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Fowler Says Farewell To TechNet
by Ted Leventhal
Donnie Fowler, vice president of Democratic outreach for the bipartisan lobbying group TechNet, is leaving the boardroom behind for the "war room" of presidential politics. He has resigned from TechNet to become a senior adviser to the campaign of former Gen. Wesley Clark.
Fowler is the son of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, who also managed the unsuccessful 1984 presidential campaign of Sen. Ernest (Fritz) Hollings, D-S.C.
"Donnie has been a wonderful advocate for our industry, and we will miss him," TechNet President Rick White said in an e-mail. "But this is a great opportunity for him and a great fit with his talents and abilities. It is also very much in keeping with a long tradition of TechNet people going on to great things in politics and government."
White said Alix Burns, TechNet's director of Democratic politics, will succeed Fowler as vice president. Burns has more than 10 years' experience in national politics and was the major states finance director for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, a strategic consultant to the Democratic National Committee and the national director of the Bonner Group.
Howard Dean: Leader Of The Internet Pack
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean continues to be the most popular candidate on the Internet. Nielsen/Net Ratings reported more visitors to Dean's deanforamerica.com Web site in August than all the other candidates combined, including President George Bush.
Some 688,000 people visited Dean's site. By comparison, georgewbush.com received 236,000 visitors; Sen. John Kerry, 146,000; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, 45,000; Sen. Bob Graham, 40,000; Sen. John Edwards, 32,000; Rep. Richard Gephardt, 27,000; Sen. Joseph Lieberman, 15,000; and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, 2,000.
The campaign site of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been mentioned as a potential Democratic presidential candidate despite her repeated statements that she will not run in 2004, received 24,000 visits. The Internet homes of neither Al Sharpton nor former Gen. Wesley Clark registered ratings.
Meanwhile, Dean's campaign launched three Internet initiatives, including a "statement of Internet principles," a Internet advisory network and software kits aimed at helping grassroots groups for the campaign to build their own Web sites.
Lobbyist Makes Internet Issues His Domain
The Copyright Coalition on Domain Names has retained Steven Metalitz of the Smith & Metalitz law firm to lobby Congress and the executive branch on "legislation and oversight regarding registration of domain names, including oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)."
Composed of groups and companies such as the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers, Broadcast Music International, Time Warner, Business Software Alliance, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Software and Information Industry Association, the coalition is interested in how ICANN rules will affect copyright holders. It hopes to influence recent congressional interest in the "Whois" databases of information on Web-site owners and in fraudulent domain-name registrations.
While the Commerce Department renewed its contract with ICANN on Sept. 17, the agreement calls for periodic reports on such issues. The use of domain names to further unsavory activity and access to reliable Whois database information "is an area that Congress has become increasingly interested in," Metalitz said in an interview.
One bill, for example, would make it a crime to provide false Whois data, and another measure, though not backed by the coalition, deals with similar issues, he said. "We will potentially be seeking further legislation in these areas," Metalitz said.
Federal lobbying disclosures also indicate that Elizabeth Frazee, a former lobbyist for Time Warner, has been retained by the Entertainment Industry Coalition for Free Trade to lobby Congress on free-trade agreements.
Moving Up The Ladder At State, Justice
George Atkinson, a chemistry and optical-sciences professor at the University of Arizona, has been named the science and technology adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Atkinson is the second person to hold the post, which was created in 2001 as the department's principal liaison with the U.S. and international scientific communities.
Atkinson came to the State Department in 2001. He has published more than 170 scientific papers and holds more than 66 U.S. and foreign patents.
Elsewhere in the Bush administration, Mark Corallo, the Justice Department's principal deputy director of public affairs, was appointed as director last Tuesday. Before coming to Justice, Corallo was communications director of the House Government Reform Committee from 1999 to 2002 and press secretary to former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., from 1997 to 1999.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell on Friday announced the members of the new Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age. The 25-person committee includes: Matthew Blank, chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks; Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, senior vice president of regulatory compliance with SBC Communications; Vonya McCann, senior vice president for federal external affairs with Sprint; and ABC President Alex Wallau.
And Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., will co-chair the annual Networked Economy Summit on Oct. 20-21 in Reston, Va. Retired Gen. Tommy Franks will be the keynote speaker, and topics will include electrical blackouts and upgrading the power grid, computer viruses and "cyber terrorism," personal privacy and identity theft, "Wall Street fears" about technology investments, and "action items" for Congress and the Bush administration.
Dittus Celebrates 10 Years Of PR Success
Gloria Dittus celebrated the 10th anniversary of her public-relations firm Dittus Communications with hundreds of guests at a private party at the Washington nightclub Ortanique on Thursday.
Beats Workin', the band of Fox News anchor Tony Snow, performed, as did a troupe of actors impersonating Joan Rivers, former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. House Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, R-La., served as master of ceremonies in a tribute to Dittus and praised her generously.
"This is a woman who doesn't know the meaning of the term 'glass ceiling,'" Tauzin said of Dittus, a former Senate staffer who started her firm from her house with three clients and who today is one of Washington's largest PR strategists.
Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-Ark., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., among others, delivered greetings in a videotaped presentation.
Correction: Last week's People Column incorrectly identified Alex Alban as a current vice president of RealNetworks. He has resigned that post to become a full-time congressional candidate. Also, Bite Communications' San Francisco office has a staff of 60. The Washington office, formerly Applied Communications, has two staffers.
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