policy

10 Apr 2015

What Makes a True Progressive in Communications & Tech Policy?

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On April 1 the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) held an event to discuss its new report entitled “How Techno-Populism Is Undermining Innovation.”  The thrust of the report was to contrast the dangers of what it describes as “tech populism” with the virtues of what it calls “tech progressivism.” The report begins with: There was a time when technology policy was a game of “inside baseball” played mostly by wonks from government agencies, legislative committees, think tanks, and the business community. They brought sober, technical expertise and took a methodical approach to advancing the public interest on complex issues such […]
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25 Mar 2015

WiFi, User Interfaces and “The New Comcast for the Internet”

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In an earlier post in this series I discussed business issues and opportunities related to a potential launch by Comcast of a WiFi-based service that could: further monetize the company’s investments in millions of in-home dual-SSID WiFi gateway devices; provide it with a relatively low-cost, high-margin entry into the wireless market space; give it a powerful position in the emerging market for nomadic, multiscreen multimedia services and; strengthen its overall market power in the communication sector as a whole. In this two-part post I’m considering this same topic, but from a public policy perspective. Viewed in very broad strokes, we have […]
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24 Mar 2015

Unlicensed Spectrum: Comcast Uses In-Home Gateways to Deploy Millions of WiFi Hotspots

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The focus of my last post in this series was business issues and opportunities related to a potential launch by Comcast of a WiFi-based service that could: further monetize the company’s investments in millions of in-home dual-SSID WiFi gateway devices; provide it with a relatively low-cost, high-margin entry into the wireless market space; give it a powerful position in the emerging market for nomadic, multiscreen multimedia services and; strengthen its overall market power in the communication sector as a whole. In this two-part post I’m going to consider this same topic, but from a public policy perspective. Viewed in very […]
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26 Feb 2015

Launching the Net Neutrality Impact Study

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MSU’s Quello Center is launching a study of the impact of net neutrality. With the support for net neutrality regulations at the FCC, and in the White House, the debate should quickly move from theoretical speculation to empirical realities: What will be the actual impact of net neutrality regulation? The net neutrality debate has galvanized a wide variety of stakeholders in opposing camps around the wisdom of this regulation on the future of a global, open and secure Internet. Proponents argue that net neutrality will keep the Internet open and in line with its early vision by not advantaging those […]
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15 Feb 2015

Steve Wildman on the Future of Media Content Delivery

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The Quello Center Advisory Board identified the future of content delivery as one of the Center’s most critical issues for research. Late in 2014, Professor Steve Wildman provided an overview of the prospects for new forms of content delivery to a group of visiting executives. Prior to his lecture, Bill Dutton interviewed him about the key points he planned to cover. You’ve find this video of this interview to be a succinct summary of major issues facing the future of broadcasting and the media more generally. We’d welcome your comments – whether you agree to disagree with the future painted […]
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12 Feb 2015

Community Fiber Networks: Bringing Competition and World-Class Infrastructure to American Cities

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In the following video, President Obama announced several steps his Administration is taking to encourage municipally-owned broadband networks, as well as the rationale for taking them. A few weeks after the president’s January 14 speech, the FCC announced it would be voting on a similar approach to municipal broadband at its February 26 meeting, where it will also vote on a proposal to classify broadband access as a Title II common carrier.  Since community broadband is a topic I hope to write about here in the future, and the Commission’s meeting is only two weeks away, I thought I’d share some initial […]
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05 Feb 2015

Please Help Me Understand What’s Wrong with Title II

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In a blog entry here yesterday I described FCC Chairman Wheeler’s Title II proposal as “replanting the roots” of communication policy in the digital age. Shortly after I posted it, the Commission released a four-page summary of the proposed “New Rules for Protecting the Open Internet.” Not surprisingly, the document triggered a barrage of public responses from a range of interested parties on both sides of the issue. After reviewing the FCC’s Fact Sheet and some of these responses, I found myself puzzled about claims regarding risks and problems associated with Title II classification. So I thought I’d invite comments […]
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15 Jan 2015

Quello Policy Issues: Comments on Emerging Issues

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At the last meeting of the Quello Center Advisory Board, in the late Fall of 2014, we discussed key issues tied to media, communication and information policy and practice. The following list is a snapshot of the key issues emerging from that discussion, organized by general categories. Feedback on this list would be most welcome, and will be posted as comments on this post.   Innovation-led Policy Issues The Future of Content Delivery: Content delivery, particularly around broadcasting of film and television, in the digital age: technology, business models, and social impact of the rapidly developing ecosystem, such as on […]
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31 Aug 2014

Rejuvenating Policy Research and Practice by Johannes M. Bauer

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I often hear laments about the lack of attention of policy-makers to disciplines such as communications, Internet studies, political science, and sociology. Indeed, often it is scholars and advocates arguing from an economic, engineering and law perspective, who are heard. In my view, these disciplines have an inherent “epistemic advantage” over others because one of their driving questions is how to improve (or even “optimize”) the working of a system, either analytically or by trial and error. A classic example is David Clark’s motto, articulated at an IETF conference in the early 1980s, calling upon the community of Internet engineers […]
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