On The Media

Opening laughing at the company representative and then giving the self-appointed public "advocate" the uncontested last word are not the way to convince me that I've heard anything close to the truth. I'm a long time fan of OTM but this story, unfortunately, is amongst the worst.

Really, did you expect different replies from this thief!!

Seems that a straightforward performance quality standard would be part of the contract for service providers. However, determination of serviceability might be less obvious. Therefore, it seems ongoing quality evaluation is needed to fill the "holes" in service. Gaps that appear over time would be part of the ongoing refinement of service. This approach has been used for public utility service for decades with electric service, utility service, mail delivery, rural fire departments, etc.

How can publicly funded information be made available as transparently as possible?

Is there some way to "crowd source" the information, test and stay current by having users share real data from the ground up?

I am far from being an advocate for Connected Nation but I must say this piece did not help to clear up the issue of Connected Nation's mapping. The interviewer had clearly already chosen sides. Contentious issues are best served by third party moderators helping the public understand the complexities.

I was disappointed by Ms. Gladstone’s response to the outlandish claims made by Mark McElroy of Connected Nation that only a private firm would be able to maintain the secrecy of sensitive information collected in a broadband census. Are we honestly expected to believe that the United States government is incapable of gathering this information without revealing sensitive data about where public utility offices are located? While I do give Brook and OTM credit for allowing a rather forceful rebuttal of this claim by Art Brodsky, Connected Nation’s argument was so illogical, unbelievable, incomprehensible that it should have been called out on the spot.

What possible reason does Mr. McElroy have for believing that a government tasked with maintaining millions of pieces of classified data – unnecessarily in some cases – is incapable of keeping this information secret. And what possible reason do we have to believe that Connected Nation has the security necessary to prevent 3rd party access to their databases of proprietary information. It is not unusual to hear half-truths and obfuscations in interviews, but it is surreal to hear one that is so blatant.

Mr. Bergdall and Ms. Siefer must not be fans of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". As Albert rightly points out, McElroy's claims were laughable, which is exactly how Ms. Gladstone reacted and why these two, essentally complained. The guy wasn't worth calling out on the spot, elswise programs like "Wait..." wouldn't be possible.