Getting the point across
Even if Al Gore showed up and tried to explain to his former colleagues how the internet works, there's a good chance that a bunch of them wouldn't understand. It's not that they're dumb or Gore is dumb. It's just a problem of communication.
Many geeks, policy wonks, and policy geeks (the geeks who care about policy and wish they could be wonks) just aren't capable of persuading non-geek/non-wonks that the details of the issues they care about are important. If you took your average cyber-utopian and plunked him down in a bar in Milwaukee and told him to get everyone excited about net neutrality, he'd be lucky to get out of there unscathed. (Possible reality show?)
This fact of geek life is a frustrating one. You can count up all the lies told by the telcos, you can tick off all the world-changing benefits of the internet, you can be amazed by the serendipity of online life, but you cannot convince the guy in the middle seat flying with you from Atlanta to Chicago that his elected representative is going the wrong way when it comes to giving telcos control over the internet.
Some people think Al Gore has this same communication problem. They say Gore can't reach the average man-on-the-street when he talks (unless that man-on-the-street went to St. Albans or Harvard). I hope that's not true, because when Gore gets warmed up about global warming he's remarkable — and it would be great if he could be similarly passionate about the future of the internet.
But the problem is a big one. People understand telephones, they understand investment in property and infrastructure, and they don't like being told that online companies are just trying to shift costs to consumers. In order to get the point across in 2007, we're going to need an affirmative campaign that is neither geeky or wonky or particularly detailed. Something about protecting America's future, or the importance of public investments in critical resources (water, electricity, internet access) — those kinds of messages might work.
At the same time, the geeks don't really want to lose the details. The details are important, because they make up the difference between a telephone system and the internet. I personally (I'm not a real geek, I just go to meetings with them) don't want to give up on the details. And that's why I'll never be a politician.
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I agree that the discussion on the network needs to move to the general public sphere. In the age of the sound bite and micro-attention spans, the details we focus upon become crucial. Distilling the ideas into bite size pieces is extremely difficult, particularly because viewpoints vary, even among net neutrality policy wonks, geeks and activists.
Take for example, saveaccess.org's National Day of Out(r)age set for tomorrow. They present five objections. In spirit, I agree with their ideas on tiered pricing, privacy, lobby reform, and proganda. (Although, the extent of the agreement is, as you say, all in the details.) I am less inclined to agree with them on the idea that the AT&T and SBC merger is a bad idea because jobs will be lost. While I have do have empathy for people who lose their jobs, this concern obfuscates the discussion on open and fair access to networks and open competition among telecommunications firms.