At CES, there is a somewhat standing tradition of having the incumbent FCC chairman show up for a Q-and-A chat. In the recent past, this has mainly amounted to CEA chairman Gary Shapiro lobbing fairly meaningless softball questions to Michael Powell and Kevin Martin, the two FCC chairs during the Bush administration. Anticipation was high last week in Las Vegas for something more substantial, given that Shapiro’s politics are definitely not typically aligned with the current FCC chair, Julius Genachowski.
Instead of the usual puffball session, Shapiro asked some admirably tough questions — and Genachowski gave as good as he got, never appearing nervous and in the end (at least on this judge’s card) winning the impromptu “Brawl in the Hall” by having an well-thought answer to each of Shapiro’s queries.
While I don’t have a lot of quotes to share — I was watching and listening trying to get the “feel” of the exchange more than the exact words — the thought did occur to me that this FCC has more projects underway in less than a year than the Powell and Martin tenures did, combined. When GOPers like Shapiro or do-nothing FCC commissioner Robert McDowell, or the ostensibly bipartisan Shapiro (ed. note: see comments below from Shapiro, who asserts he is not a Republican; we have changed the post to reflect this) act indignant about the current FCC’s one-month extension of the deadline for delivering the national broadband plan, it behooves us all to remember why we need a plan in the first place — because the two previous, GOP-led FCC tenures basically let the country’s communications regulatory infrastructure go to rot.
Already, the current FCC is moving forward with stimulus fund dispersals, the national broadband plan, a network neutrality proceeding, and an effort to find more wireless spectrum for broadband — among other tasks. What’s refreshing about listening to Genachowski is to realize that unlike his immediate predecessors, the title of FCC chairman does not seem to be his life’s pursuit; instead, he is treating his position as the leader of an active clan of folks who want to move this country’s communications infrastructure back into a leading position — and who aren’t afraid to include views from all sides of the political spectrum in doing so.
“One of my main goals at the FCC is to turn it into a 21st century agency,” said Genachowski to Shapiro, with nobody in the audience missing the punchline — that it’s not there now, thanks mainly to the inaction of those who held the same office directly before him. Genachowski also had a good line (sorry, no exact quotes here) about how he was encouraging folks at the agency to try things and suggest things that might fail or be the wrong approach — sort of like how Silicon Valley operates, where you learn lessons from failures and move on, rapidly in search of the next answer.
The bottom line? The FCC seems in pretty good hands under Genachowski, who seems at ease with the tough technical and legal issues before him, and who has the gravitas to speak carefully and cautiously — maybe too cautiously for some who would prefer more direct action, but in the political minefield that is the FCC, it’s a trait to be admired.
For a nice, long interesting chat with the chairman — minus Shapiro’s politically motivated agenda — tune into his visit with Om and Stacey at GigaOM HQ, also last week. Visiting top bloggers for an open-ended, live broadcast Q&A — if you need any proof how different the new FCC is from the recent past, it’s hard to get clearer than that.