FCC Launches First Video Blog

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski posted first blog post about the power of broadband

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/10/2009 2:59:19 PM

The FCC launched its first video blog, with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski doing the honors posting the first blog post.
 
Appropriately, the subject was the power of broadband to transform government and society in general.
 
He said the FCC needed to find ways to use new media to perform its functions, saying that would be in three categories: communicating; boosting participation--it launched a broadband blog and would soon be launching Ideascale; and collecting the right data.
 
He said if there was one thing the FCC did, it would to unleash the power of entrepreneurs and innovation. He cited the notice of inquiry on competition in the wireless space.
 
Ideascale is a way to build communities and generate feedback by posting an idea to the Ideascale portal, after which net users get to vote and comment, pusing ideas to the top or burying them depending on the number of votes.
 
The White House has done something similar in seeking comment on a number of proposals. At a House oversight hearing on the broadband portion of the stimulus plan, the heads of the National Telecommunications & Informaion Association and Rural Utility Service talked a lot about involving industry in the process by posting information online and soliciting comment and criticism as part of the process of coming up with winning bidders and adapting the rules going forward.
 
Genachowski has also pledged to find numerous ways to involve the public more in FCC decisions and processes, including Web sites to allow staffers and the public to weigh in on the ongoing FCC reform process, and launching the broadband blog and a twitter platform.