Minor nit: McDowell is a former two term commissioner, but was not a
chairman. He is, however, a real standout in terms of understanding the
Internet and has many of the most coherent comments of any commissioner
since his appointment. He was a leader in the campaign to push back the
attempts of the ITU to establish sovereignty over interconnection and to
apply telecom tariffs to the Internet.
It's worth noting that there was a time when Internet policy at the
national level was not the ideological exercise that it has become.
There was very little difference between Clinton's last FCC chairman
(Kennard) and Bush 43's first chairman (Powell) on the general approach
of the federal government to the Internet. Powell was, after all, the
chairman who first articulated "Internet Freedom" goals in his famous
"Four Freedoms" speech in Boulder in 2004; see:
http://www.jthtl.org/content/articles/V3I1/JTHTLv3i1_Powell.PDF
It's a shame that people can't discuss principles of network policy
today without first signing a loyalty oath to one of the political
parties. It seems to me that Kennard, Powell, Wheeler, McDowell, and
current commissioner Pai have all articulated great ideas about Internet
policy that stand on their own without regard to political affiliations.
RB
On 7/16/14, 7:50 AM, Fred Baker (fred) wrote:
Relevant article by former FCC Chair
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/14/this-is-why-the-government-should-never-control-the-internet/
--
Richard Bennett
Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy
Editor, High Tech Forum
