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Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School. He is the co-author of Who Controls the Internet? (Oxford U. Press 2006), and a writer for Slate Magazine. In 2006 Wu was recognized as one 50 leaders in science and technology by Scientific American magazine, and in 2007 Wu was listed as one of Harvard's 100 most influential graduates by 02138 magazine. Tim Wu's best known work is in the development of Net Neutrality theory, but he has also written about copyright, international trade, and the study of law-breaking. He previously worked for Riverstone Networks in the telecommunications industry in Silicon Valley, and was a law clerk for Judge Richard Posner and Justice Stephen Breyer. He graduated from McGill University (B.Sc), and Harvard Law School, and has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Chicago, and Stanford Law School. Wu has written for various legal publications, and also the Washington Post, Forbes Magazine, Slate Magazine, Playboy, and others. He is on the advisory board of Free Press and Public Knowledge; and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and once worked at Hoo's Dumplings.
Richard Clarke is responsible for AT&T’s economic and competitive public policies for telecommunications. Upon joining AT&T with Bell Laboratories in 1986, he has worked on the pricing and regulation of call termination, unbundling, network interconnection and universal service – for both traditional circuit-switched and IP networks. Rich has testified on interconnection pricing in state and federal proceedings and is an expert on network cost modeling. His most recent issues include network neutrality, broadband network capabilities and costs, video service entry, program access, reverse auctions for universal service support and alternative business models for telecommunications.
Rich is the author of numerous papers on economics and telecommunications. He has an A.B. in mathematics and economics from the University of Michigan, and A.M and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Harvard University. Prior to joining AT&T, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as an economist at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Lawrence Spiwak is President and co-founder of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies. Mr. Spiwak is a noted scholar and has been cited by, inter alia, the United States Federal Communications Commission, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States Federal Trade Commission, the United States Code Annotated, the Congressional Research Service, American Jurisprudence (2d), the InternationalTelecommunication Union (ITU), and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Mr. Spiwak is also ranked in the top 3% of downloaded authors listed with the Social Science Research Network (“SSRN”). In addition to his academic lecturing and publishing schedule, Mr. Spiwak also expresses his views and analyses of current market developments as a frequent commentator in such major outlets as CNET.com, THE HILL, the LEGAL TIMES, and the WASHINGTON TIMES.
Last year, Mr. Spiwak was selected by the FCC’s Chairman’s Office to participate in a trip to Southeast Asia as part of the President’s Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI) to lecture about universal service and rural broadband deployment. Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. with Special Honors from the George Washington University in 1986 (Special Honors, Middle Eastern Studies) and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1989, where he was the international law editor of the Cardozo Moot Court Board and served on the National Moot Court Team. Mr. Spiwak is a member in good standing of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Mr. Spiwak is a native of Washington, D.C. He, his wife and their daughter live in North Bethesda, MD.
George Ou, CISSP, the Technical Director of TechRepublic, CNET Networks, is a former IT consultant specializing in Servers, Microsoft, Cisco, Switches, Routers, Firewalls, IDS, VPN, Wireless LAN, Security, and IT infrastructure and architecture.
Markham Erickson
Coming Soon.
William Taylor is Chair of NERA's Communications Practice and heads the Boston office. He specializes in telecommunications economics, focusing on state and federal regulatory reform, competition policy, economic issues concerning broadband network architectures, quantitative analyses of state and federal price cap and incentive regulation proposals, mergers and antitrust and contract litigation in telecommunications markets. He has applied economic theories of price squeezes and cross-subsidization to long distance telephone, Centrex, and public telephone markets. In the area of environmental regulation, Dr. Taylor has worked on statistical issues in the measurement of emissions levels from coal-fired electric power generators and municipal waste-to-energy facilities. Dr. Taylor has published extensively in the areas of telecommunications economics and policy and in theoretical and applied econometrics. His articles have appeared in Econometrica, American Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of Econometrics, Econometric Reviews, Antitrust Law Journal, The Review of Industrial Organization, and The Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences. Prior to joining NERA, Dr. Taylor was a Member, Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories and Bell Communications Research. He also previously taught at Cornell University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Research Fellow at the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics at the University of Louvain, Belgium.
Mark Cooper holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He is Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America, a Fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society and a Fellow at The Donald McGannon Communications Center of Fordham University. He has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People’s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada. He is the author of five books and numerous articles and papers on media and communications.
His books include The Case Against Media Consolidation (Donald McGannon Center for Communications Research 2006), Open Architecture as Communications Policy (Center for Internet and Society, 2004), Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age: Promoting Diversity with First Amendment Principles and Market Structure Analysis (Center for Internet and Society, 2003), Cable Mergers and Monopolies: Market Power in Digital Media and Communications Networks (Economic Policy Institute, 2002),
George Ford is a co-founder of the Phoenix Center and currently serves as its Chief Economist. Dr. Ford is a prolific and noted scholar, and has published numerous papers in leading academic journals such as APPLIED ECONOMICS, the QUARTERLY REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, JOUNAL OF REGULATORY ECONOMICS, KYKLOS, the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL, COMMLAW CONSPECTUS, the JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, the JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND EMPIRICAL ECONOMICS, THE NYU JOURNAL OF LAW AND BUSINESS, HASTINGS COMMUNICATIONS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OFTHE ECONOMICS OF BUSINESS, and the YALE JOURNAL OF REGULATION. Dr. Ford is ranked in the top 1% of authors listed overall with the Social Science Research Network (“SSRN”). Dr. Ford has also offered testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives and various state legislatures and public service commissions. Prior to joining the Phoenix Center full time, Dr. Ford was the Chief Economist of Strategic Policy and Planning at Z-Tel Communications. Z-Tel was a start-up telecommunications provider headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Ford was responsible for performing and evaluating economic analyses pertaining to Z-Tel’s strategic plans and public policy positions. Prior to joining Z-Tel, Dr. Ford was Senior Economist at MCI-Worldcom and, prior to joining WorldCom, was a Senior Economist in the Federal Communications Commission’s Competition Division. Dr. Ford received his Ph.D. in Economics from Auburn University where his research focused on the nature of competition in the cable
television industry.
Scott Wallsten is an economist with expertise in industrial organization and public policy. His research focuses on telecommunications, regulation, competition, and technology policy. His research has been published in numerous academic journals and his commentaries have appeared in newspapers and newsmagazines around the world. He holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University.
He is currently vice president for research and a senior fellow at iGrowthGlobal, a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, and also a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University. He has been director of communications policy studies and senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a senior fellow at the AEI - Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, an economist at The World Bank, a scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and a staff economist at the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Scott Cleland is one of nation's foremost techcom analysts and experts at the nexus of: capital markets, public policy and techcom industry change. He is widely-respected in industry, government, media and capital markets as a forward thinker, free market proponent, and leading authority on the future of communications. Precursor LLC is an industry research and consulting firm, specializing in the techcom sector, whose mission is to help companies anticipate change for competitive advantage. He previously founded The Precursor Group Inc., which Institutional Investor magazine ranked as the #1 "Best Independent" research firm in communications for two years in a row. He is also Chairman of Netcompetition.org, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Precursor LLC and an e-forum on Net Neutrality funded by broadband telecom, cable, and wireless companies.
Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney specializing in free speech and privacy law, was the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Equal Justice Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow for 2003-05. His fellowship project focused on the impact of post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws and surveillance initiatives on online privacy and free expression. Before joining EFF, Kevin was the Justice William J. Brennan First Amendment Fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City. At the ACLU, Kevin litigated Internet-related free speech cases, including First Amendment challenges to both the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Edelman v. N2H2, Inc.) and a federal statute regulating Internet speech in public libraries (American Library Association v. U.S.). Kevin received his J.D. in 2001 from the University of Southern California Law Center, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas in Austin.
Richard Bennett is a network engineer and standards architect who's made fundamental contributions to Internet RFC's and to the design of Ethernet, WiFi, and Ultrawideband technologies. A former political activist, he advised the California Legislature on the restructuring of the state's child support enforcement system brought about by SB 542 in 1999. His interest in the network neutrality issue is brought about by a desire to avoid the unintended consequences of poorly-drafted legislation. He works for a supplier of networking equipment which counts telephone companies among its customers.
Robert Frieden serves as Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications and Law at Penn State University. Professor Frieden has written several books, published over fifty articles in academic journals and provided commentary in a variety of print, broadcast and Internet media. He has provided updates to two major communications treatises: Modern Communications Law (West Publishing) and All About Cable (Law Journal Press). Before accepting an academic appointment, Professor Frieden served as Deputy DirectorInternational Relations for Motorola Satellite Communications, Inc. In that capacity, he provided a broad range of business development, strategic planning, policy analysis and regulatory functions for the IRIDIUM mobile satellite venture. Professor Frieden has held senior policy making positions in international telecommunications at the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In the private sector, he practiced law in Washington, D.C., and served as Assistant General Counsel at PTAT System, Inc. where he handled corporate, transactional and regulatory issues for the world’s first private undersea fiber optic cable company. Professor Frieden holds a B.A., with distinction, from the University of Pennsylvania (1977) and a J.D. from the University of Virginia (1980).
Art Brodsky is communications director of Public Knowledge. He is a veteran of Washington, D.C. telecommunications and Internet journalism and public relations. Art worked for 16 years with Communications Daily, a leading trade publication. He covered Congress through the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other major pieces of legislation. He also covered telephone regulation at the the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and at state regulatory commissions. In addition, he has covered the online industry since before there was an Internet, coming in just after videotext died but before the World Wide Web. Art was later an editor with Congressional Quarterly, with responsibilities for the daily and Web coverage of telecom, tech and other issues. Art’s freelance work has appeared in publications as diverse as the Washington Post, TomPaine.com, TPMcafe and the World Book encyclopedia. He was a commentator on the public radio program, Marketplace, and appeared on C-SPAN.
On the PR front, Art worked as communications director for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and for the Washington, D.C. office of Qwest Communications International. He also does freelance PR work. Art graduated from the University of Maryland in December 1973 with High Honors and a degree in government and politics. He received a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in June 1975. He and his wife, Liz, live in Olney, MD. They have two daughters.
Heather E. Hudson is Professor of Communications Technology Management in the School of Business and Management at the University of San Francisco. She received her MA and PhD in Communication Research from Stanford University, and JD from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work focuses on both domestic and international topics concerning applications of ICTs for socio-economic development, regulation and policy including universal service and other strategies to extend affordable access to new technologies and services. Dr. Hudson has planned or evaluated communication projects in Alaska, northern Canada, and more than 50 developing countries and emerging economies. She has also consulted for the private sector, government agencies, consumer and indigenous organizations, and international organizations. She is the author of numerous articles and several books including From Rural Village to Global Village: Telecommunications for Developing in the Information Age; Global Connections: International Telecommunications Infrastructure and Policy; Communication Satellites: Their Development and Impact; and When Telephones Reach the Village, and co-author of Electronic Byways: State Policies for Rural Development through Telecommunications, and Rural America in the Information Age.
Shaalu Mehra is a partner in the firm's Licensing and Technology group. He counsels private and public companies on complex corporate and technology transactions, with particular focus on outsourcing and intellectual property transactions. His representative clients include Ingram Micro, Inc., Software Spectrum, Inc., CollabNet, Inc., Cyclos Semiconductor, Inc., Digital Chocolate, Inc., Grid Networks, Inc., NextHop Technologies, Inc., PagePow, Inc., and SpikeSource, Inc. Shaalu is a frequent speaker on the topics of outsourcing, open source licensing, and venture financing.
Markham C. Erickson is a founding partner of Holch & Erickson LLP. He counsels and represents clients on a broad range of legal and policy issues concerning new technologies and the Internet. Mr. Erickson works with many of the federal laws that govern e-commerce and the use of the Internet, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, the Trademark Dilution Act, the USA Patriot Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the Communications Decency Act, the Dot Kids Act, and the Trademark Anticounterfeiting Act. He also serves as Executive Director and General Counsel to NetCoalition (www.netcoalition.com), a public policy association that represents leading Internet search engines, content, and service providers on the major legislative and administrative proposals concerning the application of criminal and civil laws to the Internet, including trademark and copyright, antitrust, privacy and data security, government surveillance, and financial market regulation. He chairs the Open Internet Coalition (www.openinternetcoalition.com), a coalition representing consumers, grassroots organizations, and Internet companies interested in keeping the Internet fast, open and accessible to all Americans. Mr. Erickson received a B.A. in English Literature from Wheaton College (IL) and a J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar and the United States Supreme Court Bar. He is a member of the American Bar Association.
