Subject: Initial Positive Response to the Open Platform Proposal

From: mkapor (Mitch Kapor)
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1991 18:35:47 -0500

The initial response to the Open Platform concept has been extremely
positive in many quarters.

1. Congress 
 
In a letter to Mitchell Kapor from the Chairman of the Subcommittee with
primarily jurisdiction over telecommunications policy dated November 5,
1991,  Representative  Edward J. Markey complemented Mitchell Kapor on his
"insights on the development of a national public information
infrastructure" which "were appreciated greatly by myself and the Members
of the Subcommittee." 

Chairman Markey, writing to Mitch Kapor as a representative of the computer
industry, called for other leaders in the industry to participate more
actively in the policy process.  The letter states:

"In crafting the right policies [for the telephone network], the assistance
of you and your colleagues in the computer industry is critical if we are
to bring the benefits of advanced information technology to the American
public.  As I said at the hearing, we need to pursue policies that
encourage the Bell companies to work with other sectors of the
communications industry to create a consumer-oriented, public information
network. Please let me or my staff know what policies you and others in the
computer industry believe would best serve the public interest in creating
a reasonably priced, widely available network in which competition is open
and innovation rewarded.  I also want to learn what lessons from the
computer industry over the past ten to fifteen years should apply to the
current debate on structuring the information and communications networks
of the future....I ask your help in gaining input from the computer
industry so that the Subcommittee can shape policies that will bring this
spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship to the information services
industry.  

Key members on the Senate Commerce Committee have also expressed serious
interest in the proposal and for it to be further developed in cooperation
with others in the computer industry.  We have agreed to reach out to
leaders in the computer industry such as yourself to obtain your input and
seek your participation in this policy process.

2. Communications Industry

Since unveiling the proposal, Mitchell Kapor and Jerry Berman, EFF's
Washington Office Director, have met with top officials of many of the
communications and electronic publishing firms involved in the current
debate, including the American Newspaper Publishers Association, the
National Cable Television Association, Dun and Bradstreet, AT&T, and the
Electronic Publishers Association.  All have expressed enthusiasm about the
Open Platform concept and have urged that we develop the proposal in more
detail.  They want to know if it is both economically and technically
feasible to deploy a feature rich ISDN or whether innovation must await the
full and costly deployment of  residential fiber optics.

3. Consumer Groups

On November 25, 1991 the Communications Policy Forum, a consumer forum
cosponsored by the Consumer Federation of American, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, and the American Civil Liberties Union, met to discuss the
future of telecommunications policy in the wake of the court's decision to
permit the RBOCS to engage in information services.  At this meeting, EFF
presented the Open Platform Proposal as a necessary part of any legislation
that seeks both to establish fair competition as well as innovative health,
education, and other information services.   Consumer groups expressed
great interest in the idea and called on EFF to develop its concept further
and to use the Communications Policy Forum as a mechanism for developing a
more detailed open platform design for further consumer review in early
1992.