Comments on: Google’s MCI Vet to fix ‘Neutrality’ Message

By: » Bennett Sings Telcos’ New Net Neutrality Tune Sidecut Reports

» Bennett Sings Telcos’ New Net Neutrality Tune Sidecut Reports — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:56:11 +0000

[...] unorganized in its approach to net neutrality, not really getting its act together until it hired former MCI lobbyist Rick Whitt in early 2007. If anything, it was former AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre’s not on my pipes bromide [...]

By: InternetFreedomCoalition.org » Blog Archive » Google’s MCI Vet to fix ‘Neutrality’ Message

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:59:52 +0000

[...] by competition in the long-run.” I wonder if they made him stay late and pound the erasers. Google’s MCI Vet to fix ‘Neutrality’ Message Written by Paul Kapustka Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 7:00 AM [...]

By: Maritza Stoewe

Maritza Stoewe — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:44:16 +0000

We have to have net neutrality, have to

By: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:17:16 +0000

Is a neutral net anticompetitive?...

The "net neutrality" debate is a complicated one (witness Google's recent twists and turns). Take the very important issue of competition. On the surface, it would seem that those in favor of making net neutrality the law of the land are fighting th...

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:21:24 +0000

Does the net neutrality issue go away when 95% of the U.S. is connected by community wireless networks not controlled by corporations? Or, do the gatekeepers simply trickle down to the local level?

By: Drew Clark

Drew Clark — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:36:40 +0000

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that Rick isn't excellent. He is smart (as is Alan Davidson, as is Andrew McLaughlin), and did a really excellent piece on the "layers" model while at MCI. But I do note the difference in cultures at work here.

By: Alex Goldman

Alex Goldman — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:11:45 +0000

Richard Whitt is excellent. I strongly recommend going back and reading some of his work for MCI.

By: Drew Clark

Drew Clark — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:10:48 +0000

Google’s chief challenge in “messaging” on Net Neutrality is this: how fond does it wants to be to government solutions to problems, still undefined, that the company may or may not face? In other words, will Google retain the generally laissez-faire attitude of Silicon Valley types, embodied in the culture of Creative Commons’ liberalized copyright, voice-over-Internet-protocol’s route-around spirit, and Electronic Frontier Foundation’s hacker impulses? Or, by contrast, will it adapt into the spirit of intervention and telecom insider pleading that became central to the Washington culture of Bell rivals MCI and (the old) AT&T?

Even before McLaughlin’s statements, Google’s Washington Policy Council Alan Davidson was attempting to push the neutrality issue into the competition box and move it over the Federal Trade Commission. This is certainly smart politics: the company could hardly have less influence at the Federal Communications Commission. (CDT, it should be noted, is kind of a kissing cousin, if not a soul sister, of EFF — although far more willing to negotiate with Washington.)

Rick Whitt, by contrast, hails from MCI, a company with a long list of grievances against the industry that swallowed it up. Watching how the culture and predisposition of Googlers who hail from MCI, CDT and ICANN — the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers —shakes out will be one of the more interesting stories in Internet policy for months or even years to come.

By: Hands Off

Hands Off — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:31:32 +0000

I’m still not convinced. Why didn’t Google attend the first ever net neutrality debate in the UK this week?

Thanks for pointing this out Mr. Bennett.
http://bennett.com/blog/index.php/archives/2007/03/20/honourable-members-consider-net-neutrality/

Hands Off
~With Hands Off the Internet

By: Ajax

Ajax — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:10:43 +0000

Nice Article