FTC Launches Consumer Technology Blog

Posted on October 13, 2006

The FTC has started a blog called the Tech-ade Blog. The blog will discuss new technologies and the impact they will have on products, business and consumers.

Hello and welcome to the Tech-ade blog! This blog represents a new effort on the part of the Federal Trade Commission to communicate with the public in anticipation of our public hearings, "Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade," which will take place November 6-8 at The George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C. The staff of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection has organized the "Tech-ade" hearings to educate ourselves about likely changes that will affect the consumer marketplace over the next decade. We have asked over one hundred experts in the fields of technology, marketing, advertising, product development, finance, and related fields to speak at the hearings. The hearings are free, open to the public, and will be webcast.

The welcome post also explained why the blog is useful for Tech-ade.

The blog format is particularly appropriate for the FTC Tech-ade hearings for a number of reasons. First, it complements and supplements the hearings by covering areas and providing interviews that cannot be showcased at the live event. It also enables us to keep the public updated on what to expect from the hearings and allows us to bring information to a wider audience than will be present at the actual event in November. Finally, our use of the blog is a way for the agency to experiment first hand with a communications tool that has grown in popularity over the past few years and may well become even more prevalent in the next Tech-ade.

The blog includes comments and has a nice collection of consumer resource links from the government on the left side. The FTC has also carefully disclaimed itself from the Tech-ade bloggers. The blog carries the following disclaimer, "The views expressed in this blog are those of the blog authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Trade Commission or any individual Commissioner."