Successful Blog

Net Neutrality 9-17-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Major U.S. Trade Group Makes Case for Neutrality

The American Electronics Association (AeA) released a report yesterday strongly supporting Net Neutrality and urging Congress: “Don’t stifle competition and innovation by allowing network operators to change and distort what is currently a highly competitive system.”

“The principles of Net Neutrality have created the Internet as we know it — the most dynamic network for communication and commerce in human history,” states The Case for Preserving Net Neutrality, a report by AeA, which represents 2,500 companies from every corner of the high-tech industry.

[ . . . ]

According to the report, the only way to [“safeguard the competitive nature of the Internet] is for Congress to prevent companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from abusing their market power by imposing discriminatory new surcharges that favor the content from companies and Web sites that pay them the most.

Allowing the nation’s largest phone and cable companies to tilt the market in favor of larger and better funded content providers would “undermine the fundamental principles of open and free exchange of information across the network,” according to the AeA report.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 9-16-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Guess the State and Win a Subsidy: Senate Plays Geography Games in Telecom Bill

Are you good at geography? If so, you may enjoy the small geography quiz buried deep inside of the telecommunications bill now pending in the U.S. Senate. Hidden on page 121 is a paragraph directing the FCC to expand universal service payments to “insular areas, including any insular area that is a State comprised entirely of islands…”

[. . . ]

As it turns out, the list of states covered by this provision is quite short:

1.Hawaii.

And, by total coincidence, a senator from that state — Daniel Inouye — is the co-chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee — which wrote the bill.

[. . . ]

The provision illustrates how far the bill has strayed from a hoped-for focus on eliminating unneeded regulation. At its core, there still is substantial positive reform: streamlining of the video franchising process. But that important change is surrounded by a luau of special interest provisions. . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

SOB Business Cafe 09-15-06

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Converstations speaks of blogs and search engines.

Extreme Leadership speaks of things usually reserved for springtime.

Customer Love is in the Air

Sometimes a metaphor show the way for us to Manage To Change. Don’t be afraid to follow that last link.

Eat4Today knows what it means to have a dream.

The first step to a commitment

The Virtual Wire discusses how and whether standards, honesty, and integrity relate to legalities in business.

About Ethics in Business

Related ala carte selections include

Creativity never falters at the Carnival of Creators.

Carnival of Creators

Nektros calls it madness, but I see a well-deserved day of recharging brain cells with playtime before going back to work again.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

No Doubt — A Positively Great Day . . . for One Reason

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I've been thinking . . .

I had the pleasure of spending yesterday with SOB, Relationship Geek, and “10 Ways to Make It Great!”man, Phil Gerbyshak.

It was — no doubt — a positively, great day.

All things considered, that’s saying something. Some folks I know could have, would have — no doubt — made that same day into a positively awful drama.

Tiny facts might have thrown folks off track for a moment . . .

  • The traffic coming down from Milwaukee was less than easy — I got in Phil’s car 10 minutes AFTER his speech was supposed to have started.
  • The gentleman at the venue was out of reach — no way to alert him.
  • I went to find a parking lot. Phil went on up to speak. His dress shirt was still in the trunk.

You get the picture . . .

Phil’s comments were acknowledgments of help. “You’re the best,” and “Cool.” I heard no negative comment all day.

He said, “I”ll wear the shirt to work tomorrow.”

We had a great lunch, great conversation, and made some great plans. None of which would have happened if those mishaps had become the way we saw the day.

That’s why I started this by saying . . .

I had the pleasure of spending yesterday with Phil Gerbyshak.

It was — no doubt — a positively great day . . . for one reason.

Today, I want to be someone’s reason for having a positively, great day..

Liz's Signature

Related article
Finding Your Frequency in Business and in Life

Net Neutrality 9-15-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Google End Runs AT&T, Verizon and the other Telecomms

Google is leasing a huge chunk of space, almost two full floors, at 111 Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea District of Manhattan in the landmark former Port Authority Headquarters. . . . But it isn’t the building that’s the key to understanding this move. According to the breaking story in the Village Voice,

The old Port Authority headquarters sits atop one of the main fiber optic arteries in New York City—the Hudson Street–Ninth Avenue “fiber highway.” The venerable behemoth is already one of the country’s most important “carrier hotels”—loosely speaking, the physical connection points of the world’s telecommunications networks and the World Wide Web. As a result, Google will “have access to as much bandwidth as possible and as much variety of bandwidth as possible,” says Dana Spiegel, a technology consultant and executive director of NYC Wireless.

The tenant list of this building reads like a Who’s Who in High Tech, with many of the top internet and Telecomm players in residence . . . There’s a “meet me” room known as NYC Connect . . . a carrier neutral facility . . . This will allow Google to bypass the Telecomms and go directly to Tier 2 service providers. The meet me facilities “are built to N+1 redundancy.

There is much speculation about why Google is doing this, but what it really comes down to is that Google is now master of its own fiber optic destiny and can’t be held hostage by Ed Whitacre or any other Telecomm. And if you add up the ongoing purchases of dark fiber all over the map, it spells out a future where the Telecomms will never be able to hold Google hostage to additional fees or slow down delivery of Google Video or VOIP.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Interview 9.3: Tammy’s Biggest Challenge, Her Wish, and Her Advice

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How Does One Mediate from a Blog?

Dr. Tammy Lenski

Dr. Tammy Lenski is an author, coach/consultant, teacher/trainer, mediator, and runs her practice both in the 3-d World and in the blogosphere. We talked about challenges, issues, and wishes her practice brings her.

Hi, Tammy! What do you find is your biggest business challenge as a mediator?

Conflict is uncomfortable and scary and preferably avoided by a lot of people. Even the word makes some people cringe. As a mediator and coach, I get to see the truly life-changing transformations that take place when a person steps up to her most difficult conversations with the support of someone who knows how to navigate these conversations effectively. But people who haven’t tried that have no real basis on which to really understand how they can transform their lives. Every time a client says to me, “You just changed my life,” I tell them to go out and tell that to 10 people they know!

What are the most important issues in your work?

I see people disempowering themselves every time they blame the other person for the conflict. When we blame the other person and tell ourselves they need to change or fix what they caused, we hand all our power to them. And if they don’t think it’s their fault (they usually don’t), then we’re stuck because we’ve made it their job to fix it. There are such straightforward ways to get beyond the blame game and I’d love to see more people doing them—from our country’s leaders down to the people at our own dinner tables.

What do you wish for?

I wish for a culture where people don’t wait until conflict’s really entrenched and stuck before they think about asking for some help. I wish for the telephone call that begins, “A co-worker (or spouse, etc.) and I have gotten into a bit of a difficult place with each other and before it gets really messy, I thought I’d get some guidance…” At the risk of sounding trite, world peace begins with every individual.

One last thing before we go, what advice would have for folks starting out?

Find your voice. Figure out what’s unique about you and be bold and tenacious in bringing that to the world.

That Tammy Lenski, she knows how to have a conversation. Doesn’t she? I can’t help but learn when I listen to her.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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