Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) will kick off this event with remarks on the Net Neutrality order before TechFreedom Adjunct Fellow Larry Downes presents his analysis of the FCC’s recent Open Internet Report & Order (which he recently delivered as testimony to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition & the Internet). A panel of leading experts will offer their reactions.
Please join us after this event, at 5:30, for a reception just across the street co-sponsored by TechFreedom and the Institute for Policy Innovation in honor of IPI’s Third Annual Communications Summit, which will take place the next day. The reception runs untill 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Visitor Center, Congressional Meeting Room South 217 (CVC 217).
Register here today!
Hosted by SMU’s Guildhall video game law graduate program, the Game::Business::Law summit is the leading conference in the field. Follow the discussion on the #GBL2011 hashtag. Here’s the make-up of my privacy panel:
Moderator
Professor Xuan-Thao Nguyen, SMU Dedman School of Law
Speakers
Jennifer Archie, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Andrew S. Ehmke, Partner, Haynes and Boone, LLP
Dr. Joshua Fairfield, Washington & Lee School of Law
Berin Szoka, Founder, TechFreedom
This is an all-star cast. Prof. Nguyen is a big name in video game law field; I had the privilege to work with Jennifer Archie on Internet law when I practiced at Latham; and Josh Fairfield is one of the few law professors I find myself in perfect philosophical harmony with. Check out this summary of his excellent 2009 paper Virtual Parentalism. I only met Andy last night at the reception, but he’s a solid thinker on the law of gaming. As they say on postcards: Wish you were here!
The DCBar’s Computer and Telecommunications Law Section section, on whose Steering Committee I sit, is co-hosting a fascinating brown bag lunch on February 22, 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m at the District of Columbia Bar, 1101 K Street N.W., Conference Center, Washington D.C. 20005.
Online content on your television and your mobile handset; cord cutting; televisions that surf the web and store your family photos…. Are we there? Do we want to be there? This panel will explore the latest marketplace developments as well as the legal and policy challenges surrounding this convergence of formerly distinct realms. Among other issues, the panelists will discuss: how consumers today are experiencing video and how they are likely to do so in the near future; what technical and legal issues will affect these ongoing marketplace developments; and what actions the FCC is likely to take – and should or should not take – to facilitate competition and choice for consumers, including its planned “AllVid” rulemaking. Continue reading →
If you’re in for the State of the Net conference this week (or happen to live here), join us for a happy hour among tech policy peeps Tuesday afternoon at 6pm at Johnny’s Half Shell (400 N Capitol St).
We’ll also toast the launch of TechFreedom, the new digital policy think tank we’re launching Wednesday with a half-day symposium for TechFreedom’s first publication: The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet.
RSVP on Facebook here! (We need an accurate headcount.)
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell will be interviewed by veteran tech reporter Declan McCullagh of CNET in a “fireside chat” on tech policy at TechFreedom‘s half-day symposium to introduce its first publication: The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet.
TechFreedom is a new non-profit, non-partisan think tank. Our mission is to promote the progress of technology that improves the human condition and expands individual capacity to choose. We advance the freedoms that make experimentation, entrepreneurship and investment possible, and thus unleash the ultimate resource: human ingenuity. On a wide variety of issues, TechFreedom will outline a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.
The Next Digital Decade brings together 26 thought leaders on Internet law, philosophy, policy and economics to consider the future of the Internet, from a wide variety of perspectives. This book is essential reading for anyone gazing toward the digital future. The symposium features authors from a selection of the ten organizing questions asked in the book. You can read, download or buy the book here.
Continue reading →
Please join us on January 19, 2011 in Washington, DC for the launch of The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet, a collection of 31 essays from 26 leading cyber thought leaders, including Tim Wu, Hal Varian, the Hon. Alex Kozinski, Stewart Baker, Jonathan Zittrain, Milton Mueller, Eric Goldman, and Yochai Benkler—as well as the TLF’s own Adam Thierer, Larry Downes and Geoff Manne.
This event will feature panel discussions of several of the book’s organizing questions:
- Internet Optimism, Pessimism & the Future of Online Culture
- Internet Exceptionalism & Intermediary Deputization
- Who Will Govern the Net in 2020?
The January 19 event will run from 12:30pm to 5:30pm immediately following the State of the Net conference in the same location: the Columbia B room at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington DC). The event will begin with lunch and end with a cocktail reception between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. Admission is free but space is limited so RSVP now!
Registered attendees will receive a free copy of the book, which can be read online or downloaded as a PDF, or purchased in hardcover. Free eBook versions are coming soon. To learn more about the book, check out the foreword and introduction, or the table of contents.
Visit NextDigitalDecade.com for details or follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates!
If you happen to be in Vegas today (Thursday, 1/6) for the Consumer Electronics Show (or gambling or… whatever else floats your boat), join myself and fellow TLFers Larry Downes and Wayne Crews for an impromptu “Alcohol Liberation Front” happy hour starting about 5pm at Parasol Up bar at the Wynn Hotel (3131 Las Vegas Blvd).
If you’re walking over from the Convention Center (where I’ll be till 4 for the Tech Policy Summit), it’s just 1.1 miles along the strip (directions). I’ll tweet (@BerinSzoka) exactly where we wind up in the bar, or you can ask for the TLF gang at the door or email me (bszoka <at> techfreedom <dot> org).
TPS ends at 4pm and there are other event starting at 6, so I figure we’ll just wind up there in the 5-6/6:30 range.
RSVP on Facebook & see who’s coming!
I encourage tech policy wonks in Washington to attend next week’s (Oct. 5th) Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event on “A Guide to the Internet Political Landscape,” which will feature the release of Rob Atkinson’s new report, “Who’s Who in Internet Politics: A Taxonomy of Information Technology Policy Perspectives .” The report identifies nine distinct groupings shaping Internet policy and how these groups view key Internet policy issues, including net neutrality, copyright, and privacy.
Rob is one of my very favorite people in Washington and I always look forward to everything he does–even when I disagree with him! I remember a great debate we had a decade ago when he invited me to critique his paper on “The Failure of Cyber-Libertarianism: The Case for a National E-Commerce Strategy.” And at the end of the debate he conceded that I was correct and he immediately converted to the libertarian movement. No, not really! But it was a hell of a fun time.
I hope for a repeat for some of that fun as Rob was kind enough to ask me to comment on his new “Who’s Who in Internet Politics” paper as next week’s event along with Morgan Reed of the Association for Competitive Technology. Rob asked me to peer review an early draft of the study and I can assure you it will make a splash. Come on over to ITIF next Tuesday, October 5th at 9:30am to hear us discuss it. You can RSVP here. Location is 1101 K Street NW, Suite 610.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m attending the pii2010 conference (privacy, identity & innovation) this week in Seattle (18-19)! If you’re at the conference or in the area, I hope you’ll join me and my fellow TLFers Larry Downes and Carl Gipson for an “Alcohol Liberation Front” happy hour (cash bar) after the conference ends tomorrow, Wednesday the 18th at Kells Irish Pub at 1916 Post Alley–just a short walk from the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, where the conference will take place (Google maps walking directions). The conference reception wraps up at 7:30, so we’ll mosey on over to Kells by 7:45 for drinks and food.
Just look for the TLF sticker when you get there (or the conference badges)! Carl, Larry and I should all be there. Please RSVP on Facebook if you’re coming!
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.