Network Nation

Richard R. John takes the stage to discuss his book, “Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications”, emphasizing the importance of policy intervention to protect citizens’ access to national resources which suffers at the sole watch of industry forces, as the past and present show.

John’s book is a thorough survey of the history of American telecommunications from the 1800s until the present day. He takes the audience through the stages of when telecommunications was a specialty service and to when it became a mass service, and concludes with the current state of affairs. He tells us that the telegraph and telephone have evolved through 3 stages over time, not in the exact order, 1) commercialization 2) popularization, and 3) naturalization.

John emphasizes that politics and culture have also played an important role in the evolution of telecommunications besides technology and economics. He surveys the activities of institutions like Western Union, the New York Associated Press, Bell Companies, AT&T, and prominent figures like Jay Gould and William Vanderbilt, among others who played major roles in framing the history of telecommunications.  One of the pivotal points that John’s survey depicts is how “antimonopoly will save the day was the hope and the ostensible idea” while history shows that it can “lead to the exact opposite outcome” in the absence of government intervention.

Panelists Andrew Schwartzman, Pat Aufderheide, and Sascha Meinrath gave their views on the similarities and/or dissimilarities of the past market with the current day scenario, how citizens are deprived of fair access to information as a result of anti-competitive markets, and lessons from history that policymakers should consider while they frame 21^st century telecommunications policies.

This event is co-sponsored by New America Foundation, Center for Social Media at American University, and Media Access Project.

Participants

Introduction
Tom Glaisyer
Knight Media Policy Initiative
New America Foundation

Keynote speaker
Prof. Richard R. John
Columbia University
Author, Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications

Panelists
Prof. Patricia Aufderheide
Center for Social Media, American University

Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Andrew J. Schwartzman
Senior Vice-President and Policy Director
Media Access Project