Ben Scott Quotes (7 Quotes)

What we have here is no less than the future of the Internet as we know it.

It's very rational behavior in the industry. I would do the same thing if I was paid by my shareholders. But rational market behavior doesn't necessarily mean good public service.

The core concept of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is to serve as a heat shield between Congress and the people's networks. To me its a contradiction that a politically-appointed board could fill that role.

High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid. The innovators and organizers at the National Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone.

Increasingly, city officials view broadband in the 21st century the same way they viewed electricity 100 years ago and telephone service 50 years ago. It's falling into the category of a necessary and essential social service.

If the phone companies are successful, Brand X will stand as the trigger that reverses a century of communications policy and undermines the bedrock principle of democratic media, which is nondiscriminatory access for all.

Cities see this as a way to spur economic growth on the one hand to put tools in the hands of the underprivileged and give them a leg up, and on the other to provide incentives to small businesses to locate in these cities and to expand their operations.