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Net Neutrality 12-21-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Open Letter on AT&T Merger to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin

To: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin
CC: WSJ Editorial Page
Date: 12/20/06
Re: AT&T Merger with Bell South, Net Neutrality or Why There Is Still No Phone Competition in Long Valley, NJ

Mr Martin,

I know it must be tough for you these days as the last check into this bad for consumer deal between the new, new, we swear we won’t do no evil AT&T and Bell South. Especially now that Robert McDowell decided to abstain from voting on the merger which results in a 2-2 tie between Republicans and Democrats at the FCC. Wow to think how billions hang in the balance between 4 people. That’s quite a challenge, so let me, as a 10 year veteran of the old and better AT&T give you some advice. Sure this is free, but if you study the downfall of AT&T you will realize that the current uncompetitive environment is much of a result of bad management by C. (how) Michael (bought Excite@Home and TCI high and sold them very low) Armstrong and lies and underdeliveries by the Baby Bells of the promised made in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

I submit to you my recent experience with home service in beautiful Long Valley, NJ which is a mere 30 minutes via a country road to the old AT&T HQ and now the current Verizon HQ in Basking Ridge NJ.
[ . . . ]

Yes, I do believe in our economy, free markets, and that if all things being equal, competition will give consumers more choices and better prices. However, it doesn’t work when you allow each Baby Bell to have a virtual monopoly in their territory, resulting in no alternatives for consumers. Use your own experience and see if you can switch services. Competition doesn’t exist and this merger shouldn’t be allowed to go through without significant concessions.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

One-in-a-Million Award for Every One-in-a-Million Blogger

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Yeah, It’s a One-in-a-Million Kind of Thing

One-in-a-Million by Trée George and Sandy Renshaw

My husband tells me that if someone on the planet is saying, “one in million” there’s a good chance that person is talking about me.

I know it’s not so. I know there are plenty of us who fit in that “one in a million” category. So I’ve decided to celebrate how unique we all are with an award!

I’m calling it the The One-in-a-Million Award for One-in-a-Million Bloggers. Everything about it is a one-of-a-kind thing. Read the rules and you’ll understand where I’m going. Then join on in, and we’ll get this party rolling. When it’s over, I’ll make a giant list of the One-in-a-Million Bloggers that we all know.

Here’s how to participate. It’s easy.

  1. Make up a one-in-a-million category — use lots of detail to name it.
  2. Choose a one-in-a-million blogger — the only one who fits that description.
  3. Collect the following information:
    your descriptive name of the category, a link to the blog and the blog author Your description probably explains every reason why you named it a one-in-a-million blog so that’s already covered. Do include a link to your own one-in-a-million blog and your own name — so that I can link back to you as the one-in-a-million nominator and cohort well..
  4. If you’d do me the favor to write One-in-a-Million in the subject line of an email and send all of the information to me at lizsun2@gmail.com, I sure would think you were one-in-a-million for helping me out that way.
  5. Go with the One-in-a-Million theme and only submit one please. I know you know two million people, but most of us don’t.
  6. The awards go on until December 31, 2006, 11:59 CST. (Chicago Time)
  7. And of course, be nice.

I’ll be the one-in-a-million judge. If I need help, I’ll ask few one-in-a-million friends I know for an opinion. Every day between now and the end of the year, I’ll be posting the links of both the one-in-a-million bloggers and the one-in-a-million benefactors who named them.

What An Award Posting Looks Like

Here are two one-in-a-million bloggers I already know. Just follow this handy-dandy One-in-a-Million format and you’ll do fine.

For the One-in-a-Million-Category of:

Sci-Fi storytelling and amazing art that moves people. This category requires talent that comes from a heart and soul mixed of cookies, tea, generosity, and filled up with listening, love and downright humanity. This award is bestowed with extra points for providing the art for the One-in-a-Million logo poster because all someone ever needs to do is ask.

This award was submitted by: One-in-a-Million Cohort Liz Strauss

For the One-in-a-Million-Category of:

Being in love with people and graphics. This category requires always wanting to connect the two, laughing a lot, and having kind words for everyone, and somehow being able to spell customer service and help from the letters, Sandy. This award comes with special points for turning the art that Trée provided into the One-in-a-Million Logo poster, never stopping until it was a great example of her graphic abilities.

Sandy Renshaw at PurpleWren Workshop

This award was submitted by: One-in-a-Million Cohort Liz Strauss

So there you go . . . Haven’t you wanted to be a cohort just one time? Here’s your chance to do so in a big way. Who do you think is one-in-a-million? Take a minute. Make up a wild one-in-a-million category and let the world know.

Happy Holidays!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Net Neutrality 12-20-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Statemate Keeps At&T-BellSouth Merger Off of FCC’s Agenda (Washington Post)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said yesterday he did not know how soon it would consider AT&T’s proposed $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth . . .
[ . . . ]
One of the main obstacles is disagreement over whether to require a “net neutrality” condition that would bar AT&T from asking different Internet services to pay different prices for using its lines.

The entire story is available at WashingtonPost.com.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 12-19-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Use the Internet to Save the Internet

Together we won the first round in the battle for Net freedom. But the phone and cable giants are launching a counterattack. We need to raise the alarm and send a clear message to our new Congress: Make Net Neutratlity the Law in 2007!

via AlterNet, thanks to Thoughts and Philosophies

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

NFL Coaches, CEOs, and VCs Take a Lesson from Your Kids

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We Learned How Business Works When We Were Five Years Old

Strategic Plans logo

I was re-reading “The E-Myth Revisited” last night. It reminded me of a book I read in 1989, called, “The Game of Work.” Both got me thinking about how the idea of work is so much more important than the task at hand. Those thoughts took me to jobs I had, the work I do, and the games I played as a kid.

I looked around at the world and found that everything that is hugely, remarkably successful has the same things that make it work as our back yard games did.

  • The guy who’s house it is — the place we’re playing — sets the culture. That’s how it’s always been. Everyone takes a cue from the owner, that personality has power. He might keep kids out or share his yard with everyone. He might change the rules in his favor or consistently help others win. Steve Farber, Extreme Leader describes what works remarkably on the playground and in life when he says, I’m convinced that the ultimate rule of the Extreme Leader is to make others greater than yourself.

  • Rules and roles give us freedom to act. — Nothing was worse than when everyone wanted to be king in the drama or sheriff in the old west. Forgive me, but it was chaos when kids would get “shot” and refuse to stay dead. Playing baseball was no fun when we argued about what was a fair ball and was what out or even worse, where the bases were. Learning the rules and working with them make us smarter and give us benchmarks. Seth says so.

  • Sometimes a “do over” is the right answer, sometimes it’s not. — But even the smallest kids know that doing everything over is boring and gets you no where. Guy Kawasaki has some great advice on when and when not to respond to mistakes.

  • Whining, yelling, and tuning out make you look like a baby. — Kids soon enough ignore whiners, yellers, and kids who tune out as not worth the time they take away from the game. Kathy Sierra talks about what to do if stress brings out one of these traits when you should be learning.

  • Don’t break a promise unless someone will get hurt. ,

  • You have to CARE for the game to be remarkable and successful. — Kids know that they put their hearts and their heads into whatever they do Christine Kane explains why everyone wants to do business with people who think like she does.

That’s why experts call play the “work of childhood.” It’s true.

So, let’s get playing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your business, your brand or your blog, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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Are You a Freelancer or a Solo Entrepreneur? Use Guy Kawasaki’s Mantra as He Meant
5 +1 Whole Brain Steps to Believable Strategic Goals OR Find Your Bliss Without Wasting Time

Net Neutrality 12-18-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Information Policy

You’ve got to hand it to FCC General Counsel Sam Feder. His opinion that supposedly “clears” Commissioner Robert McDowell to participate in the AT&T takeover of BellSouth probably wasn’t what Chairman Kevin Martin had in mind.

The idea of the exercise was to put pressure on McDowell to jump into, presumably on the side of AT&T, and force Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein into a corner.
[ . . . ]
Feder’s opinion said nothing that should cause the Commissioner to change his view. The opinion made a tepid case at best for Commissioner McDowell to participate. Feder seemed to go out of his way to stress that it was McDowell’s decision to participate. The Feder memo said it was a “very, very close call” whether McDowell should take part, and that reasonable parties could disagree on a decision.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE