Genachowski Putting More Emphasis on Private Sector Partnerships
The FCC is formally launching a public-private initiative, which will be under the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau. Examples of the kinds of programs the initiative is targeting include the Connect to Compete program, the Digital Textbooks Initiative and the FCC’s cybersecurity small business initiative, the FCC said Wednesday.
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Public-private ventures have also been a bigger Obama administration theme, mentioned repeatedly by the president, including in last year’s State of the Union address. The initiative is being headed by Josh Gottheimer, an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski, who will continue to work directly for the chairman. Jordan Usdan, formerly with the FCC’s Broadband Task Force, will be the deputy director.
Genachowski said Gottheimer has been working on partnerships for two years. “This entrepreneurial approach has delivered major advances in areas such as technology and education, broadband adoption, cybersecurity, and public safety,” Genachowski said.
"Free Press would welcome any public-private partnerships that actually result in net gains for affordable broadband deployment,” the group said Wednesday. “Partnerships of this kind can’t be a substitute for effective competition policy, or for government oversight in the public interest.”
"I know public-private partnerships have a certain appeal, like apple pie and motherhood,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. “And in some cases, they have a role to play. But in this instance, I'm wary and don’t really understand what the FCC intends to do. I'd rather see the government -- the public part -- eliminate regulation of broadband, and pretty much get out of the way. I'm confident then that the private sector will take the initiative."
Such partnerships are a “staple of innovation policy” in other nations competing with the U.S., “but are not nearly as well developed here as they should be,” said Information Technology Innovation Foundation Senior Fellow Richard Bennett. “Chairman Genachowski is a natural-born consensus builder who has proven himself very adept at leveraging the FCC’s informal power to advance important national policy goals. … Simply coordinating the activities of diverse groups by acting as a convener advances common goals and increases the organizations’ overall effectiveness.”