritative as Ken Auletta has written, is that it becomes out of date even before you’ve finished reading it.
Net neutrality supporters say the government has to ensure Internet service providers can't impede access to content on the Web. That would be a violation of consumers' First Amendment rights.
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