Organizing for America | Gigi Sohn's Blog: FCC Processes Show Need for Obama Tech Plan

FCC Processes Show Need for Obama Tech Plan

By Gigi B. Sohn - Dec 30th, 2007 at 11:02 pm EST

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Tags: FCC, Obama, technology

Hi! My name is Gigi Sohn, and I run an organization in Washington DC called Public Knowledge, which working to defend your rights in the emerging digital culture. Our biggest issues include preserving an open and universally accessible Internet and ensuring that copyright and patent laws do not inhibit creativity, innovation, competition and free speech. So Public Knowledge does a lot of work at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Copyright Office, the Patent and Trademark Office and in Congress.

In November, I was honored to be asked to evaluate Barack Obama’s technology and innovation plan, and I gave it very high marks. This should come as no surprise, since Senator Obama’s plan explicitly embraces the principle of network neutrality to preserve an open Internet; calls for increased broadband deployment; and recognizes the need for a balanced copyright and patent system that “promote[s] civic discourse, innovation and investment.”

Today I want to discuss a different and equally important part of the Obama Technology and Innovation plan: that which seeks to use technological means to make government more transparent and accountable and to give citizens the tools to participate in government processes. Among other things, the plan would:

•    Make government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of the data to comment, derive value and take action in their own communities;
•    Establish pilot programs to open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies;
•    Requiring Executive Branch appointees and administrative agencies to conduct their business in public and to employ technological tools to allow citizens to participate and be heard in these meetings;
•    Provide a website, search engine and other web tools that enable citizens to track the influence of money in the political process;
•    Create the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer to ensure that the government has the right technological infrastructure and that it makes its records open and accessible.

Nothing points out the dire need for these kind of steps than the way that the FCC functions today, particularly as issues like net neutrality, broadband competition and media ownership have captured the attention of the general public. Despite the increasing importance and awareness of how government regulates (and in the case of this administration, refuses to regulate) our media and telecommunications systems, the FCC remains an agency dominated by opaque processes, corporate lobbyists and perhaps one of the most user-unfriendly websites in all of government (especially ironic for the agency that is expert on communications).   It is for these and other reasons that both House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) have called for inquiries into the FCC’s procedures.

Lack of Transparency: Despite the good intentions of the Government in Sunshine Act, its requirement that a formal meeting be held if more than two Commissioners meet places power in unappointed staffers. The staffers negotiate with each other and the votes are tallied before the Commission’s monthly meeting takes place. Thus, the formal meetings are staged events where the outcome is predetermined and the Commissioners come armed with pre-prepared statements. The public has no voice in these meetings.

The FCC’s processes also place inordinate power in the Chairman’s office. The Chairman decides when to send a proposed final decision to the other Commissioners and in the recent controversial decision on media ownership, the decision was circulated just two weeks before the meeting date. These last minute efforts have been exacerbated over the past several months by FCC meetings that have started long past their published starting times. Indeed, three FCC meetings this year have started 9 or more hours late, and the November meeting started 12 hours late - at 10 PM! Needless to say, few members of the public were watching the webcast or sitting in the FCC’s meeting room at that time of day.

In addition, what FCC rules there are to ensure that the public understands the inner workings of the Commission are largely ignored by industry advocates. The so-called “ex parte” rules require advocates to submit a letter that provides a detailed description of their meetings with FCC Commissioners and staff. Many industry advocates submit the most barebones ex parte letters that reveal almost nothing about their meetings.

Public Input is Largely Ignored: In 2003, and again this year, public sentiment was overwhelmingly against increased consolidation in the mass media. In public hearings across the nation and in thousands of comments to the FCC, ordinary Americans made clear that the homogenization and delocalization of local media was bad for them, their communities and the country. In these cases, and in other proceedings with significant input from the public, the FCC took little note of, and ruled against the public will.

The Revolving Door: With broadcasters, cablecasters, telephone, wireless and technology companies all doing business with the FCC, the future job enticements for an FCC staffer or Commissioner are lucrative indeed. A staffer or Commissioner may not want to step on two many industry toes so as to ensure a future position with industry.   This is not crooked – it is simply human. But the one-year prohibition on an FCC staffer coming back to advocate at the agency provides little disincentive to engage in this kind of behavior.

The Obama plan to open up government data processes through technology will not solve all of these problems, but it will force the FCC and other executive and administrative agencies to be more transparent and responsive to the public that they serve. Even more important, it will start a conversation long ignored, about how technology can lift the veil of secrecy from government and make our government more responsive to the citizenry it is tasked to serve.

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