Posted by: Brent Olson on October 4, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Today, Dale Hatfield announced another significant milestone for the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG). For the acronym junkies, you’ll want to know that after careful debate and deliberation, befitting a room of technical experts and engineers, the group agreed that the preferred pronunciation would be Bee Tag – perhaps a harbinger of the group’s collaborative spirit and out-of-the-box thinking to resolve thorny problems in an amicable way.
More importantly, for a consensus-building organization, the group has finalized its structure, and its operational and membership guidelines.
This is truly a first-of-its-kind entity and, while no doubt everyone involved is taking a bit of a leap of faith, speaking for AT&T, we are truly excited to be a part of this effort from the ground floor. One thing we can probably all agree on is that broadband and Internet policy issues should begin with a strong foundation in and understanding of the underlying technology, given its inherent complexity and dynamic nature. This is not to say that technology should be the sole determinant in making Internet policy, but it is generally safe to say that any policy decision made without the benefit of understanding how the technology works is likely doomed to fail and probably not without first doing some serious damage.
Back in June, Dale, along with a variety of stakeholders from across the Internet ecosystem, announced the intention to form a voluntary technical advisory group made up largely of volunteer engineers and other technical experts. The group’s mission is to develop consensus on broadband network management practices and other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience, including the impact from applications, content and devices that utilize the Internet. Since the last announcement, the group has been meeting regularly and reaching out to other interested stakeholders. And, as Dale says in his own blog today, the BITAG is pleased to announce that we’ve accomplished the task of reaching consensus on its organizational structure and governance.
So, now that BITAG is a reality, what exactly is it going to do? BITAG is not a standards setting body nor is it intended to interfere with the important work being done by those organizations, such as the IETF. However, we hope that the BITAG will draw from the expertise and experience of those groups. And while the group is not a dispute resolution body, we hope that the problem-solving ethos proselytized so effectively and with no equal by Dale will help develop more technical consensus across stakeholder groups, with the ultimate goal of avoiding unnecessary and costly disputes that so often delay innovations.
If successful, the BITAG will be something akin to a norms-setting body – an honest broker that can help guide technological decisions across the ecosystem, be an independent educational resource for policymakers and serve as a sounding board for new ideas, all without prescribing single outcomes or engaging in zero sum decision-making.
We all recognize that it will take a lot of hard work, trust-building and commitment to get there, but we are optimistic that the BITAG will prove to be a valued contributor to the continued evolution of the Internet.
I invite you to read Dale’s blog for more detail and to keep checking the BITAG website over the coming weeks for further developments. For those of you who may have been observing from the sidelines, or just learning about the BITAG now, I’d strongly encourage you to consider joining.
Finally, I’d like to officially thank Dale and Kaleb Sieh (his trusted BITAG deputy) along with his tireless advisors from Wilkinson Barker (led by Ray Gifford) for their guidance and patience during this process. For the many of us who have been able to participate in this advisory process with Dale, it’s truly been a welcome and refreshing experience.
