The Washington Post reported that Susan Crawford will return to academia next year:

White House technology policy adviser, Susan Crawford will leave her position in January to return to the University of Michigan Law School where she is a tenured professor, according to the Obama administration.

Crawford, known as a proponent of controversial net neutrality rules, has been on temporary leave from the university to serve in the White House. That sabbatical, which began two months after she received tenure at the University of Michigan, will end in January.

The FCC is holding the first of a series of over 20 workshops on broadband matters (part of its work to deliver a national plan on broadband to Congress in February 2010).  Today's workshop is on the subject of E-Gov and civic engagement.  The FCC is making strides on using new technology -- the workshop is being streamed with web-x allowing anyone with an Internet connection to participate via VoIP/Video and chat.  The event is also being streamed into Second Life (although I'm not sure how interactive that will be).  I'm using the web-x stream right now and it's working great.

President Obama named Aneesh Paul Chopra as federal CTO.  Here's a clip of him from the State of the Net conference this past January:

News that Julius Genachowski is the nominee for Chairman of the FCC.

The Chairman Copps era has started at the FCC and we'll see how long it is until a permanent Chairman is nominated and confirmed by the Senate.

There is a growing interest in getting the current FCC website revamped.  It is really needed -- the site was cutting edge in the mid-nineties.  Unfortunately it is still mired in the mid-nineties.  I think the issue and concerns are actually getting traction with a wider audience -- there was an article in the trade paper Communications Daily today ("FCC Web Site Showing Age, Visitors Say").  A few key excerpts:

I wish I could have made it to the recent Silicon Flatiron-sponsored conference, Reforming the Federal Communications Commission.  The conference was also sponsored by Public Knowledge -- its president, Gigi Sohn, blogged about the conference here.  Nothing in that post of recommendations coming out of the day reads to me as at all controversial.

So to follow up on the previous post of today I just finished reading over lunch Phil Weiser's paper, FCC Reform and the Future of Telecommunications Policy that was presented at yesterday's conference on FCC reform.  It is entirely worth reading as it presents a comprehensive review of FCC performance within the existing paradigm of administrative procedures for U.S. government agencies.

I suppose this post is more of a note to self, but I found at the end of this Multichannel article on current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin a timeline of signficant reforms to the FCC (included below with some editing).

FCC: A Long Timeline of reform

1934: FCC opens for business with seven voting members and 233 federal employees, compared with five members and 2,000 workers today.

1976: Sunshine in Government Act passes, banning an FCC majority from meeting alone behind closed doors.

After nearly a decade working on domestic telecommunications issues, I've decided to try something new.  I am now Special Counsel in the International Bureau.  I am working in the Multilateral Branch of the Strategic Negotiations Division if you're interested in the fine print.

Looking out at the rest of the world is a fantastic new perspective and I'm really enjoying the work so far.  It's also a fantastic group of people occupying this part of the Federal Communications Commission and they've made the transition fairly easy for me.

I’ve been reading a lot about Richard Clarke lately, his book, his testimony before the 9/11 Commission, the sustained effort by the Republican Party to smear Clarke without actually addressing the substance of anything he has written or said. And a lot of good writers have written well about the impact on our national debate about the war on Al Qaeda (or War on Terror if you must) and about the impact on this year’s presidential election.