FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has given the commission's office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis 60 days to produce a top-to-bottom review of how the FCC collects the data that the chairman has pledged will drive FCC decision making going forward.
In a letter to the office's director, Paul De Sa, Genachowski said the commission has to be able to draw on data that is "robust, reliable, and relevant," on which to make those decisions.
He wants a status report on collection, processing, analysis and distribution, including suggestions on how to improve any or all of those.
Some past FCC data-collection efforts and studies took heat from congressional Democrats and others, who alleged they were politically driven or suppressed.
According to the letter, that includes not only whether new data should be collected, but also if some existing reporting should be "streamlined or eliminated" because they are "unduly burdensome or no longer relevant."
