I watched earlier this week as the blogosphere, including many observers I respect and admire, castigated Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) for his limited knowledge of technology. The 80-year old Senator betrayed his lack of understanding of high-tech matters over and over again during the Commerce Committee’s mark-up of his controversial telecom bill.
Senator Stevens made such laughable faux pas as describing the Internet as a “series of tubes,” which prompted critics of his legislation to brand him as a luddite and out-of-touch and worse. The real concern expressed by bloggers: how can someone who is rewriting the nation’s telecom laws be so ignorant of the technology?
I felt very uncomfortable reading all these attacks because in truth I thought they were completely unfair — the man is a legislator, a politician, a leader in the Senate and can’t be expected to be an expert on every subject matter we ask our lawmakers to handle. Moreover, it’s almost assured that Senator Stevens himself drafted not one word in his own bill; that’s what specialists, committee counsel, do.
I thought that the attacks on the Senator’s lack of a techno-vocubulary were cheap shots that could easily be aimed at so many otherwise valuable public servants.
But someone at the 463 blog (please guys, give us your names when you write posts) has picked up on my discomfort and improved on it. Instead of snickering at the statesman, why not take that ridicule and come up with a plan to educate members of Congress, Senators and other public officials on the new technological realities?
Still, the industry works in the real world. And, we collectively need to take the opportunity to step-back and do a much better job in clearly explaining why our industry is making the lives of average Americans better and better. Once that is done, than it’s a heck of a lot easier to drill down into specific issues.
We need to target up-and-coming state and federal policymakers and multiply efforts to educate the staff members of the already powerful (and extremely busy).
There’s no way, of course, to make public officials and lawmakers as conversant in technology as the industry is. But that’s not the point. The point is to enlighten them on the bigger picture issues and why they matter.
The goal is to get policymakers to understand why technology matters — not necessarily how it works. How many congress folks can explain clearly how oil is refined, what makes a spark plug spark, or what the perfect soil conditions are for corn?
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:58 AM|Comments(3)
The man held 16 hearings on a variety of telecommunications issues this year. Several of them revolved around the Internet, and at least two dealt with network neutrality (one of which Stevens did not attend).
No, it is a reasonable expectation to expect Sen. Stevens to know more about the Internet than he does. The fact that he does not is mere hubris on his part and his committee staffers. Your point B is exactly why he's being ridiculed now.
Posted by: John Anderson at July 10, 2006 5:30 PM
For a seat of the pants analogy, I didn't think that Stevens got it too badly wrong. After all, we talk about "plumbing" the Internet and "fat pipes" all the time. Pipes, tubes, whatever. You stuff bits in on one end and they pop out on the other.
And so he said "internet" instead of "email". Big deal. He got some words mixed up while speaking exemporaneously.
I find the "highway" analogy equally absurd.
Maybe it would be nice if he could speak the geekspeak about IPv6 vs IPv4 and know the command semantics of the route command but I question whether that would make him a better legistator or just a nerdier one.
One may take issue with Senator Stevens politics and policies but his analogies aren't that awful in the grand scheme of things.
Posted by: Steve at July 10, 2006 9:41 AM
I am all for educating the policymakers, in fact, I think there should be mandatory testing of baseline knowledge before any senator can start making decisions and recommendations about anything. Sort of an entrance exam to get onto a committee. Why not offer training for those office-holders who are weak in, say, technology? It would be like boning up for the SATs.
And while we're at it, let's have some field trips, where they can check out the many ways that broadband applications like voip internet phone calling have changed people's lives for the better. Let them meet the families that get to stay in touch without sacrificing the kids' college funds, for instance. Maybe introduce them to the fact that their constituents? They do use the internet-- commercially, as well as personally.
I think the thing that makes me most uncomfortable about lawmakers like Stevens, is that he is a)acting as a spokesperson for something he obviously doesn't grasp, and b)is instrumental in making sure his legislation passes. Even if he didn't directly put pen to paper, it's his bill from the committee he chairs.
At some point, the DMV will yank the license of an unsafe driver and not reinstate it until proof is shown of competence. Can we do the same thing on Capitol Hill?
Posted by: T. Willie at July 7, 2006 6:29 PM
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