I’m at a conference in NYC called “Bellhead Nethead: The FCC takes on the Internet.” There are about 60 of us here; I don’t know what the split between the bells and the nets is, although I hope to find out during the skins vs. shirts game of hoops scheduled for 10 am. It’s being put on by the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, hosted by the Cardozo School of Law, organized by the remarkable Susan Crawford, who teaches at Cardozo.

Susan introduces the session. She says that her aim is to get a conversation going about whether the Internet is just another communications network, subject to FCC regulation. She’s particularly interested in CALEA,/a> (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Agencies … EFF take on it here), as well as other social policies. The FCC doesn’t always understand, she says, how different it is for people providing IP-enabled services to come to the government to have to get permission. “The staff at the FCC is bright and wise and interested.” She says the FCC says that we shouldn’t be worried because only incremental steps are being studied. But, says Susan, these small steps can result in major changes. The two sides see the Internet so differently, she says.

Last night, I went to a presentation by Dan Gillmor about his book. He tells the story – how the reader/writer distinction is being erased and what this means for broadcast media – primarily with a series of stories. Great presentation of a seminal book.

[Disclosure: The conference paid my expenses, in part so I can blog it.]

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