In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that the Show-Me Institute, where I was employed until recently, has added Cindy Brinkley, the president of AT&T Missouri, to its board of directors. I think it’s important that people in the business of public policy advocacy be transparent about how they make a living, so I thought I’d share a few details about my recent and future sources of income.
None of the tech policy research I’ve done over the last year has been funded by the Show-Me Institute. That includes my New York Times op-ed on network neutrality, which I researched and wrote on my own time. During business hours, my job as the Show-Me Institute’s editor was focused on editing other peoples’ work, performing various administrative tasks, and writing some articles about economic policy in Missouri, very little of which was tech-related.
I stepped down from my full-time position as the Show-Me Institute’s editor on May 1. In May and June, I did some part-time work to help the new editor, Eric Dixon, learn the ropes. I’ve also been working on a study on eminent domain abuse in Missouri that was on the “back burner” while I was the full-time editor. I finished training Eric in June, and I put the finishing touches on the study this week. Once I’ve been paid for my now-completed work on the study, I’ll receive no further financial support from the Show-Me Institute.
However, I’ll still be living in Saint Louis, and because I’d go stir-crazy sitting around in my apartment all the time, the Institute has kindly allowed me to keep a cubicle here in the office. I expect I’ll come into the office a couple of days a week, working from home or coffee shops the rest of the time.
Going forward, my primary source of income will be the Cato Institute, supplemented with various freelance writing opportunities. You can check out a list of Cato’s corporate sponsors on page 47 of Cato’s 2006 annual report. By my count, 10 out of 26 are companies that have financial interests in the tech policy issues I cover. Cato hasn’t shared with me any details about much money each company contributes, but as you can see, all 26 companies put together contribute about three percent of Cato’s budget. That means that on average, those 26 companies each contribute about 0.15 percent of Cato’s overall budget.
Cato gives me the freedom to choose my topics and conclusions, even if it might anger some of our donors. For example, two of those 10 donors are Microsoft and Verizon. I imagine neither of them was pleased by my New York Times op-ed on software patents. Cato of course hopes that companies that like our work contribute (I’m looking at you, Red Hat) but I think Cato scholars can be justifiably proud of our record of taking the positions we think are right regardless of their fundraising implications.
I should hasten to add that the same is true of the Show-Me Institute. The Show-Me Institute has published some works advocating free-market positions in telecom policy, but Brinkley’s interest in the Institute’s work extends beyond telecom policy. Brinkley serves on the boards of numerous charitable organizations, including Washington University, the Saint Louis Symphony, and the Saint Louis zoo. I’m told she’s particularly interested in the Show-Me Institute’s work on education reform. She is, in short, precisely the sort of prominent philanthropist a think tank would want on its board regardless of what she did in her day job. Show-Me scholars will not be expected to research any particular issues or reach any particular conclusions to appease her.
The Show-Me Institute has accomplished a lot of good things in the last two years, and I’m proud to have been a part of it. The Show-Me Institute does a lot of good advocating for lower taxes, school choice, an end to eminent domain abuse, and other worthy causes. But in light of recent controversies involving “astroturfing”, I wanted to remove even the appearance of a conflict of interest by making it clear that my tech policy work is not supported by the Show-Me Institute.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.