NET EFFECTS: The Past, Present, and Future Impact of Our Networks

Tom Wheeler, FCC chairman, writes in his my professional life I have been involved with the introduction of new technologies. And though my day job was to chase the future, history has been an abiding hobby. One of the ways I have tried to understand what lies beyond the next hill in the landscape of the communications revolution is to study the advent of similar periods in the past.

Over the last several years I have been investigating the network revolutions of history. I called the project “From Gutenberg to The History of Our Future.” The goal was to assemble the work into a book. When President Obama nominated me to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the project was put on hold. Nevertheless, this review has taught me a lot about the present realities of our changing network environment.