US/ND-1: this week's assignments
this week's assignments
Bob Carlitz (bob@info-ren.pitt.edu)
Thu, 29 Aug 1996 17:25:11 -0400 (EDT)
It's exciting to see the variety of viewpoints expressed so far in
the on-line discussion. While variety and broad range are
welcome, we also have a need to focus on specific issues if we
are going to have any significant impact with regard to the
formulation of policy on Universal Service.
If you have gone through the material labeled "This Week's Activities"
on the Universal Service/Network Democracy home page, you will have
found a list of suggested topics to study, including assignments that
are to be completed as part of this week's work in the seminar. If
you have not had a chance to look at this material, please do so at
http://www.info-ren.org/projects/universal-service/this-week.html
During this first week I had hoped that all participants would
familiarize themselves with the various steps that the FCC is going
through to implement the Universal Service provisions of the Telecom
Act. The Web site listed above contains an implementation schedule
and a very brief description of what is covered under the Act. It
would probably be a good idea for us to expand upon these issues.
There are two assignments for this week. The first is to read some
of the Comments and Reply Comments that have been placed on-line and
to write summaries of what the commenters have to say in the area
of Universal Service provisions for schools and libraries. There are
over 10,000 pages of material in our On-line Repository, but only
a small fraction of this material deals directly with Universal
Service provisions for schools and libraries. By constructing summaries,
we will develop a valuable resource for people interested in this
aspect of the legislation. This is also an excellent way to learn
what topics have received the most emphasis in previous exchanges on
this topic. Please send your summaries to
library@info-ren.pitt.edu
so that they can be linked into the Universal Service/Network Democracy
Web site.
The second assignment relates directly to how the seminar will be
structured in the upcoming weeks. To avoid too much of a free-for-all
in the on-line discussions, I hope to be able to provide a subject
focus for each week. I have made some suggestions for topics to cover
in material on the seminar's Web site. Your second assignment is
to post your own suggestions as part of the on-line discussion. I'll
try to pull together the various threads and provide a framework
which is broad enough to cover most of the issues people want to
address but focused enough to allow us to proceed efficiently.
As noted above, there is a lot of material on Universal Service
issues available on-line. I encourage seminar participants to
refer to this material as they develop their own positions on the
issues before us. It's a good idea to try to ground the statements
we make either in the law itself, the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rule
Making and Request for Further Comments or specific issues that have
been raised by commenters in the proceedings. If we proceed in
this fashion, we'll have a solid basis in the legal groundwork that
has been laid on this topic, and we'll be more likely to address
substantial issues that remain to be resolved before the Joint
Board issues its report in November.
I welcome the diversity of opinion that has been expressed so far
in the on-line discussion, and I particularly welcome the energy
and enthusiasm that so many people have brought to the discussion.
Our next task will be to harness this enthusiasm and begin to
focus our attention on the specifics of the law and its implementation.
Bob Carlitz
Moderator