Network neutrality and parliamentarian acumen
I understand that the current thinking is that Sen. Stevens won't be able to collect the 60 votes he needs to stop debate on his bill. This is, in my view, good news.
But there are lots of other ways to get a job done.
For instance — what if just the video franchise provisions (hard to fight those) and the universal service fund provisions (attractive to constituents even though the system is entirely broken) were peeled off and stuck in a large appropriations bill? that no one heard about until the day it was offered?
What if those provisions were attached to the E911 bill, which is largely helpful in giving competitive interconnected VoIP providers assistance the FCC denied them?
What if there was a lame duck session — six weeks or so to do more mischief?
So all NN lobbyists will have to bone up on procedure. We're heading into a period of legislative legerdemain.
Speaking of which: I have heard about a really awful revision-to-CALEA draft that is being circulated. Really awful.
All the stories connect
From “Know It All,” by Stacy Schiff:
This [Wikipedia] is not the first time that encyclopedia-makers have snatched control from an elite, or cast a harsh light on certitude. Jimmy Wales may or may not be the new Henry Ford, yet he has sent us tooling down the interstate, with but a squint back at the railroad. We're on the open road now, without conductors and timetables. We're free to chart our own course, also free to get gloriously, recklessly lost. . . .
From “The Lobsterman,” by Alec Wilkinson (related Q&A here) (about a skilled fisherman who was recently awarded a MacArthur genius grant for finding ancient fish spawning grounds — “Where were the cod, once, and how do we get them back?”):
A predatory hierarchy that has a number of species at all levels is called a food web. The food web in the North Atlantic is so meagre that it more nearly resembles a food chain.
So Wikipedia is a visual, arresting example of the evolving web at work. You get the sense that Schiff really enjoyed finding all about its curious inhabitants. And Wilkinson really enjoys hearing about forensic ecology involving interviewing ancient mariners. Both of them are writing about webs.
Is there a predator, potential or actual, in the story of Wikipedia? Any chance we'll ever create a “food chain” online, just by accident?