C-SPAN Radio with Eric Schmidt

Tonight I caught the very tail end of C-SPAN radio's replay of the Economist Club of Washington's interview with Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. I heard a grand total of ten minutes of the interview, including three questions from the audience.

What struck me immediately was his negative reaction to the emerging market for the telecommunications industry, particularly the growth for mobile phones and mobile Internet service. You'd think the Chairman and CEO of the world's most successful Internet company would be ecstatic at the realization that his market share is about to increase by literally billions of people...yet Schmidt sounded morose--almost ashamed--upon disclosing the news.

Granted, I didn't hear the context in which the subject was brought up, so I could be completely wrong.

Mr. Schmidt redeemed himself during the brief question and answer period, however. One of the questions from the audience came from a network architect (and former US Representative). I didn't catch the gentleman's name, unfortunately. The man's question centered around increasing need for leadership and stewardship to help manage the increasing demand in the coming years; specifically, he wanted to get Mr. Schmidt's opinion on how the vast amounts of information would/should be managed. Although the man stopped short of using the word "oversight" I think that was the intent of his question.

I'm paraphrasing from memory, but the impression I got was that Mr. Schmidt is not interested in that particular portion of online service - that he believed the Internet should be free from any form of regulation of oversight.

Bravo, Mr. Schmidt. The Internet is beautiful because it's the only semblance of a true free market we have. Government officials hate the Internet precisely because they cannot control it. Only the free market can produce companies (such as Google) that are capable of handling increasing demand with little or no interruption. In contrast, rigid, intrusive government regulation strangles creative human energy and can only hurt enterprise.

I don't blame the gentleman for asking that question, but I was elated to hear Mr. Schmidt answer it the way he did. After years of government service it's probably natural for government employees to assume a top-down, bureaucratic-laced managerial team is needed to control everything produced in the market. Hopefully after hearing Mr. Schmidt's answer the man has a new outlook on the benefits of the free market.