[1821] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Fair competition
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sean mclinden)
Wed Jan 1 16:50:19 1992
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 92 16:36:02 -0500
From: sean@dsl.pitt.edu (sean mclinden)
To: com-priv@psi.com, hwb@upeksa.sdsc.edu
Cc: sean@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu
I am reminded, in all of this, of President Bush's admonition to his
cabinet that they should "avoid the appearance of impropriety." As a
student of philosophy I was struck by that remark for it certainly
creates a much more strenuous obligation than simply that of avoiding
impropriety.
Whether or not the echoing of these words by Mr. Bush was hollow it
does underscore the need of public officials to have the public
confidence in order to be effective.
And if such requirements existed for members of government,they
should have been exemplified by academia where our highest values
should be modelled. I was, therefore, quite surprised to see so
many university officials take refuge in comments such as "we didn't
know that it was illegal" in reference to mispending and poor
administration of Federal indirect cost research funds. Whether ior
not it was illegal, whether or not it was improper, there was no
mistaking the fact that many of these actions APPEARED improper even to
people less educated than university presidents and boards of trustees.
Without passing judgement on the current NREN discussion I cannot help
to notice that insofar as many respected members of the telecommunications
and information science community are concerned, the exists the APPEARANCE
of impropriety. In as much as this reflects a loss of public confidence,
I am concerned that the reputation of this highly important industry is
being tarnished, whether rightly or wrongly.
In the next few years what will be required to make EFF's goal of a
ubiquitous network a reality is a tremendous amount of public confidence
in the process. This will be required because the taxpayers will be asked
to pay for this in the form of taxes, rates, and tariffs. We are already
seeing tremendous debate in New Jersey regarding New Jersey Bell's
proposal to replace copper with fibre (requiring a change in the rate
structure). The BOCs which have been prevented from competing in this
arena because of the misplaced actions of an unbridled and misinformed
jurist have already experience the effects of an erosion in public
confidence.
It will be necessary, I believe, for the major shareholders in this
industry to act in such a manner as to correct this impression, with
action rather than word. The net debate is interesting, but it is the
outcome in which I am interested. Will this technology be open, available,
and affordable to everyone? I see nothing from some very major players
to make me believe that they are committed to this.
Sean McLinden
Decision Systems Laboratory
University of Pittsburgh
