Why Is The FCC Only Holding Net Neutrality Meetings In DC?
from the there's-a-big-country-out-there dept
On Friday, the FCC announced plans to host a bunch of "open internet roundtable discussions" as it continues to explore the rules that it will put in place. That's a good idea... until you realize that all of the meetings will be held in Washington DC. And, of course, by doing that, it more or less guarantees that the space will be filled by lobbyists and friends, rather than the actual public. EFF is asking the FCC to get out of Washington DC and to talk to real people, rather than just telco insiders -- pointing out that it's done so before and can easily do so again. While I'm sure the big broadband players would still seek out "friendly" seat-fillers at any location around the country, getting the debate outside the beltway would do a lot towards actually getting a more honest discussion going.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: echo chamber, fcc, inside the beltway, net neutrality, open internet, roundtables
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'Why?'
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Anybody heard of the internet?
Unless their internet bills are too high for them to afford anything over 384kb of course. Maybe they could set up a Paypal donations button.
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Re: Anybody heard of the internet?
Pointless to even try.
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Re: Anybody heard of the internet?
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Will everyone associated with a Telco please stand up
Entire room stands up.
I think we're done here. Thank you all for coming.
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Re:
Only having the 'discussions' in DC means the only people who will be able to attend, and give their opinions/arguments during the 'discussions', are those few who work there, or have the free time and money to travel there, meaning the public, those most affected by the ultimate outcome, are pretty much out of luck, and without a voice at the table.
'In plain view' means little when the idea is to discuss things and get differing opinions and arguments. Doesn't do you much good to see what's going on, if you can't do anything to affect it.
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They have these things called cars, planes, trains, and buses... all of them go to DC. Anyone who wants to go to that city can go, just like any other place in the US.
No matter what they do (short of going door to door all over the US), the meetings will always be somewhat away from some people. Moreover, going on a nationwide fact finding type mission tends to end up killing the point and turning it into self-supporting and self-justifying process with little in the way of real end of the line results. You can literally consult stuff to death.
Now, I would agree that they might want to have a session in Silicon Valley, as an example. Then again, most of those guys have the money and the time to go to Washington to whine, or are at least paying professional whiners (lawyers and lobbyists) to do it for them.
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They wouldn't even need to have too many, half a dozen would give them the ability to have meetings fairly spread out across the US, where if someone really wanted to go, odds are at least one of the meetings would be within a reasonable distance, such that people wouldn't need to take a week off of work, find a plane, and all the fun that goes with that, but could instead drive.
Then again, most of those guys have the money and the time to go to Washington to whine, or are at least paying professional whiners (lawyers and lobbyists) to do it for them.
Certainly hope that in the interest of fairness you think the same of the ISP/cable companies and their 'professional whiners'.
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I consider all professional whiners the same, regardless of their bosses. I think that people on all sides generally whine, rather than working to get anything done. So yeah, they are all about the same.
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Unless, of course, you find yourself one of the large percentage of people on the terrorist watch list with no terrorist affiliations, then you can go f*** yourself.
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move
LETS MOVE IT..
its no longer 13 States..
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Re: move
To the bottom of the ocean.
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In summary
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"Discussion" is code word for "corruption"
You don't sit down with a murderer and ask them how they would like to be punished, or how the laws pertaining to murder should be written.
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Who knew?
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another catch 22; don't want to GO to DC cuz it's POLICE STATE
Yeah, that will represent the public interest. Which State of people is being represented here?
aside: As a kid growing up, I would have LOVED to visit DC.
But today, I wouldn't ever want to visit DC until all this unconstitutional crap is gone anyway. I want blue skys, and police who don't look like STORM TROOPERS. Talking to congress right now is like finger painting with the enemy. Who knows when you might paint something wrong color and then they backstab ya with the NDAA or other crap.
Perfect for them. They'll never have to waste their time listening to it.
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The ACLU, CDT and Public Knowledge are all in DC. Of course, PK founder, Gigi Sohn now works for the FCC Commissioner (revolving door?) so perhaps PK has now changed sides.
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Ideally, I would like to see them also hold a meeting or two on the West Coast, but as you stated it wouldn't stop lobbyists from having a presence either way.
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Re:
Sigh. You've overlooked the most important side of the debate: the people. There are more than two sides, you know.
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This is true. However, the approach that is being taken is to pretty much exclude the most important stakeholder completely. That doesn't seem right, either.
I agree that this is a large problem. It could be solved if our government were actually functioning properly (so our representatives actually, you know, represented the people).
I have no short-term fix for this.
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