When it comes to government technology policy making what does it mean to be “American”? You might, like an innocent child, assume it means the government supporting open competition and letting the marketplace identify and select the best solutions in the interest of the consumer. But you would, my friends, be wrong.
When it comes to government technology policy making what does it mean to be “American”? You might, like an innocent child, assume it means the government supporting open competition and letting the marketplace identify and select the best solutions in the interest of the consumer. But you would, my friends, be wrong.
The problem is that there really isn’t a truly open market. When it comes to technology and the government getting involved, America is another banana republic where the biggest wallets get to apply the most political pressure.
Let me give you an example: HD Radio. In 2002 the Federal Communications Commission selected HD Radio as the official U.S. digital radio system. This was an interesting decision because HD Radio (the “HD” is part of the product’s trademark name and doesn’t stand for “High Definition” or anything else) is proprietary to iBiquity Digital Corp..
Even more telling in the FCC’s decision was competing technologies — Digital Audio Broadcasting and Digital Radio Mondiale — which are open standards, well-established, ratified by the International Telecommunications Union (in 1994 and 2001 respectively) and better than HD Radio, were not adopted. In fact, the FCC didn’t even make an attempt to mandate compatibility between HD Radio and the other standards!
So the winning technology won’t provide U.S. consumers with the greatest choice, foster competition or encourage innovation. I don’t care how you frame it, the FCC’s decision makes no sense if the agency is supposed to be managing a market that is supposedly driven by competition for the benefit of the public.
But that’s history. Whatever we may think, it’s a done deal. So, let’s consider a more recent example: Software Defined Radio (SDR) and its potential offspring, Cognitive Radio (CR).
The idea behind SDR is simple; Use digital technology to make a radio that can be configured by software to receive almost any kind of radio transmission. Cognitive Radio takes the idea further by using SDR to dynamically change frequencies and modulations based on communications conditions (noise, interference, etc.).
The fact that software underlies these systems means, in theory, that anyone can create code to do the job. But theory and reality part company at the point where the FCC decided that proprietary solutions are preferable to, in this case, open source solutions.
A new federal rule is now in effect that means SDR/CR systems that use “open source elements” will find it hard to get FCC approval or perhaps be excluded altogether.
The FCC’s reasoning – inexplicably prompted by Cisco, of all companies – is that manufacturers should not use open source software “if doing so would increase the risk that … security measures could be defeated or otherwise circumvented to allow operation … of the radio in a manner that violates the Commission’s rules.”
This means that what the FCC and Cisco apparently want are unhackable software products! As Homer Simpson would say, “Du-oh!” Gentlemen, you must know that there is no such thing and anyone with the slightest clue will tell you that security through obscurity has never and will never work. Just consider how quickly the iPhone’s “secret” access passwords were found!
What we have in these and many other cases is proof that if you want to know why a dumb policy decision was made just follow the money. These days it appears that any other reason would be un-American.
