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Bi-Coastal Business And A Breakfast Of Bacon
"You can't work on public policy like you have [in Washington, DC] in California, and vice versa. So I will try to be in both," said Jim Harper. Leaving the Hill where he has worked as counsel to several committees, including House Judiciary, Harper is now running the one-man shop PolicyCounsel.com, which specializes in PR, lobbying tech and telecom policy issues. PolicyCounsel.com allows Harper to continue focusing on technology issues, while working in his native home of California. "I will be with clients in California when things aren't in session, and when things are in session I will be [in DC]." As for where the company is based: "My laptop and I are the business for now, and we are wherever we are."
After polishing off a breakfast of bacon, eggs and pastries, attendees of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce lecture on dot com fever were introduced to the "original World Wide Web." Joking that he inherited the title when he was an international radio reporter years ago, Clif Webb, vice president of strategic communications for Webber McGinn, moderated a panel discussion on the strategies e-commerce companies must use to be successful in the Internet age. Among those illustrating how their companies have catered to the needs of the consumer, were Doug Wolford, senior v.p. of marketing for Network Solutions Inc., and Adam Hartung, a partner at the Computer Sciences Corp. Hartung's first piece of advice for those trying to break into the dot com biz was: "Lose the tie." He went on to say, "All these guys not wearing neckties could put the viability of your company into question." Wolford advised the crowd to pay attention to the "eBayification of the world," where customers want everything delivered to them in a nice, easy package.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA, has been promoting e-commerce on American soil and now is going trans-Atlantic by taking a congressional delegation to Europe. Entourage members include Reps. Rick Boucher, D-VA, Charles Canady, R-FL, Bart Gordon, D-TN, Charles Pickering, R-MS, and Cliff Stearns, R-FL. Goodlatte left for Europe on Feb. 18 and is scheduled to return on Feb. 27 after meeting with members of the British Parliament, German Bundestag, the European Union, European Commission, World Intellectual Property Organization and World Trade Organization to discuss issues such as encryption, taxation, piracy and intellectual property protection.
A crowd of 400 plus inside-the-Beltway lobbyists, congressional staff, media and lawmakers celebrated the launch of the newest political portal Grassroots.com on Feb. 15. On hand were former White House press secretary Mike McCurry and ex-Newt Gingrich press secretary Tony Blankley, who lent their politically-established names to the site. Grassroots.com provides tools for community activists to organize and raise money and the interim CEO, Garage.com founder Craig Johnson predicted, that in a very un-dot-com way, that it will be profitable within a year. The party was held at the tony Bistro Bis near Capitol Hill, where everyone from Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-NY, to a photographer from Talk magazine mingled over sushi and goat cheese. Unfortunately, sound equipment problems caused the evening's two guest stars, Arianna Huffington and Al Franken, to be muffled in the din of hundreds of people talking. But those who could hear reported that Franken insulted Huffington a number of times, "but in a funny way."
Adding to last week's group of appointments, Network Solutions Inc. has named Tony Rutkowski the vice president of Internet strategies. Of his nearly 30 years working in the Internet and telecom industry, Rutkowski most recently served as principal of NGI Associates and as director of the Next Generation Internet. Rutkowski currently is associated with the Internet Law and Policy Forum, Center for Democracy and Technology and the International World Wide Web Conference Committee. He also has worked at the Federal Communications Commission, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and International Telecommunications Union.
The Software & Information Industries Association has elected a bevy of board members for its eBusiness Division. IBM's Kay Brown, Adobe Systems' Claire Darling, Intuit's Jack Loop and Scott Fallon of Microsoft were among those that made the cut. The eBusiness Division tracks trends and conducts research on electronic commerce.
Xpedior and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education joined forces to launch the Silicon Valley Minority Outreach Program. It was designed to encourage the region's companies to recruit and help educate minorities in high tech. But it's not just the students that need a little tech ed. Prior to the press conference, the president of NAFEO, Henry Ponder was overheard talking to one of Xpedior's representatives about the breakfast they had attended earlier that morning and what he had gathered from it. "That was the first time I learned what a portal was," he said. After pondering portals for a few more moments and receiving a mini-lesson on the subject, Ponder went to the front of the room to announce the partnership.
 | - by Jessica Smith |
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