Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Here I am in the wild wild west (Austin Texas–sxsw, yee ha!) sitting next to famed #joiito Texan adamhill.
Although he lives near South Fork and drives a shiny red convertible,
Adam claims not to own cowboy boots. Another illusion shattered. Four
of us sitting in a row in this corridor–Jonas Luster, Joi Ito, me, and
Adam. We’re all of us talking–in the IRC.

Kevin Werbach talked about freeing up the electronic spectrum this morning, great talk, see his blog and the Feedster search for Werbach.

He envisions a world where the electronic spectrum is no longer
auctioned off piece by tiny piece to rich monopolists–a world where
the spectrum is cleverly shared by all who want to use it–a world
where troublesome folks are dealt with by tort law and common law
rather than a complex new system of criminalizing regulations.

I wasn’t the only one to worry out loud that many powerful
companies have big investments in a scarcity model for the
electronic spectrum.  If you look at what happened to the Clinton
health plan, you have an idea of the way private money translates into
public power, and the way a plan benefiting many people can be blocked
by a determined few.

Looking on the bright side, the “Clinton health plan” example could be
a huge fund-raising issue for groups promoting an open spectrum.

Gosh, I’m tired. And I didn’t even get up to Anil Dash’s kickball game, or the
interesting things Dan Gillmor and Lisa Rein said about small media….
Read somebody else’s blog, I’m sure it’s out there!