I saw Michael Powell's keynote at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo and I was pleasantly surprised by his affable, jovial personality. He definitely drew quite a few bouts of laughter from the jam-packed audience. I really should have brought my camera to the show so I could upload some photos to my show. I have to say, when I think of a FCC chairman, an important regulator, I certaintly don't think of a joking, smiling, affable person such as Mr. Powell. When I think of regulators I think of crotchedy old men sitting around boardrooms deciding how they can stifle innovation by protecting monopolies which often lobby regulators. Just an opinion, but my opinion nevertheless.

In any event, Michael Powell expressed a very pro-open source, pro-VoIP, pro-technology, limited government mind-set. He was able to deftly give real world examples using his wife and kids that put the pace of technology innovation and regulation in an interesting perspective. I wish I could provide more insights and examples from his speech, but the exhibit hall is a zoo and I'd like to visit with the 250+ vendors at the Internet Telephony show, so I'm going to cut this short. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it since nearly all the booths have a line of people waiting to speak to the vendors.