Julius Genachowski, a venture capitalist who served as a technology advisor to President-elect Barack Obama's presidential campaign, has been tapped to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to several reports.
In its Tuesday (Jan. 13) edition, the Washington Post reported that congressional sources confirmed that Genachowski, 46, was the President-elect's choice to head the FCC.
The newspaper also cited sources close to the Obama transition team as saying the President-elect was prepared to offer Genachhowski either the FCC job or name him chief technology officer in the Obama administration. The CTO job would not include policy-making authority, the Post reported, prompting Genachowski to accept the FCC chairmanship.
There are several things to like about this pick. First, as an advisor to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Genachowski helped to develop, and / or signed off on, Obama's excellent telecom proposals. Second, the best open media advocacy organization around, Free Press, likes him (more in the extended entry):
Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, issued the following statement:
"Under Julius Genachowski's leadership, the FCC's compass would point toward the public interest. President-elect Obama has provided a clear roadmap of his media and technology priorities. We share Obama's goals of creating a more diverse, democratic media system and providing fast, affordable, open Internet access for everyone. We greatly look forward to working with Mr. Genachowski to put the president-elect's plan into action.
Other signs are a bit more mixed. For example, his previous governmental experience, working in the Clinton administration, shows a previous dedication to public service. However, it also connects him to the 1996 telecommunications act, a very corporate friendly piece of legislation. Also, he is known as a "Google Progressive." This means he comes from the left-wing of the corporate tech world, but also that he is used to dealing with suits rather than, say, poor people who lack internet access.
All in all, it is a pick to be excited about. However, the proof will be in the pudding. Some important telecom fights will even be had in the stimulus, and how the Obama administration performs in those fights will be the real determinant. For example, industry groups are pushing for egregiously slow download access times for rural areas, and the Obama team has not weighed in for or against the proposal:
The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, a trade group representing mid-sized carriers such as Qwest, is pushing for stimulus aid to build networks in rural areas offering download speeds of 1.5 megabits per second. Such a speed would do little to cure the herky-jerky quality of YouTube clips and would make transfers of e-mail with large attachments slow at best.(...)
Obama's transition team hasn't weighed in specifically on the speed debate. "The president-elect is committed to renewing America's leadership in broadband. Obama and Biden are working with their technology advisers and members of Congress to determine how the economic recovery package can advance that goal as they also develop a comprehensive strategy for making broadband accessible to every community in America," said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the transition team.
There are some immediate fights to be had in telecom policy. So, while there are good reasons to be optimistic about Genachowski, this is one area where the theoretical period of discussion on how good or bad the appointment is will be brief. In this case, we are moving straight from the appointment to the policymaking.
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