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http://pulse2.com/2006/09/17/google-hires-polit...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0107/2438....
Tech people are intelligent but often lack interest in social things. Politics is all social that often lacks intelligence.
What happened on Techcrunch or Techmeme today is quickly forgotten tomorrow. So basically Robert and I are goldfish in a small irrelevant bowl talking crap that no one will remember tomorrow.
Next week this post will be irrelevant and my comment totally pointless and in less than a decade so will you and your A-list buddies.
Cheers.
however, it is true that the Web 2.0 crowd (for lack of the better term) are still primarily playing in their own policy sandboxes. Soon, I am sure that there will be groups representing the interests of online video companies, social networking firms, behavioral marketers, etc.
But, as is this industry's nature, it will take a forceful kick in the pants before this happens.
TechNet didn't get started until Bill Lerach (now in jail) started suing half the valley on flimsy shareholder lawsuits. The industry needed a vehicle to fight these suits in Congress, and voila.
TechNet (and AEA, ITAA, etc) have enjoined some battles of the new guard's behalf in state capitols (which are equally important as DC), but for whatever reason, it has mostly been the "think tanks" like the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Progress and Freedom Foundation and others who have taken on issues that impact 2.0+.
Please note that there is an important distinction between getting engaged in tech policy and being a techie that gets involved with politics. But, I can save that for another comment.
btw, my firm communications consultancy with a specialization in tech policy. And, I blogs on the issues.
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect...
we should all push the candidates in small and big ways to showcase more of what they are going to do about a bunch of tech and telco policy issues
Robert I can get you a few contacts in the UK I know there Chair of the All Party Telecoms Group.
http://blogpotomac.com/
http://blip.tv/posts/?topic_name=offlinetv
Firstly, you will be hard pressed to find many politicians in D.C. who actually understand the technology. It's hard to talk passionately to someone who has no idea what you are talking about. Most politicians come from legal backgrounds, not scientific or technological. Those that do come from tech backgrounds? Seek out the information themselves. Those that don't seldom have any desire to understand it - but will legislate based on what sounds good to their constituents.
In that case, it's not the politicians you need to win over, but the old media.
"Andrew started down this path by watching what tech bloggers were reporting on. He very rarely saw us talk about politics. Most bloggers he meets, he tells me, don’t know who the FCC Chairman is. Or, have ever had a conversation with him or his staffs."
Is this supposed to be surprising? Political bloggers blog about politics - tech bloggers blog about tech. It's not that there's a dearth of people blogging politics - it's that we bloggers tend to niche ourselves because that's what garners an audience.
If I want technology & politics cross-talk, I'll go look on slashdot - it's a matter of audience.
You wouldn't go read a bunch of children's literature authors and then complain that they aren't addressing a different audience, would you?
Everything is interconnected - but not every blog needs to be every thing.
I hope you learn what you want to on your trip to D.C. but I think that you (or perhaps Andrew Feinberg?) are a little off base talking about "geeks" as being "non-political" strictly because tech bloggers don't blog about politics.
The wireless industry doesn't have the heavy-handed regs that the wireline companies have. The result has been good for consumers and companies. However, many lawmakers think mobile phones just make calls and they only know the old circuit-switched days and common carrier regulation...
Best, Chris
http://www.mobilediner.com/
If you doubt my cred, I was a Debian developer last century. I know the culture. I also know Washington. It bugs me that Silicon Valley can't get DC to work for them, considering how important the tech community and economy are to the overall health of the national economy.
My (well, our, since it's a two man operation) blog is technology policy through the eyes of a geek who's gotten himself a historical and political education instead of just staying in the "geek box."
Please email me if you want to chat further. My email address is on the website.
Fascinating that "getting involved in politics" translates as "getting involved in politics from an extreme leftwing position".
Lessig??? Do you care about intellectual property and copyright, Robert? Why would you embrace a controversial figure like Lessig so uncritically?!
Verizon hasn't stopped service. My God, I use it for Second Life, World of Warcraft, movies, never have a problem. What is this scare-mongering about net neutrality, that hinges its advocacy on such outright falsehoods?
Andrew sounds to me like he's trying to amp up his networking cred by painting scary pictures of things not really happening. Where is the regulation of which he speaks? Second Life's gang all just testified happily in Congress with a very tech-friendly VW-friendly social-media friendly Ed Markey presiding over the fluffball questions.
How can you get on Twitter, Robert, and say you are just going to learn, when what's happened here is that this guy Andrew has somehow guilt-tripped you or nagged you into thinking you must drop everything and go and do *advocacy for your interest groups*.
That's fine -- do that. But don't pretend it's about "building a bridge between technology and politics" or "learning" when in fact you and Andrew already have heavily determined views about issues like net neutrality or regulation of social media on issues like privacy.
Here's the thing: either Silicon Valley *is* headed for political trouble *and that's a good thing*. it is far too arrogant and heedless of issues like the MySpace suicide or game addiction or even net congestion by heavy users of free services, not to mention the issues around China, Inc. -- and it's really overdue for a wake-up call from the rest of America on just out of touch it has gotten.
Or, just the opposite (I'm afraid) -- Silicon is taking the tools it is making, injecting its leftist ideology into them, and lurching off to engage in "regime change" in Washington.
Sigh.
http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_though...
Advocacy is extremely important. Politicians will not act in your favor unless they know what your "favor" even means. Further they want to pay more attention to grass roots groups and large constituency than the big money. We are pushing for CEO's to blog more, but really we should be getting politicians to blog. Once they realize the internet is not an information super-highway and more of a social media outlet they will start listening to comments on their blogs and paying attention to online polling (if reliable).
You tech-geek-blogger-twitterati don't realize the power you have over politics. You can drive a million voters to a website in one day. If the big media ever starts to analyze the geek effect on Obama the politicians will take note. Already the politicians are blogging and hiring tech and online pr consultants. Matt Drudge has captured the attention of every media and political staff in DC.
Maybe the political campaigns already know this, but they are still waiting for the organizers and the groups to start calling, or in our case, start tweeting. Maybe Net neutrality isn't the only thing geeks need to be fighting to save.
http://summize.com/search?q=net+neutrality