I’ve worn myself out tonight making last minute preparations for my trip out to Austin for the RedState Gathering this weekend, so this will be brief. Additionally, Tech at Night will not appear on Friday because I will be in Austin and away from Safari, whose great RSS reader is the most important tool I use to complete my Tech at Night research.
First off, the Google backlash is well underway. The firm seems to operate under the assumption that there will be no serious objections from the technical community to whatever they do, because of that “Don’t be evil” mumbo jumbo. But when articles like this at IT World show up with no purpose but to question the attitude displayed by Google and CEO Eric Schmidt, it’s time for a new plan.
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Good evening. I’ve been getting some warnings for a while now about the possible next frontier in Internet regulation. I still haven’t digested it all myself, but I wanted to get the idea out there for people to think about, and be watchful for.
The Access Board is a government agency that sets rules for websites as directed under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. It only applies to government websites. I see nothing to fear here right now. However this sort of thing could grow, first to federal contractors over a certain size, then all contractors, then to all businesses over a certain size… you get the idea.
After all, there’s already a push at the UN to declare it a Right to have accessible websites. I’m all for accessibility. I’ve long written HTML and supported good coding practices that naturally help accessibility. But I’m not for a nanny state, sorry.
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Happy Friday! In case you’re not a regular follower of the Net Neutrality issue, over at Frum Forum Jon Henke outlines the state of the debate. The Frum title sounds like advocacy, but Henke doesn’t promote the Google-Verizon Net Neutrality proposal here. It’s worth a read if you’re catching up.
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Yes, I’m sorry. When I found out yesterday morning that it was Labor Day, I did shift gears and relax a bit. By the evening I was treating it like a weekend and forgot all about Monday’s Tech at Night. So we’re making it a Tuesday morning Tech in the Morning instead.
Let’s get started with what happens when you let government regulate: they begin to ban things over their content. Yes, The DSCC is sending lawyers after the book Young Guns. Or at least, the Democrats are trying to ban the promotion of the book, which effectively amounts to banning any mass-produced book of this nature, because you can’t afford to publish a book without making sure it sells.
Just imagine what they’d do online once we gave them regulatory power there.
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Another quick one tonight. I’d feel bad, but the Net Neutrality situation is so important that the current developments by themselves are worth noting. And here’s the key fact right now: It is confirmed that Net Neutrality will not be on the agenda at the FCC’s September meeting. They’ve talked for months, but they’re going to talk some more.
My theory is that Google has pulled out the rug from everyone, the White House is considering going along with the plan as it can be said to meet the President’s campaign promise (transparency online, no discrimination on the public Internet, no two tiers of public Internet traffic, you name it). Another theory is simpler: public and industry support for the Free Press plan is collapsing, so the FCC has to throw out that idea and start over.
Even if Free Press pet Commissioner Michael Copps says the sky is falling. Again.
P.S. Remember when I said that Eric Schmidt sounded like he belonged in politics? he’d better work on his image a bit before he tries. He’s just too much of a target right now after he’s made so many outrageous remarks denying Americans should have privacy.
Good evening. I’ve been hung up today and unfortunately could not do my usually full range of reading for tonight, but I have a few Net Neutrality points to make tonight, so here we go.
First, AT&T has apparently come out against the Verizon-Google Net Neutrality proposal, writing to the FCC in favor of paid prioritization of Internet traffic. So much for this proposal being a huge benefit for big, wireless-heavy firms, eh?
Of course, there’s some political scheming already going on with Net Neutrality, too, beyond the corporate posturing going on.
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Here we go again. Carol Greenberg, also known as RedState diarist LadyImpactOhio, has begun her charge to peel off another ally from the neo-Marxist group Free Press and its Net Neutrality front group Save the Internet. She’s going after the Christian Coalition now. Amusingly enough they tried to defend themselves by telling her that the Gun Owners of America were an ally of Save the Internet, when Greenberg herself got the GOA to flip on that issue.
Individual activists can make a difference.
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Good evening. Yes, I’m late again on Tech at Night. Even later than I was on Monday in fact. But instead of scolding me, let’s take out our anger on Democrats like Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown for threatening California’s long-established high tech leadership.
More and more companies and their good, high-paying jobs are fleeing the state. Green tech firms, medical supply firms, information service firms, you name it, they’re leaving. Every field a state wants to be good in over the next 20 years is being hurt by California’s oppressive regulation, increasing taxation, and refusal to cut the kickback spending to union fatcats.
I have to wonder if Texas will reclaim the high-tech crown from California, leaving the Silicon Valley to be more like Death Valley when it comes to jobs, growth, and innovation.
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Good evening RedStaters. I spent all weekend battling a monster cold, so I’m still a bit thrown off, and so didn’t even try to get tonight’s installment of Tech at Night in before midnight Eastern. In fact it’ll be a reach to get this done before midnight Pacific, but such is life.
RedState diarist ladyimpactohio (follow her on Twitter at @ladyimpactohio) already scored one big win by peeling the Gun Owners of America from the Free Press radical Net Neutrality coalition, but the right is already at work on the next target: the Christian Coalition. Dick Armey and FreedomWorks are leading this fight, and I’m glad of it.
Way back when I started covering this issue, I said there were three names on the Save the Internet (Free Press front group) list that bugged me: Gun Owners of America, Christian Coalition, and Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds. If we can peel off at least two of three, I’ll be happy.
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How do you know when the Net Neutrality proposals of the neo-Marxist group Free Press are really out there? When the 31337* Al Franken is building his mailing list off of promoting the radical fringe’s version of the Net Neutrality agenda, you know you’re off in loony land.
Reading his poorly thought out rhetoric gives the same effect. He claims that we need massive government regulation of the Internet in order to make speech more free. Yes that’s right, freedom is slavery. Also, war is peace and ignorance is strength, if you listen to Al Franken and Free Press.
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