Tomorrow I'm keynoting at the "Internet Openness: Net Neutrality and Beyond" event at the Cardozo Law School in New York City. It should be a spirited discussion since I'm debating with Berin Szoka from the Progress and Freedom Foundation (a right-leaning, market fundamentalist think tank). Interestingly enough, I've spoken with Adam Thierer (aslo of PFF) on on many issues (e.g., privacy and data protection, freedom of speech, etc.) we vociferously agree.

But the "leave it all to the 'free market'" that wants to keep government 100% out of telecommunications is where I think PFF goes off the deep end. "Self-regulation" only goes so far, without government setting parameters for markets, one ends up with the malfeasance and collapse of the savings and loans, airlines, car manufacturers, and now banks (and all of this in the past 25 years). You'd think we would have learned by now that government acts as a check and balance -- without it, markets spin out of control. And in much the same way that you wouldn't want the government running everything, neither do you want markets running amok (only to be bailed out with my hard-earned tax dollars when they come back for a bailout to the same government they didn't want involved in the first place).

Should be an interesting time. Event power is below; here's more:

4/21/2009

11:30 am - 5:00 pm

The Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal is pleased to present a symposium on Internet openness, net neutrality, content diversity and competition. What is the new definition of net neutrality and what are the developing mandates? How do policymakers promote or harm the richness and diversity online content/media? Join the lively debate with speakers including Sascha Meinrath (New America Foundation); Berin Szoka (Progress & Freedom Foundation); John Morris (Center for Democracy & Technology); Matthew Lasar (Ars Technica); Fred Benenson (Creative Commons); Jonathan Askin (Brooklyn Law School).

This event will take place in the Moot Court Room, Tuesday, April 21, 2009, at 11:30am. We will be providing lunch and a reception to follow, so please RSVP (mweldon@yu.edu) to ensure enough food is available. CLE credit will also be available: 1.5 credits for each of the two sessions.

Schedule:

11:15am: Check-in
11:30am: Session 1(Meinrath/Szoka)
1:00pm: Lunch
2:15pm: Session 2 (Morris/Askin/Lasar/Benenson/Heller)
4:00pm: Reception

My good friend, Marvin Ammori, is hosting the University of Nebraska Space & Telecom Law Program's Telecom and Space Conference in DC tomorrow. It's an all-star lineup and certain to contain a good amount of interesting debate. I'll be there for an afternoon panel and look forward to the day's discussions.

“Looking Back at the Past Eight Years, Looking Toward the Next Four”

November 13, 2008
Washington Court Hotel
525 New Jersey Avenue
Washington, D.C.

8:45 a.m. Welcome (Matt Schaefer, Director, UNL Space & Telecom Law Program)

8:50 a.m. Opening Remarks FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein

9:00 a.m. Morning Keynote Discussion
* Richard Wiley, Partner, Wiley Rein, former Chairman, FCC
* Ben Scott, Policy Director, Free Press
* Cecilia Kang, Washington Post (moderator)

10:00-11:00 a.m. Wireless Issues
* Fred Campbell, President, Wireless Communications Association & former Wireless Bureau Chief, FCC
* William Webb, Head, Ofcom Research & Development (U.K.)
* Terri Natoli, Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs, Clearwire
* Robert Pepper, Cisco (invited)

11:20 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Network Neutrality
* Marvin Ammori, Professor of Law, U. of Nebraska College of Law & former General Counsel, Free Press (moderator)
* Frannie Wellings, Telecom Counsel, US Sen. Byron Dorgan
* Rebecca Arbogast, Principal, Stifel Nicolaus,
* Markham Erickson, Executive Director, Open Internet Coalition
* James Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs, AT&T

12:30 p.m. Lunch

2:00-3:00 p.m. International Issues
* Tricia Paoletta, Harris, Wiltshire, & Grannis
* Ambassador Richard Russell, US Ambassador to ITU WRC-07
* Helen Domenici, International Bureau Chief, FCC
* Jonathan McHale, USTR

3:20-4:20 p.m. Broadband Policy/Universal Access
* Sascha Meinrath, Research Director, Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation (moderator)
* Derek Turner, Research Director, Free Press
* Christopher Libertelli, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs, Skype
* Link Hoewing, Vice President – Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility, Verizon
* Scott Reiter, Director of Industry Affairs, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association—The Voice of Rural Telecommunications

I've been in Atlanta this week at the NATOA Annual conference. I presented yesterday evening on, "Grassroots Wireless: State of the Art Networking" (3.7MB) -- it was a lot of fun.

Dharma Daily organized a big dinner for a bunch of us community broadband advocates -- loads of fantastically delicious Indian food. I ended up down at the end of the table with Chris Mitchell, Jonathan Lawson, and Geoff Daily -- lots of raucous debate of politics, community organizing, and the role of protest in civil society. We ended the night at the top floor bar of the conference hotel -- drinking local brew and jamming out bluegrass with our mandolin and guitar.

Video from the panel I moderated at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform, "Spectrum 2.0: Using Public Airwaves to Build the Future of the Internet" is now up online. The panelists, Wally Bowen, Christopher Mitchell, Maura Corbett, and Geoffrey Blackwell, were amazing -- providing loads of useful information and personal inspiration. Here's the full 90-minute video:

You can also get more info on the panel and panelists here.

I'm here in California at the Tech Policy Summit and just presented on a panel, "The Future of Wide-Area Public Broadband." The panel's been covered by Capitol Valley Media here.

Here's a picture from Andrew (I'm the first seated fellow on the left):

I'd forgotten to mention that I'm not just attending the Politics Online Conference, I'm also giving two presentations while here:

• Privacy in the Digital Age -- Wednesday, March 4th at 3:30pm.
• Open Source Government -- Thursday, March 5th at 1:45pm.

Should make for some fairly rambunctious debates.

Below are the slides from Aaron Kaplan and Jon Peha's presentations at today's "The Future of Municipal Wireless" event at the New America Foundation.

Presented at the 2007 Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project (CWIRP) Workshop in Toronto, Canada on October 16, 2007, "US Telecommunications: Policy and Fantasy in the 21st Century" takes analyses the implications of four initiatives affecting 21st century telecommunications:

1. Broadband Census of America Act of 2007
2. Community Broadband Act
3. Open Platform requirements of the 700MHz spectrum auction
4. White Space Devices

A number of folks have asked me to provide my plenary presentation from the Broadband in Cities and Towns Conference that took place October 30-31, 2007. Better Broadband for Cities and Towns and the Rise of Open Technology explores the explosive growth of community wireless networking around the globe and highlights a half-dozen networks, the implementation of the CAIDA COMMONS Project to interlink participating networks, and emergent open technologies that will shift community networks to a "device as infrastructure" model.

Wireless Tech & Regulatory Reality: Policy & Fantasy in the 21st Century provides a background analysis of community wireless technologies and an overview of the political battle over White Space Devices in the United States. This was presented in Maribor, Slovenia on October 26, 2007 at the Kiblix Conference (an intriguing blend of art and Linux -- Maja Vuksanović did a great job coordinating my time there).