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FCC's Wireline Bureau Gets New Chief
by Heather Greenfield
Tom Navin is leaving the FCC as the Wireline Competition Bureau Chief, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced plans to appoint Dana Shaffer as the replacement.
Martin thanked Navin for "his commitment to excellence and distinguished service." "As bureau chief, Tom has played a critical role in furthering the commission's pro-competitive and deregulatory telecom policies during the past two-and-a-half years," Martin said. He added that Shaffer "has exhibited enormous dedication to this agency, and I look forward to her service in this new capacity."
Shaffer has served as deputy chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau, as interim legal adviser to Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate and to Commissioner Robert McDowell, and most recently as deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
Shaffer joined the commission after more than 10 years experience in the telecommunications industry. She was president of the Southeastern Competitive Carriers Association and also president of the Tennessee Telecommunications Association.
President Bush, meanwhile, said the Justice Department would be in the "hands of a great lawyer and an accomplished public servant" if the Senate confirms retired federal Judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general. Bush announced his choice of Mukasey on Monday.
While Senate Democrats are expected to confirm Mukasey, a few have threatened to delay the nomination to force the White House to provide documents related to several congressional investigations of the department.
Verizon Snags FBI Cyber Expert
Michael Mason will go from investigating cyber crime at the FBI to working to ensure cyber security at Verizon Communications. Mason will become the company's chief security officer early next year.
Mason now heads the FBI's criminal, cyber, response and services branch. That division is the largest branch of the agency, and Mason oversees federal law enforcement for the organization's criminal, corruption, civil-rights and cyber-crime investigations.
Mason will be in charge of Verizon's overall security efforts, including physical and cyber. He will report to Bill Barr, Verizon's executive vice president and general counsel. Mason replaces Jim Trainor, who will retire.
Former Verizon executive Aubrey Sarvis, meanwhile, has been named executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. SLDN is a nonprofit policy advocacy, legal services and watchdog organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy against homosexuality and related forms of what it sees as intolerance.
Sarvis began working at Verizon when it was Bell Atlantic and worked as a lobbyist and head of Verizon's policy and lobbying operation from 1984 to 1998. Sarvis served in the Army before college. From the time he left Verizon until now, he has led an independent policy consulting firm in Washington that represents Fortune 100 companies.
NBC Pirates BPI Anti-Piracy Advocate
Roz Groome still will be speaking against piracy -- she is just changing formats for her advocacy. Groome is leaving the United Kingdom's trade association for recording companies, BPI, to become vice president of anti-piracy issues at NBC Universal.
Groome has been general counsel of BPI since November 2005 but has worked on intellectual property issues for seven-and-a-half years.
"Roz has contributed a huge amount to the BPI, in particular in leading the BPI's anti-piracy initiatives as general counsel," BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said. "While we are sorry to lose her, this move is an exciting opportunity for her to use the great experience she has gained at the BPI in a new context."
"I have no doubt that her talent and commitment will prove invaluable to the film industry as it faces many similar challenges to those confronted by the music industry," Taylor said.
Taylor credits Groome with successful results in landmark cases against easyInternetCafe.com and, more recently, BPI's victory over CDWOW, an importer of illegal compact discs.
"The BPI is entering a new chapter under a dynamic new team, and whilst it is particularly hard to leave a job, colleagues and an industry I love at such a time, the opportunity to lead an exciting new initiative at NBC Universal was simply too good to turn down," Groome said.
EFF Elects Two New Board Members
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's board has elected two leading technologists to its executive board -- free-culture leader John Buckman and privacy and security expert Lorrie Faith Cranor.
Buckman is a programmer, entrepreneur and the founder of Magnatune.com, an online recording label that tries to be fair to both recording artists and consumers alike. The Magnatune site provides Web-based distribution to more than 250 recording artists and features an innovative tool for online music-licensing for film, television and new media. The business model has helped establish Buckman as a leader in the free-culture movement.
Buckman also is the founder Bookmooch.com, an online community for exchanging used books. His past accomplishments include founding the e-mail software company Lyris in 1994, which he sold to JL Halsey in 2005. He also created Tile.net, an early Web directory that was purchased by Internet.com in 2001.
"EFF fights to protect the rights of artists and fans who use technology to make and enjoy creative works," Buckman said. "I'm happy to join them in taking on these cutting-edge issues."
Cranor is an associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She has played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community, having co-edited the seminal book "Security and Usability" and founded the Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security.
Cranor has authored more than 80 research papers on online privacy, "phishing" schemes that use phony e-mails and Web sites, unsolicited commercial e-mail, e-voting, anonymous publishing, usable access control and other topics. She also has testified as an expert in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of "harmful to minors" laws against Internet content.
"The privacy and security policy decisions made now will have far-reaching implications in the years to come," Cranor said. "I'm pleased to work with EFF as they champion the public interest in these important debates."
TechPresident Wins Journalism Award
The techPresident group blog has won the the $10,000 grand prize Knight-Batten Award for innovation in journalism. The blog charts the use of technology by the 2008 presidential candidates.
"It was a huge and amazing honor to be included among nominees like NewAssignment.net, the Reuters Second Life Virtual News Bureau and the Council on Foreign Relations' crisis guides," Joshua Levy said in a posting a few minutes after the award was announced Monday.
"The site not only reports on, but encourages, citizens to participate more directly in the political process," the panel of judges said. "It's an amazing source of information from a non-traditional news outlet."
At the time of the nomination last month, judges said techPresident made the list of finalists because it was "current, clean, efficient and effective. TechPresident.com uses Web technology to report on how Web technology is being used by the candidates in the 2008 presidential election."
The Reuters Second Life Virtual News Bureau and three other outlets were also honored.
Quote Of The Week
"The era of cowboy diplomacy is over. America is back."
-- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking at a steak fry hosted by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin while campaigning in Iowa on Sunday.
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