I’ll be speaking at Personal Democracy Forum this week here in NYC. Lots of people will be – here’s the list. This year it’s at the CUNY Graduate Center, 5th Ave between 34th & 35th Streets. Walking distance from the Village. Very close. You should come, too.
It was great to be in DC last week for a whirlwind couple of days. There is a lot going on in the telecommunications policy world. I’ll be back during the week of the 7th for another two-day stint.
But mostly, I’m just reading and writing. Here’s an interview of Michael Powell from late 2003. What’s endearing about this interview is just how bright and able Powell is, and how resilient he’s attempting to be in the face of difficult challenges. He set up the regulatory tussle we’re going through right now, but you can see from this interview that he did it out of a genuine belief that competition was right around the corner – that broadband over powerline and wireless could be substitutable for wired Internet access, and that multiple platforms could reach the home and compete for its attention in a way that would obviate the need for traditional rate regulation. He just didn’t want to go through the pain of forbearance.
And I love how he says that he just downloaded Skype – and then he pauses. “Have you heard about that yet?” he asks. “When I downloaded Skype I knew it was over.” Powell absolutely got/gets a kick out technology.