FCC Commissioner: "Engineers solve engineering problems"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

[One also needs to have at the FCC a staff of engineers who understand the internet and are independent to political 
pressures that exist in DC.

Dave

Former Chief Technologist -- FCC]
________________________________________
From: Dana Blankenhorn [dana () a-clue com]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 4:39 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] FCC Commissioner: "Engineers solve engineering problems"

When engineers are fully under the control of vendors they will do the
vendors' bidding.

The difference between the Internet of today and the Internet of 10
years ago is that most Internet engineers today are forced to work for
telcos or cable operators whose agenda is not the Internet, but the
maintenance of other revenue streams.

Mr. McDonnell might like to wish this away, but that's like pretending
that hiring at the Department of Justice was not politicized, or that
torture didn't take place at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It's just pretend.

We need to all grow up and look the reality in the face. A monopolized
market is not going to maintain the independence of engineers from the
monopoly's quest for profit.

What the Internet needs most is a free marketplace in which the Internet
is the primary focus of most players, and the ultimate health of the
Internet is the primary goal.

We do not have that today. Pretending that we do, that Verizon or AT&T
or Comcast engineers are independent agents, is, I'm sorry to say, a lie.

So if engineers are to be in charge of the Internet, they need to be
engineers who are not under the thrall of the monopolists, and the
monopolists must promise to abide by the decisions of those engineers in
their network designs.

Otherwise the monopolists will have won.

--
Dana Blankenhorn                http://www.danablankenhorn.com
Voic.Us                 http://www.voic.us
ZDNet Open Source               http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source
ZDNet HealthCare                http://healthcare.zdnet.com
Phone Number            404-373-7634






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