The 463: Inside Tech

Around the Horn....The Bus Uncle Edition....

Catch-up posting because one of us is still dazed from a long, long weekend where only shaved-ice, fresh tuna done 100-ways and beer passed our sunburned lips...

• Something from the comments:  Patrick Ross of PFF writes in regards to our post on the Judiciary Committee approval of a Net Neutrality bill: 

"I hope 463 wasn't shocked. Sensenbrenner wouldn't schedule a markup for a bill he couldn't clear. This is part of the age-old jurisdiction fight between Commerce and Judiciary; many voting for the bill, I suspect, did so holding their nose, and only so they could keep their committee in the telecom fight to the narrow extent they're already in it."

Dear Patrick:  We are often surprised, but nothing much shocks us.  (Except for the American Idol results.  I mean, OMG, we totally thought Chris rocked!).  Actually, yes, we do get the Washington Kabuki theater thing.  To be honest, it gets rather old.  So when something slightly surprising happens --like several Republican "defections"-- we might even toss out an exclaimation point or two.  But, agreed, folks to need to remember that this is but one battle in a much bigger war (that is now supposedly costing one million bucks a week in advertising, alone).

• This just in:  In an effort to prove that a traditional Japanese diet is better for you than a "traditional" American diet, Japanese scientists have determined that a low-fat fish diet is better for you than one based solely on hamburgers and friend chicken.  Next week:  Japanese scientists prove that Japanese speak better Japanese than Texans.

• Libertarians don't like the previously referenced DOPA (the anti-kids-using-MySpace-in-public-places bill).  Adam Theier of PFF has an editorial today at the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Sonia Arrison says the legislation hurts kids.

• The EU will discuss their "TV Without Frontiers" plan tomorrow.  If enacted, we've mentioned how it will impose TV regulations on all broadcast mediums (like that cool, new thing called the Internet).  More business groups came out opposed today.

• "Everyone Has Pressure".  That's the catch-phrase of the moment on the increasingly Asian-influenced YouTube.  The Hong Kong "Bus Uncle" uttered the Bowie-esque pressure phrase and now it's among the top-viewed videos on YouTube (and is spawning remixes and all sorts of pop-culture offshoots).  See why (with English subtitles) after the jump...

Wow! Network Neutrality Approved by House Committee

Many in DC were shocked of the outcome of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Thursday regarding the issue of "network neutrality."   According to the Washington Post, the Committee approved legislation "aimed at preventing high-speed Internet network providers from discriminating against unaffiliated services, content and applications."

The measure was approved by a vote of 20-13.  Here's what Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisonsin said: "The lack of competition in the broadband marketplace presents a clear incentive for providers to leverage dominant market power over the broadband bottleneck to pre-select, favor or prioritize Internet content over their networks."

[NN Debate Opponent], You Ignorant Slut...

Former Clinton spokes and current Net Neutrality foe, Mike McCurry, debates Everybody's Favorite Nerd, Craig Newmark (see Craig's List) in the WSJ on what else?

McCurry says:

The money that could go to building a more robust Web that works better for everybody will go instead to lawyers and lobbyists. No one wins then. That's why we say hands off for now; there will be plenty of time for government to step in if and when there is a real problem.

Newmark says: 

I realize you're cleverly using Colbertian "truthiness," and I just can't compete with that. Nerds are notoriously literal.

IP Democracy also has a good round-up on Mr. McCurry's fun visit to the angry mobosphere blogosphere.

513 Million Reasons for Optimism

From a SiliconBeat post this evening:

"During the first quarter, venture capitalists invested $513 million into companies that have a clean-technology aspect to them, a six-year high, according to the Cleantech Venture Network quarterly report, to be released tomorrow.

"That's a 2.3% increase over the previous quarter, and a significant 52.9 percent jump over the same quarter a year ago. Moreover, a record $357 million was invested into clean-tech energy companies."

All this money is betting the "next Google" will be in clean tech says Kleiner Perkins partner Bill Joy in a new Business Week interview:

[Kleiner partner] John Doerr said to me: "Are we going to have any more Googles?" And I said: "You're damn right we are, because we are at the point of new wealth creation when it comes to green technology." John used to say Google is the greatest legal creation of wealth [ed:  He actually said it was the Internet -- not just Google], and I think the greatest legal creation of wealth today is in the green area -- not just in the U.S. but in the developed world. We have been looking at a lot of things related to new fuels, such as ethanol, fuel cells, advanced battery technology, and new ways of using biotech to make fuels.... There will be an enormous amount of new [green] technology, new wealth, and we are trying to create the Googles, the Microsofts of the new era. [Even] the garbage stream has a high value.

And this is just in the venture world.  Established tech players like Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials and AMD are getting into the clean tech game in a big way, too.  Why?  Sure, some of it comes from being good corporate citizens.  But, mostly, it's just good capitalism.  And, that's the reason for optimism.  If we had to rely on warm fuzzies to save the planet, we would soon be breaking out the 463 windsurf board to make our way down K Street.

Need more proof? Look no further than Wal-Mart -- the epitome of market forces -- and the reaction to their green plan by ultra-ultra liberal Mark Morford at SFGate...(excerpts after the jump)...

Google's Republican & Another DC Dissection

Longtime SJ Merc DC reporter (and all-around good guy) Jim Puzzanghera joined the LA Times DC bureau about a month ago.  Once he got on board the Times must have noticed that they ran the risk of becoming the last major news publication to do a variation of the "Google Goes to Washington" story.

While the "Google's Search for Political Influence" piece is largely redundant to some of the earlier stories (i.e., Google is moving too slow in DC say DC insiders; Google favors Democrats too much; and; Google will learn the Microsoft lesson and eventually go from 0-60), it does provide for some interesting color that the other earlier, more literal stories miss.

For example, the piece touches on how Google claims how it is different as both a business and how it approaches DC.  As a business, it drives Wall Street nuts that the company doesn't provide guidance on future earnings.  Theoretically, this allows Google to focus on their long-term strategy instead of becoming obsessed with quarterly earnings results.  While Google has annoyed many with this dictum, so far so good on business performance.

Puzzanghera notes that DC is "obsessed with the short-run" and therefore has little patience with Google's "different-ness".  Certainly, Google's Cardinal Sin thus far (otherwise known as Though Shall Promptly Hire a Big Name Republican) hasn't helped with the largely partisan (to date) Net Neutrality fight.  Yet, if Google does go great guns in DC. our guess is that they will make friends pretty quickly (again, see Microsoft).  And, when they do, it appears that Google is making the bet that having issue-area experts are the preference over lobbyists with lots of friends, but perhaps less expertise on specific issues.  (Again, this is a company that asks for college GPA from job applicants.)

This brings us to the buried headline in Puzzanghera's piece (at least in geeky tech policy circles).  Drum roll please.  Yes, Google has hired a Republican...    

Noteworthy Events in DC this Week

There are a few congressional hearings this week worth mentioning here at the 463 Blog.  Patent reform and the telecom bill are the subjects of hearings in the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees. Anything to get them to stop playing those commercials... Those of you outside of this area don't get the pleasure of seeing targeted issue ads every ten minutes on TV.

Also, the Net Neutrality bill is getting marked up on Thursday.

Around the Horn...

A new, irregular post of random thoughts and links...

• Why Net Neutrality proponents might be too smart (or self-satisfied) for the own good.  (Deep thoughts from Chartreuse)
• The lobbying around the "iPod Law" shuts down a film festival in France.  "Rarely in parliamentary life have those elected by the nation - deputies and senators - been subjected to so many letters, e-mails, menaces and pressures," says one Senator.  (International Herald Tribune).
• The best "daily show" on television isn't on TV. It's on the Web.  Check out the "the show" with zefrank everyday.  Smart, consistent and hilarious.
• You can now record a TV show in Australia thanks to a benevolent act by the government there last week.  However, you have to delete the show after viewing it once.  No kidding.  (The Age)
• Thanks to PR Renaissance Man Andy Lark for including The 463 in his top-ten PR & Marketing blog list.

Can't Tell a NN Bill Without a Scorecard

Is there Net Neutrality legislative bubble?  I mean NN bills are popping up  even faster than Web 2.0 tools that let you RSS your tags of Flickr photos to your cross IM/SMS platforms!

Here at the 463, we were thinking about trying to create a chart of all the bills in play.  But, thank goodness for real reporters.  Today, both Tech Daily (sub required) and CNET did nice overviews of the legislative flood so we don't have to get our shoes wet.

From Heather Greenfield's TD story, the big, new House happening...

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and ranking Democrat John Conyers of Michigan introduced a net neutrality bill, H.R. 5417, after losing a fight to review the measure passed by the Energy and Commerce Committee..... Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., joined Sensenbrenner for the announcement of H.R. 5417...

The prediction?

A technology source said the success of net neutrality advocates may depend on whether (House Commerce Committee Democrat and sponsor of competing legislation Ed) Markey and Sensenbrenner join forces, as well as on how closely Energy and Commerce Democrats join with the Judiciary Democrats and Republicans.
     While there was talk last week of getting the 218 votes needed to block amendments, sources following the political maneuvering say the Sensenbrenner move likely will force a House vote on net neutrality.

CNET also touches on the partisan issues in their overview...

Until late this week, the loudest push for laws barring network operators from engaging in such practices had come almost exclusively from Democrats. Most Republicans--and a handful of Democrats as well--have voted down more regulatory language but agreed to various degrees of oversight from the Federal Communications Commission. They've charged that additional steps are unnecessary at this point and could discourage network operators from investing additional money to build out their systems.

The latest bills mark a slight shift in that partisan split, but it may not be enough to prevail in a Republican-controlled Congress.

We previously lamented this partisan split on a tech policy issues here.

And, perhaps, most helpfully, CNET provides a handy chart of legislation with their story and copied and pasted after the jump below....

KPCB Fights Addiction

Leading venture blog SiliconBeat is facinated by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers role in influencing policymakers. Today, they report that the Bush SOU "end-oil-addiction" line was pushed by Kleiner partner Floyd Kvamme.  Kvamme also serves as co-chair on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology   (PCAST).

The rest of the post highlights Kleiner's most high-profile partner John Doerr's clean-tech work (he says he is spending half of his time in this arena) and how the firm is creating a virtuous cycle of advocacy, innovation and environmentally friendly solutions.  SiliconBeat also notes how quick and how big clean tech is growing.  We agree.  See more posts from The 463 on this topic.  Also remember that the likely inclusion of the Clean Alternative Energy Act on the November California ballot will likely mean that clean tech hits a national media coverage tipping point.

And while, Floyd Kvamme only got one line in the SiliconBeat piece (he would probably prefer none), he is easily one of the most unsung heroes of Silicon Valley tech policy.  The man has been leading industry efforts on a variety of issues since the 1960s (Kvamme was one of five founders of National Semiconductor in 1967).  When the book is written on the history of tech policy, Kvamme will be seen as one of the very few key threads between the past and present.

(P.S. Kvamme is also one of the most humble and generous men you'll ever meet in Silicon Valley).

The League of Bald-Headed Men for Net Neutrality

Joining well-coiffed Alyssa Milano in favor of net neutrality, Moby (pictured on the left) is joining Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet, for a Net Neutrality event in Washington today says CNET.   (And, we said that there would never be a million geek march on DC).

In other bald-headed rocker net neutrality news, REM is the big name group that is driving others to sign the "Artists and Musicians for Internet Freedom" petition.  (REM front-man Michael Stipe is on the right).

We'd like to think that Moby and Stipe are purely taking this position on the policy principals, but we also smell a bit of a conspiracy here.  After the jump is a photo of a top government affairs official at a leading Internet company.  We think you'll get our point.