With the recent battle between Cablevision and Disney over Retransmission Consent in New York regarding WABC-TV carriage on Cablevisions 3.1 million subscribers, and thereby producing a coalition of Cable Providers to petition the FCC to intervene in negotiations, is akin to the saying: (be careful what you ask for).

BOSTON, Mass., January 15, 2010 – Academics, economics, technology specialists, application creators, internet service operators and investors descended on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday to discuss the possible effects of the proposed net neutrality rules on innovation, investment and internet users.

Sharon Gillette, chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission and Paul de Sa, chief of the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, moderated the late afternoon and evening workshop. This article summarizes the entire comments made at the substantive MIT workshop.

WASHINGTON, January 8, 2010 – After nearly a decade as a journalist in Washington, Winter Casey has accepted a position at Google where she will be doing strategic policy work. Casey, a self-described nerd, is looking forward to working for Google at the intersection of technology, policy and business issues.

WASHINGTON, December 18, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission has appointed Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Attwell Baker to serve on the federal-state boards for universal service and jurisdictional separations. Clyburn will serve as federal chair of both panels. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps will continue to serve on both boards.

The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service was established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to implement universal service provisions and to make recommendations on universal service matters. The Federal-State Joint Board on Jurisdictional Separations advises the FCC on the apportionment of regulated costs between interstate and intrastate jurisdictions.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday laid out a rough draft of its national broadband plan after weighing through 66,000 pages of written comments, 27 public notices, 100 items posted on its “blogband” web site, and 700 blog comment posted to the record.

But the agency says it is still difficult to answer key questions that must be addressed within two months time, or by February 17, 2010.

NEW YORK, December 13, 2009 – Broadband speeds matter just as much as does internet access, in order to ensure educational, economic and social opportunities for individuals of all incomes and ethnic backgrounds, participants in a community broadband hearing here agreed on Friday.

Policy officials, not-for-profit organizations, small businesses, community-based organizations and others came together Friday for to discuss how New York fits into the national broadband plan currently being developed by the Federal Communications Commission in Washington.

WASHINGTON, December 11, 2009 – Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell and former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., have been named honorary co-chairs of Broadband for America, a coalition of more than 110 member companies and organizations that are say they are working to increase broadband penetration across the nation.

WASHINGTON, December 4, 2009 – The Senate has confirmed Victoria Espinel to be the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.

Her job will be to craft the nation’s next intellectual property strategy. Though former President George Bush created the position of U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement and filled it with Chris Israel, the intellectual property czar has been elevated to a White House position under President Obama.

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 – Rey Ramsey, the head of non-profit organization One Economy Corp., is leaving to head the technology industry fundraising organization, the group said Thursday.

Ramsey will assume his new leadership role beginning in January. TechNet’s former president, Lezlee Westine, left the organization in May to head the Personal Care Products Council.

WASHINGTON, November 13, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission this week named David Isenberg and Mohit Kaushaul as the latest members of its broadband team. The group is being led by Blair Levin, a former telecom analyst, who has been charged with crafting the FCC’s national broadband plan.

“The plan is due for delivery to Congress on February 17, 2010. Everybody working on the plan takes this date very seriously. The work will continue after this; how long I stay at the FCC after February 17 is anybody’s guess at this point,” wrote Isenberg in a blog entry.