 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Tech Group Hires First Research Director
by Bara Vaida
The Association for Competitive Technology has named its first research director, Mike Tavilla, a nine-year veteran of public policy and technology issues.
Most recently, Tavilla was a senior research associate at the Internet policy and regulation research group Forrester Research. Tavilla was a founding member of Forrester's policy research team, where he conducted research and executive surveys. He also co-authored and edited research reports for global clients on tech policy issues such as Congress' tech agenda, e-government services, e-commerce taxation, online privacy protection, high-tech government relations and global e-commerce.
Before joining Forrester, Tavilla was manager of government relations and public affairs for the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development in Boston.
AOL, Verizon Hire Top Executives
Jeff Rowe has been named senior vice president and executive producer for the America Online service of AOL Time Warner. In his position, he will oversee AOL's content offerings, tailored to the specific interests of AOL members.
Before joining AOL, he served as general manager of Zap2it.com and TMS Movie Products, owned by Tribune Media Services, where he oversaw the operations of Zap2it, an online entertainment service.
At Verizon Communications, Kathy Brown has been named senior vice president of public policy development and international government relations. She joins the company later this month after serving several years as a partner at Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, where she focused on the regulatory challenges of telecom companies. Before that, she was chief of staff to former FCC Chairman William Kennard.
At Verizon, Brown will be responsible for policy development on major and emerging issues, formulation and coordination of international public policy, and relations with external stakeholders important to the firm's public policy.
Verizon also appointed Susanne Guyer as senior vice president for federal regulatory affairs and Ed Young as senior vice president of industry analysis and relations.
Elsewhere, Ed Gillespie, a former lobbyist for TechNet, Cisco Systems and other high-tech clients, is selling the firm he jointly owns with Jack Quinn, Quinn-Gillespie & Associates, to Fleishman-Hillard, a global public relations firm that is part of the advertising and PR giant Omnicom. The two firms have not decided upon the terms, but Gillespie told CongressDaily last week that he plans to remain at the firm. News reports last month had said Gillespie was considering leaving to join the Bush administration.
The Lonely Life Of A 'Pirate'
Steve Griffin, CEO of StreamCast Networks, which makes the Morpheus peer-to-peer software, said it has been "overwhelming" trying to lobby against the well-financed recording and movie industries. His company has been sued by the recording industry because Morpheus allows sharing of copyrighted material and is facing legislation that could affect the usage of his product.
"I've never had to navigate [the running] of a company while also being sued and facing legislation and ... being called pirates. It's been hard," he said at a Thursday news briefing.
Last week, the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee held a hearing on legislation that would affect StreamCast. But Griffin was not invited, according to subcommittee ranking Democrat Howard Berman, D-Calif., because "I don't think we ever thought that those that profit from piracy had a voice that would be useful in this."
When Griffin was asked whether StreamCast has any friends on Capitol Hill, he said, "I think we'll have more friends after the election."
Senate Computing 1.0
Sen. Michael Enzi, who presided over a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing on distance learning last Thursday, said he is continuing to push the Senate to install computers on the floor. The Wyoming Republican said the Senate continues to resist, though after the terrorist attacks last year, it issued handheld Blackberry wireless devices to all senators "because the Internet was a better communications tool" than the phone, he said.
Enzi also noted that his wife completed her master's degree through an online university, "so I know firsthand how well these programs work." He said he sometimes watched her do coursework and listen to lectures by computer while they waited at airports.
Educating The Children
The Children's Partnership, a group focused on children's policy issues, is trying to get candidates in state and local races to pay attention to "digital divide" issues. The group also has created a Youth and Technology Candidate Information Program to encourage local representatives see demonstrations of neighborhood technology programs.
"Elections can be a particularly good time to invite policymakers to your neighborhood technology program, brief them about policies they can adopt and show them firsthand how digital opportunities can change lives," the partnership said in a statement.
In other education news, Education Secretary Roderick Paige joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Cablevision President and CEO James Dolan and others at the Samuel Gompers Vocation and Technical High School in New York last week to highlight the importance of technology in schools.
During his visit, Paige viewed an interactive classroom enabled through Cablevision technology that connects parents and teachers. The company aims to wire 5,000 schools and libraries with broadband connections.
U.S. Officials Donate Laptops To Afghan Women
Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force Chairman George Allen, R-Va., and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., last Friday joined representatives from Gateway Computer, the Washington-region technology lobbying group CapNet and the State Department to donate laptop computers to 14 Afghan women.
The women have traveled to the United States to study specific computing skills, communications and leadership management. The State Department, in association with the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council, designed the education exchange program to strengthen local capacity to support Afghan women.
Cornell Professor Wins MacArthur Fellowship
Paul Ginsparg, a professor of physics and computing and information science at Cornell University, has been awarded a 2002 MacArthur Foundation fellowship.
Ginsparg is probably best known as the creator of an online system for distributing scientific research results. Known by scientists around the world as "arXiv.org," the system bypasses the conventional avenues of scientific publication.
As a theoretical physicist, Ginsparg has made substantial contributions in scientific areas such as quantum field theory, quantum gravity, string theory and conformal field theory. He will receive an unconditional grant of $500,000 over the next five years.
In Memoriam
Bob Wallace, Microsoft's ninth employee and builder of the company's first Pascal product, died at his home last week, AP reported. He was 53.
Wallace worked at Seattle's first computer store, which was a hangout for hobbyists. There he saw a sign that company Chairman Bill Gates had posted seeking programmers, AP said.
Wallace left Microsoft in 1983 to start his own company, Quicksoft. He also helped start the Washington Software Association in 1985.
Members of Congress also are mourning the passing of one of their own: Rep. Patsy T. Mink, D-Hawaii, who died of viral pneumonia Saturday at age 74.
Mink served in the House from 1965-1977 and again from 1991 until her death. During her time on Capitol Hill, she pushed for a ban on Internet gun sales and recently was outspoken about efforts by the Copyright Office to push webcasters to collect information and report on listeners who listen to copyright-protected songs.
Because she died so close to the election, Mink's name will remain on the Hawaii ballot in November, and if she wins, the state will hold a special election next year.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
