Will the Internet candidate please stand?
The recent announcements of changes in the campaign management of the Dean presidential campaign raise some interesting questions. As political observers know by now, Joe Trippi, the man credited with creating a new political approach by using the Internet, has been replaced at the head of the Dean campaign by Roy Neel. In: Telecom Insider The impact of this change goes much beyond a simple change of management. Neel was president and CEO of the USTA, which bills itself as “the voice of the converged telecom industry”. The USTA and the Internet crowds have often been on opposed end of the political spectrum. Historically, the USTA has been the organization that protects the Baby Bells. For example, the USTA believes that IP telephony should be subjected to the same charges as regular telephone carriers and does not support Wireless Number Portability. Granted, it is unfair to look at the current record of an organization and use it to paint a negative image of a former president. Maybe the organization changed radically from when he was their president. So let’s look at his record: Neel is against regulations of telephone companies but against sharing lines, which he sees as anti-competitive. Here’s…