Archive:FCC Workshop January 13

Your voice needed at FCC "net neutrality" workshop next week!

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently considering adopting national rules to protect the open Internet. On January 13, the FCC is hosting a public workshop at MIT that will include some of the founders of the Internet and the Web and other leading experts (see agenda and panelist bios below).

On one hand, the workshop is an opportunity for community members to hear experts discuss the features of the Open Internet that are important to preserve.

But this workshop is also a crucial opportunity for you to enter your questions, thoughts, concerns, and suggestions into the public record. Your contributions to this workshop will have have a significant impact on the course of action that the FCC ultimately takes.

How does the Internet’s openness affects your ability to work, study, create, and communicate? On what network features do you rely? What have you done with it? What do you hope to do in the future?

There is no doubt that large corporations (like the newly-merged Comcast/NBC Universal) have organized lobbyists to register their interests.

If not you, then who will lobby on behalf of the student, the fan, the hacker, the gamer, and the entrepreneur?

The FCC needs to hear your voice.

Innovation, Investment, and the Open Internet

 * January 13th, 2010
 * 4:30 pm EST
 * MIT Media Lab, Bartos Theater
 * Streaming: http://www.openinternet.gov/workshops

The Internet has become an unprecedented, global platform for commerce, unleashing the power of American innovators and driving economic growth and job creation. This workshop will examine how the Internet’s openness affects the ability of network operators, Internet content and application providers, and other Internet technology developers to innovate and to drive investment, job creation, and economic growth throughout the Internet ecosystem. These issues will be explored from the diverse perspectives of innovators and entrepreneurs, investors, network operators and equipment vendors, and experts in Internet innovation and investment.


 * Background on proposed Open Internet rules: http://openinternet.gov/about-the-nprm.html
 * Directions to MIT Media Lab’s Bartos Theatre: http://www.mit.edu/~cousot/MintaMartinLecture/directions.html

Agenda
4:30-4:35pm Introduction of Workshop, Sharon Gillett, Chief, FCC Wireline Competition Bureau; Paul de Sa, Chief, FCC Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis

4:35-4:40pm Framing Remarks, Lynn St. Amour, President/CEO, Internet Society

4:40-5:40pm Panelist Presentations

Barbara van Schewick, Assistant Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

Shane Greenstein, Elinor and H. Wendell Hobbs Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Marcus Weldon, Corporate CTO, Alcatel-Lucent

Jeffrey Glueck, CEO, Skyfire

5:40-6:30pm First Discussion Panel (introduction by Sharon Gillett)

Tim Berners-Lee, Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Susie Kim Riley, Founder/CTO, Camiant

Paul Sagan, President/CEO, Akamai

6:30-6:35pm Break

6:35–7:25 pm Second Discussion Panel (introduction by Paul de Sa)

Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director, Bain Capital Ventures

Nabeel Hyatt, Founder/CEO, Conduit Labs

Amy Tykeson, CEO, BendBroadband

Christopher S. Yoo, Professor of Law and Communication, University of Pennsylvania Law School

7:25-7:30pm Concluding remarks, Sharon Gillett and Paul de Sa

Ajay Agarwal
Managing Director, Bain Capital Ventures

Mr. Agarwal joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2003, and he focuses on early-stage mobile, Internet, and software investments. Prior to Bain Capital Ventures, Mr. Agarwal spent over seven years as a senior executive at Trilogy Software, a privately-held enterprise software company based in Austin, Texas. As head of sales and marketing, he grew Trilogy’s annual revenues to $300 million and led Trilogy’s product expansion into new areas such as enterprise pricing and enterprise incentive management. Prior to Trilogy, Mr. Agarwal was a consultant with the Los Angeles office of McKinsey & Company.

In addition to his firm and portfolio company responsibilities, Mr. Agarwal serves on several community boards including Children's Hospital Boston Board of Overseers and the National Board of BUILD, a not-for-profit dedicated to helping underprivileged high school students attend college.

Mr. Agarwal received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Mr. Agarwal also holds a patent for the “Method and Apparatus of Configuration Solutions.”

Tim Berners-Lee
Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.

He is the 3Com Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a Professor in the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK.

He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. He is a founding Director of the Web Science Trust (WST) launched in 2009 to promote research and educaton in Web Science, the multidisciplinary study of humanity connected by technology. He is also a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, launched in 2009 to fund and coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity.

In 2004 he was knighted by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and in 2007 he was awarded the Order of Merit. In 2009 he was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

David Clark
Senior Research Scientist, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Since the mid 70s, Dr. Clark has been leading the development of the Internet; from 1981-1989 he acted as Chief Protocol Architect in this development, and chaired the Internet Activities Board. Recent activities include extensions to the Internet to support real-time traffic, explicit allocation of service, pricing and related economic issues, and policy issues surrounding local loop employment. New activities focus on the architecture of the Internet in the post-PC era. He is former chairman of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council.

Jeffrey Glueck
CEO, Skyfire

Jeff Glueck leads Skyfire, a venture-backed Silicon Valley start-up that uses cloud computing technology to develop faster, more capable rich media internet browsing on mobile phones. Prior to Skyfire, Mr. Glueck was CMO at Travelocity for 7 years, growing sales from $3.5 billion in sales to $10.6 billion globally. His background is as an entrepreneur: Prior to Travelocity, he was co-founder of Site59.com, a travel website. Site59 became the US leader in the "last minute deals" space and was sold to Travelocity in 2002.

Mr. Glueck was named to Advertising Age's 40 Under 40 list in 2007 and as one of 13 Customer Champions by 1to1 Magazine. He was one of 25 leaders profiled in the book Online Marketing Heroes (Wiley, 2008). He also served in the Clinton Administration as a White House Fellow focused on international trade and environmental agreements. Mr. Glueck holds degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University, where he was honored as a Marshall Scholar.

Shane Greenstein
Elinor and Wendell Hobbs Professor of Management and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Shane Greenstein is the Elinor and Wendell Hobbs Professor of Management and Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is a leading researcher in the business economics of computing, communications and Internet infrastructure. His research and writing focus on a variety of topics in this area, including the adoption of client-server systems, the growth of commercial Internet access networks, the industrial economics of platforms, and changes in communications policy. Over an eighteen-year career he has written and edited five books, and published over ninety refereed journal articles, book chapters, monographs and invited reports. He has written over eighty articles for policy and business audiences. He is regularly quoted in national and local media. He has been a regular columnist and essayist for IEEE Micro since 1995, where he comments on the economics of microelectronics. He also writes a blog, titled "Virulent Word of Mouse."

Professor Greenstein was the Program Chair for the Telecommunication Policy Research Conference in 2000 and presently serves on the board of directors. He was co-chair with Victor Stango for the conference on Standards and Public Policy, held at the Chicago Federal Reserve Board in 2005. He is a participant in many national research organizations, including National Bureau of Economic Research and Conference on Research, Income and Wealth.

Professor Greenstein is North American Editor for Information Economics and Policy, and Associate Editor for Economics Bulletin. He recently became business and economics sub-editor for Communications of the ACM.

Nabeel Hyatt
Founder/CEO, Conduit Labs

Mr. Hyatt is Founder and CEO of Conduit Labs, leaders in music gaming on the web. With over a million players, relationships with over 1,000 bands, and venture backing from top tier VC firms, Conduit Labs is changing the way music is experienced and discovered online.

Mr. Hyatt was most recently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at a VC firm, helping establish their gaming investment practice and incubating Conduit Labs. Previously he was COO and VP Product Development at Ambient Devices, where he helped pioneer glanceable technology: embedding Internet information in everyday objects, which won the 2002 “Ideas of the Year” award in the NY Times. Prior to that Mr. Hyatt served as COO/CMO of Teamtalk, a new media sports company and pioneer in SMS-based subscription services which reached $160m in revenue and went public on the LSE in 2001.

Mr. Hyatt is active in the Boston startup community as an advisor and investor, and is a mentor at the seed mentorship organization Techstars. He has been quoted in Newsweek, the NY Times, Business 2.0, and has been a featured speaker at SXSW, CES, Game Developer’s Conference, and the Virtual Goods Summit.

Susie Kim Riley
Founder/CTO, Camiant

Susie Kim Riley, Camiant's founder and chief technical officer, is a technologist and an evangelist for a new generation of advanced multimedia services over broadband networks.

Ms. Riley's track record revolves around recognizing new technology frontiers early, and driving their development as they become mainstream markets. Such areas include the early development of routing technology, network processors, and now policy. She has over 15 years of innovating and developing new technologies, focused primarily around Quality of Service and Networking.

Prior to founding Camiant, Ms. Riley held technical and management leadership roles at ADC Telecommunications (through its acquisition of Broadband Access Systems), Maker Communications/Conexant and Proteon. Ms. Riley is a co-author of the PacketCable™ Multimedia specification developed by Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs®) to serve as the foundation for a new generation of IP multimedia services over cable broadband networks. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

Paul Sagan
President/CEO, Akamai

Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai, joined the company in October 1998. Mr. Sagan was elected to the Akamai Board of Directors in January 2005, and he became CEO in April 2005.

Previously, Mr. Sagan served as senior advisor to the World Economic Forum from 1997 to 1998, consulting on information technology for the world's 1,000 foremost multinational corporations. In 1995, Mr. Sagan was named president and editor of new media at Time Inc., and worked in that role until 1997. He was a founder of Road Runner, the world's first broadband cable modem service, and Pathfinder, one of the Web properties that pioneered Internet advertising. Mr. Sagan joined Time Warner in 1991 to design and launch NY 1 News, the cable news network based in New York City.

Mr. Sagan's career began in broadcast television news. He joined WCBS-TV in 1981 as a news writer and was named news director in 1987 at age 28, the youngest person to hold the position in the network's history.

Lynn St. Amour
President/CEO, Internet Society (ISOC)

Lynn St. Amour is President/CEO of the Internet Society (ISOC). She joined ISOC in 1998 as Executive Director of its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) division, and has been responsible for ISOC's international expansion.

Ms. St. Amour has extensive experience in global IT and international business. Her background includes positions at the highest levels in international sales and marketing, strategic planning, partner management and manufacturing. She also has considerable experience in corporate restructuring and start-up management. Prior to joining ISOC, she was director of Business Development and Joint Venture Operations for AT&T's Europe, Middle East and Africa division. Before joining AT&T, she held a number of management positions for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

A graduate of the University of Vermont, Ms. St. Amour began her career in information technology with the General Electric Corporation.

Amy Tykeson
President, CEO & Chairman, BendBroadband

At the helm of BendBroadband for over a decade, Tykeson has taken the company to the forefront of broadband technologies, launching high speed data in 1997, digital cable in 1999, HD & VOD in 2004, digital simulcast in 2005, phone service in 2006 and wireless broadband over licensed spectrum with the first HSPA+ deployment in the United States in 2009. BendBroadband was the first traditional US cable system to offer 100% digital video service. Beyond technological accomplishments, Ms. Tykeson is committed to ensuring an unencumbered future for the cable industry through lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels.

Ms. Tykeson chairs the Small & Rural Operators’ Council as a member of the NCTA Board of Directors. She serves on the Executive Committee for CableLabs and is a CSPAN board member. Ms. Tykeson got her start in 1980 with Home Box Office. She was the 1986 President of Women in Cable & Telecommunications (WICT). She was named Independent Cable Executive of the Year by Multichannel News in 2007 and CableFax Magazine in 2008. She is one of the top 50 most influential Women in Cable, according to CableFax magazine. Ms. Tykeson is the 2007 recipient of the Distinguished Vanguard Award for Leadership, the cable industry’s highest honor.

Barbara van Schewick
Assistant Professor, Stanford Law School

Barbara van Schewick’s research focuses on the economic, regulatory, and strategic implications of communication networks. In particular, she explores how changes in the architecture of computer networks affect the economic environment for innovation and competition on the Internet, and how the law should react to these changes. This work has made her a leading expert on the issue of network neutrality. Professor van Schewick is the Faculty Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society and an assistant professor of electrical engineering (by courtesy) at Stanford’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

Prior to joining the Stanford Law faculty, Professor van Schewick was a senior researcher at the Technical University Berlin, Germany, and a nonresidential fellow of the Center for Internet and Society. Professor van Schewick has advised the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research on innovation and technology policy and worked with the German Federal Network Agency on spectrum policy. From August 2000 to November 2001, she was the first residential fellow at the Center for Internet and Society.

Marcus Weldon
CTO, Wireline Networks Product Division, Alcatel-Lucent

Marcus Weldon is Corporate CTO for Alcatel-Lucent and also a member of Bell Laboratories. In this position he is responsible for coordinating the technical strategy across the company and driving technological and architectural innovations into the portfolio. He holds a B.S in Chemistry and Computer Science and a Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University. He joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1995, winning several scientific and engineering society awards for his work on electronics and optical materials. In 2000, Dr. Weldon started work on fiber-based Broadband Access technologies and, in 2005, became the CTO for Broadband Solutions business group in Lucent Technologies, with responsibility for wireline Access Networks and IPTV. He was subsequently appointed as CTO of the Fixed Access Division and the Wireline Networks Product Division in Alcatel-Lucent following the merger of Alcatel and Lucent in December 2006, with responsibility for xDSL and FTTH, IPTV, Home Networking and IMS.

Christopher S. Yoo
Professor of Law and Communication, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Christopher Yoo, Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, has emerged as one of the nation’s leading authorities on law and technology. His research focuses on how economic theories of imperfect competition are transforming the regulation of the Internet and other forms of electronic communications. He has been a leading voice in the “network neutrality” debate that has dominated Internet policy over the past several years. He is also pursuing research on copyright theory as well as the history of presidential power. He is the author (with Daniel F. Spulber) of Networks in Telecommunications: Economics and Law (Cambridge, 2009) and (with Steven G. Calabresi) of The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush (Yale, 2008). Professor Yoo testifies frequently before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.