[This was mentioned in Yesterday's news digest and a report that Craig Fugate will head FEMA, but as a technology worker myself I thought it merited a diary of its own.]
From Slashdot:
"President Obama on Tuesday nominated Julius Genachowski as the nation's top telecommunications regulator, picking a campaign adviser who has divided his career between Washington, D.C., political jobs and working as an Internet executive. Genachowski is likely to continue the Democratic push for more Net neutrality regulations, which are opposed by some conservatives and telecommunications providers. He was a top Obama technology adviser and aided in crafting a technology platform that supported Net neutrality rules."
Content beyond reposting Slashdot below the fold...
The Slashdot threat was promptly assaulted by Republican talking points, including good ol' Fairness Doctrine, that bogeyman of the right fearful for their primary means of spreading their talking points to the masses. Likewise, a few vigorous attempts to tie Net Neutrality to the willfully-misled belief on the right that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were at the heart of the economic troubles raised their heads, and various points raised supporting this contention (with opinion pieces and editorials) and shooting it down (with, y'know, the actual text of the bills the anti-FM crowd was referencing).
Anyhow, my take on the matter is that I hope Genachowski will put his full weight behind getting Net Neutrality legislation passed in the current session of Congress. While voluntary obedience to the premise is nice, the market has shown that ISPs left to their own devices would prefer to collect from content providers as well as customers.
If they are left without enforced regulation, then they might very well cooperate now, with the threat of regulation looming, and then promptly abrogate Net Neutrality just as soon as they can - presumably if/when a right-wing faction gets control of any one branch of government. If I trusted the ISPs to not do this, or if there was effective competition across the country so that a neutral ISP was reliably available in most areas, I suspect I'd be more inclined towards letting the market work. But when the market is untrustworthy, bring in the regulations...