SCN: Public funding

Sun Jul 22 23:11:07 PDT 2001

x-no-archive: yes

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(Wall Street Journal, excerpts)---In the midst of telecommunications 
megamergers, some activists argue that we ought to do more to 
address civic needs. Among them are a former president of the 
Public Broadcasting System and a former Federal Communications 
Commission chairman, who propose funding public uses of digital 
technology to the tune of $18 billion.   

"The potential exists to use these technologies in ways we can't 
imagine now," says Lawrence K. Grossman, the former PBS 
president whose career has included a stint running NBC News. 
Along with Newton N. Minow, the former FCC chief, Mr. Grossman is 
leading an effort to rethink the public role of interactive technologies. 
"It's worth investing in this," Mr. Grossman says.   

This debate has been mostly quiet so far, bandied by online 
activists and dissected on op-ed pages here and there. But the 
issue bears watching, especially over the next 12 to 24 months. The 
interactive world is in flux, as the Web, propelled by broadband 
technologies, proceeds on a collision course with television. Most 
people know about the so-called digital divide, separating the digital 
haves from the unwired have-nots, but things are getting more 
complicated than that.   

Here's the crux of the argument put forward by Messrs. Grossman 
and Minow, and others: As a society, the United States has 
expended substantial sums to wire schools and communities to the 
Internet - but practically nothing on online content. That's an effort 
akin to buying TV sets for everyone in the name of education, then 
leaving them to choose between "Big Brother 2" and "Witchblade."   

The Digital Promise Project (www.digitalpromise.org), the 
organization through which Messrs. Grossman and Minow have 
pursued their idea, has recommended creating something they call 
a Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, a federally chartered agency 
along the lines of the National Science Foundation or the National 
Institutes of Health. The trust would operate something like a 
venture-capital fund for educational and civic uses of digital 
technology.   

The money would come from a public resource, the airwaves. The 
Digital Promise team proposes taking revenue from auctions of 
electromagnetic spectrum, in which telecommunications companies 
bid for wireless licenses. Mr. Minow likens the approach to the 19th-
century legislation that created land-grant colleges. "There's an 
opportunity to do that again," he says.  

The money would help build worthwhile places to visit in 
cyberspace. "You could have a virtual solar system, a 3-D model of 
a human body or a re-creation of Mark Twain's America," Mr. 
Grossman says. The Digital Promise group would support programs 
to help put library and museum collections online and fund efforts to 
educate teachers about how to use technology effectively in the 
classroom.   

These are noble goals, with growing support in the educational and 
philanthropic communities. That much was clear last week in New 
York City, when Messrs. Grossman and Minow received a warm 
reception at a Carnegie Corporation of New York forum devoted to 
the Digital Promise project. Many attendees embraced the idea of 
creating the Internet-age equivalent of public television.   

But there's risk, too. For one thing, laying hands on the spectrum-
auction revenue won't be easy in a post-tax-cut world. The Digital 
Promise group hopes to advance a bipartisan legislative effort on 
behalf of the trust concept, but other groups will surely covet the 
money as well.   

And should content really be the top priority? There are plenty of 
terrific online sites already. The problem for most people is finding 
the best of the existing resources. Many Internet users rely heavily 
on online "portals" and search engines to find information. Yet more 
and more, the destinations recommended by portal sites are 
determined by who paid for top placement, not which is the best.   

It's true that companies such as AOL Time Warner and Yahoo have 
created extensive special areas online for kids, with restrictions on 
marketing. But truly public portals could direct users to content 
without any regard for commercial interests. Think of a public-
television version of Yahoo.   

These issues grow more pressing the further we move into the 
broadband age. We have yet to see whether the so-called open-
access agreements that regulators have struck with carriers will 
promote competition and diversity in high-speed access, or whether 
entrenched cable and telephone companies will control consumers' 
connections - and perhaps what they see. In an interactive world 
dominated by a few big gatekeepers, maybe public space isn't such 
a bad idea.  

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