Sun Microsystems' Washington, DC, lobbyist Tom Gann is back in California after taking another position within the company — but on the business side. Gann will be the director of a new sales department, where he will be "maintaining and deepening relations in the Pacific Rim area," said Ann Little, a Sun spokeswoman. The DC position has yet to be filled, but the selection process is expected to come to a close within the next couple of weeks, according to Lowell Sachs, who used to work alongside Gann and recently was promoted to manager of federal government affairs.

     Top execs at the Federal Communications Commission made their way to the Roughrider State to discuss the deployment of broadband services to rural America last week. At a public hearing held at North Dakota’s Bismarck State College, FCC Chairman William Kennard, along with Commissioners Susan Ness and Harold Furchtgott-Roth, joined Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, and State Commissioners Bruce Hagen and Susan Wefald to discuss the role of the federal government in broadband deployment to rural areas. Singing the praises of Dorgan’s efforts to accelerate the deployment of broadband services to such areas, Kennard told a story characterizing Dorgan’s approach. "He has operated in the spirit of a story I heard recently about two traveling shoe salesmen. The two shoe salesmen were asked to go into the rural areas to examine the markets. The first one did due diligence and concluded: 'No one wears shoes here; (I'm) returning on the next flight.' The second one went out and scoped several areas and concluded: 'No one wears shoes here; send out 100 more shoe salesmen.'"
     FCC Commissioner Ness is keeping a full nest at the Common Carrier Bureau with the appointment of Jordan Goldstein as a legal adviser, replacing Linda Kinney, who will be assistant bureau chief and special adviser for Advanced Services. Joining the Commission a little over three years ago, Goldstein has worked on a plethora of issues regarding implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. His experience with the Commission and previous position as an adviser in the Office of Chief Counsel of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration "will be enormously valuable as we address complex convergence and competition issues," Ness said in a statement. Kinney will be leaving Ness’s office effective Dec. 6. "I am delighted Linda will focus on the Commission’s efforts to encourage broadband deployment throughout the United States. Linda’s exceptional organization skills and excellent policy instincts will be of enormous value to the Common Carrier Bureau as it grapples with these novel questions of law and public policy," Ness said.

     Former Senator and Democrat presidential candidate Bill Bradley, D-NJ, will participate in an online chat on Yahoo! Tuesday evening. The chat, to begin at 8:00 p.m. in New Hampshire, will be hosted by Politics.com, a political Web site, and ABC's political reporter Hal Bruno will moderate the online discussion. Bradley is expected to talk about his positions on healthcare reform, child poverty, gun control and other issues. The chat will appear to Internet users in the form of video streaming and text. Several weeks ago, rival Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore challenged Bradley to an online debate, which would be a first in a presidential campaign. Bradley has been the most successful presidential candidate in using the Internet to raise campaign funds, but has yet to detail a high-tech policy plan, if he were elected president.

     NetCoalition.com, with the help of the White House, plans to do its level best to make sure that the online environment during the holiday season is a nice, rather than a naughty one. In his weekly radio address, President Clinton acknowledged the increase of e-commerce over the holidays and provided listeners with a list of tips for staying safe while cruising the shopping superhighway. "NetCoalition.com has already launched an ambitious campaign, delivering easily accessible information to consumers," Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay, said in a statement. "The Administration’s actions will reinforce the message we have been delivering and encourage more online consumers to get the information they need." Stephan Paternot, co-CEO of theglobe.com maintains that the group’s focus is the preservation of the Internet’s openness, but welcomes tools that enable a safe online experience. "By bringing attention to these issues, the president will help assure consumers that the Internet is no only a convenient resource, but a safe one," he said.

     The White House is keeping tabs on the GOP's new party-centric portal. There's proof. Many people, including president@whitehouse.gov, subscribed to the new GOPnet.com service, but didn’t count on everyone knowing about it. Jeff Butzke, representing GOPnet, sent a "welcome" e-mail message to each user who had signed up on the Republicans' new online service to receive a GOPnet start up disk via regular mail. However, the message was cc'ed to the list, revealing the e-mail addresses of everyone who had subscribed, and irking some who felt that their privacy had been violated.
     A message quickly was sent to the entire e-mail list by one of its recipients, Paul A. Watson, who identified himself as a network security engineer. Watson wrote to the GOPnet list, "As a Republican, I am a strong believer in the right to individual privacy. I was greatly disturbed to see a GOPnet mailing sent (broadcast) to me which includes other individuals private email address…This is a serious breach of trust and security in my opinion. I am sure others feel the same as myself, so I have taken this opportunity to notify all recipients involved in this horrific privacy lapse."
     Butzke quickly sent a response to the list: "As we roll out this beta program, every step will be taken to protect the privacy of members of GOPnet.com. However, when we find out that we have not uncovered every stone, we move quickly to correct the problem. An issue has been raised regarding the forwarding of a previous message. Unfortunately, in our haste to get this message delivered, input was in the cc section and not the bcc section. We have installed additional checks and balances to make sure this problem does not occur again. Please feel free to contact us with additional suggestions and input so that we can build a system that all Republicans can be proud to use. ONCE AGAIN ON BEHALF OF THE GOPNET.COM TEAM LET ME APOLOGIZE FOR THIS BREECH OF PRIVACY. WE HOPE YOU WILL ACCEPT OUR WORD THAT THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN."
     However, several more e-mails were sent by individual recipients of the list, including some calls to support McCain in his bid for 2000. And one subscriber added that the GOP disk that arrived via regular mail didn't work in a laptop "because of what looked like packaging glue on the business end." Another person interested in GOPnet asked to be taken off the list and its "rantings."

Clarification
     The Information Technology Industry Council was the primary sponsor and coordinator of House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts' visit to technology companies in Austin, TX, as reported in the November 16 People column.

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