900 Questions: A Case Study of Multistakeholder Policy Advocacy Through the E-Rate Lens

In July 2013, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) turned the 16-year-old federal E-rate program inside out and shook all the pieces out into a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would ask more than 900 questions examining every aspect of the program. The proceeding and President Obama’s launch of ConnectED opened a policy window that drew wide interest, thousands of comments and negotiations from traditional (K-12 schools, public libraries, telcos) and new or episodic (Education Superhighway, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. Conference of Mayors) participants. This panel will examine a range of issues related to the policy window for a beneficiary group that has historically made up a small part of a large federal program and which is in the midst of a revolution beyond this proceeding—America’s public libraries. The American Library Association (ALA) has been the leading voice for libraries in policy concerns since its founding in 1876, and in the E-rate program from its conception in 1995. While libraries make up about 10 percent of E-rate funding relative to schools, the ALA is the oldest and largest library membership organization with a diverse policy portfolio working on behalf of more than 100,000 public, K-12 and higher education libraries. The panel will explore tensions with: school versus library interests and the importance of both differentiation and collaboration; rural versus urban concerns; near-term versus long-term considerations; and the risks/rewards of creative disruption. The case study will situate this timely policy conversation within a larger body of research related to policy windows, multistakeholder engagement, and broader reform in the Universal Service Fund. The ALA is well-positioned and resourced in the E-rate policy space with three full-time staffers, telecom counselors and special advisers, as well as a long-standing member task force. ALA has coordinated library efforts nationwide through state library E-rate coordinators, including training and debating policy recommendations. ALA is a founding member of the Education and Library Networks Coalition (EdLiNC) and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition. The rocky path of E-rate 2.0 policy and advocacy has involved significant research and writing, visits and communications with FCC commissioners and staff, hosting FCC leaders at ALA conferences, engagement with Congressional and White House staff, coalition negotiation, in-depth member communications and consultation, and a heightened effort to increase library media visibility at a time when the national conversation was focused on K-12 schools and students almost exclusively. Together, the work has demanded compromise, analysis and more compromise—among our ALA colleagues, with our members, with coalition members, with FCC staff and others. It also has demanded that we reconsider long-held assumptions and weigh the interests of libraries and the program more broadly than in the past. The E-rate modernization process has uncovered gaps in knowledge and data that present immediate and highly relevant research opportunities to the TPRC community. This panel will inform and tee up many of these research questions. Composition of panel, including perspectives and contributions that each panelist will bring to the topic: • Larra Clark serves as Director of the Program on Networks and Program on America’s Libraries for the 21st Century (AL21C) for the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). Her responsibilities include overall management of OITP’s telecommunications portfolio (including wireline and spectrum policy), day-to-day management of AL21C projects and those in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, she served as the project manager in the ALA Office for Research & Statistics for three years, overseeing the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, among other research efforts. She serves as the ALA representative and board member to the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition, and, as moderator, provides a broader context for the e-rate case study within the larger ALA telecommunications portfolio. Contact info: 202-628-8410; lclark@alawash.org. • Alan Inouye, Director, ALA OITP, joined ALA in 2007 and oversees the office portfolio, including telecommunications, copyright, digital content and the future of libraries. Dr. Inouye brings deep technology and policy experience to the panel from serving as the Coordinator of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). At PITAC, he oversaw the development of Leadership Under Challenge: Information Technology RD three of these are LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress, The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age, and Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity. Contact info: 202-628-8410; ainouye@alawash.org. • Tom Koutsky is Chief Policy Counsel for Connected Nation and leads the organization’s research and policy initiatives. Koutsky joined Connected Nation from the FCC, where he served as a senior attorney advisor and was a member of the team that wrote the first U.S. National Broadband Plan. He focused on policy recommendations related to federal, state, and local policies, network infrastructure, the law and economics of middle mile connectivity, wholesale competition rules, and policy and universal service and access charge reform. Koutsky also previously served as: vice president, Law and Public Policy, for Z-Tel Communications, Inc.; assistant general counsel for Covad Communications Company; senior attorney, Competition Division, Office of the General Counsel, Cable, for the FCC; and associate attorney for Steptoe and Johnson. He also was a resident scholar for the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies. Koutsky will play a respondent role on the panel, drawing from his experience working with libraries at Connected Nation, as well as general expertise in telecommunications policy. Contact info: 202-674-8409; tkoutsky@connectednation.org. • Jon Peha is a Professor at Carnegie Mellon. He has addressed information networks from industry, government, and academia. In government, he served at the FCC as Chief Technologist, in the White House as Assistant Director of OSTP, in the House Energy & Commerce, and at USAID where he helped launch and lead a program to assist developing countries with information infrastructure. In industry, he has been Chief Technical Officer for three high-tech companies. At Carnegie Mellon, he is a Professor in the Dept. of Engineering & Public Policy and Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Peha holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford. He is an IEEE Fellow and an AAAS Fellow, and was selected by AAAS as one of 40 featured S&T policy fellows of the last 40 years. Dr. Peha has received the FCC's "Excellence in Engineering Award," the IEEE Communications Society TCCN Award for contributions to spectrum research, and the Brown Engineering Medal. Peha will play a respondent role on the panel, drawing from his government experience, as well general expertise in technology policy to contextualize the ALA’s case study. Contact info: peha@cmu.edu. • Marijke Visser, assistant director, ALA OITP, is the lead on the association’s E-rate policy, outreach and advocacy. With the association for five years, she is the co-chair of EdLiNC and manages the ALA’s E-rate Task Force. Her policy portfolio also includes projects focused at the intersection of children and youth and information technology policy as well as broadband adoption issues including digital literacy and challenges for diverse populations. Visser brings the most detailed knowledge of the ALA’s work in this area, and has become known in the library community as the “Empress of E-rate.” Contact info: 202-628-8410; mvisser@alawash.org.