It's not "Conjunction Junction" and, to the consternation of many, it may not be "I'm Just a Bill." Regardless, Net Neutrality is blowing up so large it's got it's own cartoon (okay, it's more like a well animated PowerPoint presentation). Check it out after the jump below along with all sorts of Net Neutrality happenings...
As we note in our weekly run down of DC tech policy events, there's a fairly balanced Net Neutrality hearing tomorrow:
2:00PM - House Judiciary Committee - Full committee's Task Force on Telecom and Antitrust holds hearing on "Network Neutrality: Competition, Innovation and Nondiscriminatory Access." Witnesses: Paul Misener, vice president of global public policy, Amazon.com; Earl Comstock, president and CEO, COMPTEL; Walter McCormick, president and CEO, United States Telecom Assn.; and Timothy Wu, professor of law, Columbia Law School Location: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building.
The telcos have hired former Clinton Press Secretary Mike McCurry to lead the group "Hands off the Internet". Here's an op-ed he wrote in the Washington Times (which, we doubt gave McCurry much opportunities to publish his opinions when Clinton was in office).
Meanwhile a pro-Net Neutrality group called "Save the Internet" officially launched today and bashed McCurry's coalition. Save the Internet is a strange bedfellow collective of activist groups from all sides of the political spectrum.
Om Malik isn't all that impressed and thinks:
While the campaign tries to reach out to Joe & Jane Citizen, the leading web companies are not taking the issue seriously. In reality they should be reaching out to Silicon Valley. Everytime I have a chat with folks in the Valley, there seems to be little awareness of this issue.
Similarly, the start-ups that are most likely to affected seem to be in the dark as well. Niall and I have discussed this time and again in our pod sessions. And its the big web companies who have to step up and state their position on this issue, and not just pay lip service.
Indeed, we've wondered here whether the Web 2.0 players just expect Google and eBay to carry their water for them.
Though, speaking of the big boys, there is one tech company that can actually effectively let others draft in its wake with its Washington skills and deep government affairs bench. And, that's Intel. We haven't seen this covered anywhere else besides National Journal's Tech Daily (sub required), but, last week, Intel moved from a neutral position on the issue to one that sides with the Web firms. Drew Clark wrote:
The most significant development in the industry is that Intel is switching from a neutral position to actively join Google, Microsoft and Yahoo in "working within the coalition of companies trying to develop and drive the tech neutrality position," according to industry sources.
That tech group is set to brief aides to the Senate Commerce Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday and Tuesday. "We will be there," said Peter Pitsch of Intel.
Oh, and here's the Public Knowledge one-sided Net Neutrality primer (you would think that, all considered, YouTube would feature it....)
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