policy

What infrastructure is needed for positively disruptive technology?

Posted on by David Solomonoff

Cosponsored by Disruptive Technologists

and the New York Chapter of the Federal Communications Bar Association

Infrastructure in this sense could be physical (fiber in the ground) – or open source software, legal/policy, etc. – more broadly any type of support structure.

This will be the beginning of ongoing initiatives to address the issues raised and follow with hackathons afterwards. A major component will be the development of standards and protocols for new Net-connected technologies with consideration of the social and ethical issues as machines become intelligent. We’ll also explore innovative funding methods for these projects using digital currencies.

David Solomonoff, President, Internet Society of New York

November 11, 2014

Brooklyn Law School

Fell Hall, 205 State Street, Brooklyn, New York

10:00 am to 8:00 pm

Admission: $20.00

Students with valid ID admitted free of charge

RSVP here

Zephyr Teachout, New York gubernatorial candidate, organizer, educator, and scholar

Teachout is a constitutional and property law professor at Fordham Law School. She is a deeply experienced leader in the fights for economic and political equality and against concentration of wealth and control in the hands of the few. She is one of the leading legal experts on corruption.

Timothy Karr, Senior Director of Strategy, Free Press

Timothy builds on Free Press’ grassroots and policy work to promote universal access to open networks and protect free speech everywhere. Before joining Free Press, Tim served as executive director of MediaChannel.org and as vice president of Globalvision New Media. He has also worked extensively as an editor, reporter and photojournalist for the Associated Press, Time, Inc., the New York Times and Australia Consolidated Press. Tim critiques, analyzes and reports on media and media policy for the Huffington Post.

Serene Han, Ideas Engineer, Google

Technological initiatives to help people confront threats in the face of conflict, instability, and repression

Dave Burstein, publisher, DSL Prime:

Wireless Engineers predict 50x improvement in capacity; How do we make it so?

Spectrum should be WiFi and less licensed. WiFi wiil do more and more, becoming increasingly crowded. Mobile carriers, using existing spectrum, can increase their capacity using MIMO and more with little or no increase in capex. Logical policy: All newly available spectrum go to WiFi/unlicensed.

Bob Frankston, Ambient Connectivity – merging wired and wireless telecom infrastructures

Co-creator with Dan Bricklin of the VisiCalc spreadsheet program and the co-founder of Software Arts, the company that developed it. In recent years, Frankston has been an outspoken advocate for reducing the role of telecommunications companies in the evolution of the internet, particularly with respect to broadband and mobile communications. (remote)

Sander Rabin:  Neurosecurity, National Security and Cognitive Liberty

Sander Rabin, a physician-attorney, is the executive director of The Center for Transhuman Jurisprudence, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is education in human enhancement and the development of policies and model rules of law for human enhancement that protect our rights to our minds, bodies and genomes, while minimizing human enhancement’s potential for divisiveness and harm.

Nate Heasley, Executive Director, Goodnik

Goodnik has developed a labor-backed digital currency for information workers to share resources with non-profits and for-profit companies with a social mission.

Nate has been working as a manager of and consultant to  non-profit and technology related companies for 20 years. Nate also founded GrassrootsCamp, an organization that provides free training seminars to non-profit organizations and social entrepreneurs. It is from that experience that Goodnik started as a way to broaden the impact of those events and ideas from that community. Nate holds a BA from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law where he was a Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights and a Stein Scholar for Public Interest Law and Ethics.

Jim Dutcher, CIO, State University of New York, Cobleskill

How broadband is transforming rural America and what is needed now

Panel: Bitcoin and related cryptocurrency-related technologies

• Margaux Avedison, Moderator. Co-founder of EvotionMedia, a “Crypto-Media” production and finance entity. She is on the advisory board of the Bitcoin Shop and organized the first Bitcoin Education Day on Capitol Hill as an Advisor for the Chamber of Digital Commerce.She also consults for banks, individuals, large corporations and venture capitalists on Bitcoin and Blockchain 2.0 technology.  She is an early entrepreneur in the digital currency space and relaunched the first American Bitcoin Exchange, Tradehill, in 2012.

• Erik Anderson, Chairman, WC3 web payments group. Lead/Senior Software Engineer for much of Bloomberg’s Charting, Technical Analysis, Trading Strategies, Data Science, Interactive Data Visualization, Backtesting and Technical Analysis Screening, Core Graphics Infrastructure, math/Quants Developer, Financial Services

• Attorney Jeffrey Alberts, Partner in Pryor Cashman’s Litigation Group. Head of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice. Jeffrey’s practice focuses on government investigations and prosecutions and related regulatory proceedings, asset forfeiture and money laundering litigation, victims’ rights representation, and complex civil litigation. Jeffrey is an experienced trial lawyer who has served as lead counsel in numerous trials, including civil and criminal federal jury trials, state jury trials, and state and federal bench trials. Jeffrey has represented clients in disputes involving virtual currency. He also has been quoted by the media concerning criminal prosecutions of virtual currency service providers and government seizures of bitcoins. Immediately prior to joining the firm in 2013, Jeffrey spent six years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of white collar criminal offenses, including money laundering, securities fraud, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and bankruptcy fraud.

• Adam Krellenstein, Co-founder Counterparty. Lead developer of counterpartyd; chief architect of the Counterparty Protocol. Counterparty is a free and open platform that puts powerful financial tools in the hands of everyone with an Internet connection. By harnessing the power of the Bitcoin network, Counterparty creates a robust and secure marketplace directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, extending Bitcoin’s functionality from a peer-to-peer payment network into a full fledged peer-to-peer financial platform.

  • Patrick Deegan CTO, ID3 Chief Architect. ID3 is developing a new social ecosystem of trusted, self-healing digital institutions. This endeavor seeks to address the severe structural limitations of existing institutions by empowering individuals to assert greater control over their data, online identities and authentication.

Panel: Hear Me, Touch Me, See Me, Feel Me: Moving Natural User Interface (NUI) to the Mainstream

This panel discussion will explore the world of NUI and what it will take to move today’s emerging NUI technologies (voice recognition, Kinect, haptics, facial recognition, etc.) into widespread adoption and make them accessible to all.

  • Deb Benkler, Moderator. Co-founder of NUI Central – NY, the largest NUI group on earth and is known as NYC’s leading NUI evangelist. She is a practitioner of lean and logical UX focusing on best practices in the broader context of CX (customer experience). In 2012, she won a User Experience Award for her work on the Maryland Transit Administration Interactive Maintenance Kiosk, which incorporated facial recognition.
  • Ken Lonyai Co-founder of NUI Central and is known as the other NYC leading NUI evangelist. He’s a 15+ year veteran of user centered interactive project development including some of the industry’s most unique experiential systems. His skills span the on-line world and nearly every realm of human/computer interface used by brands and retailers – mobile, interactive kiosks, experiential displays, etc. He is a User Experience Award winner.
  • David Melville is a Research Staff Member at IBM. He has worked in the area of semi-conductor fabrication and nano-technology, exploring meta-materials and techniques for optimizing illumination and patterning masks for photo-lithography processors before making a jump to developing visualization and interactivity solutions for smart-grid projects. Most recently, he has been exploring what it means to interact with learning systems and working to establish a new era of computing experience.
  • Sean Montgomery is head of hardware at Ringly, the first fashion ring to manage your mobile device. He’s an engineer, professor, and new-media artist in New York City. While finishing his Ph.D. in neuroscience, Sean began to consider the fact that from the perspective of a neuron inside the human brain, both a cold winter day and the embrace of a loved one feels like a sequence of electrical impulses. Sean co-founded SENSORSTAR Labs, an agile R&D consulting group in New York City.
  • Tanya Kraljic is a Principal Designer for Nuance’s mobility division. Her work focuses on the strategy and design of speech experiences in mobile, wearable, in-home, and other emerging technologies. Prior to joining Nuance in 2010, Tanya earned a PhD in cognitive psychology, with an emphasis on adaptation in interactive spoken dialog.

ISOC-NY and Disruptive Technologists cosponsor events

Posted on by David Solomonoff

We’re excited to cosponsor two events with the Disruptive Technologists!

Details on the first below. We’ll follow with an all-day event at Brooklyn Law on November 11 with panels providing a more in depth look at a wide variety of new technologies to be followed with hackathons to fill gaps in their realization.

Please join Disruptive Technologists for a panel discussion moderated by:

Bruce Bachenheimer, Professor & Director, Entrepreneurship Lab at Pace University, NYC

Panelists:

1. David Rose, VC & Serial Entrepreneur, New York Angels, Gust.com

2. Jessica Singleton, Digital Director at Office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

3. Chez Mee, Brand Innovation Strategist & Serial Entrepreneur

The financial crisis of 2008 was an inflection point where Mayor Bloomberg was widely credited for reinventing the traditional Wall Street Economy through technology entrepreneurship. Yet some criticized his success as having been more of a wealth creation model for a narrow section of the City.

Are we now at a second inflation point? At the recent press conference in Dumbo to announce Digital.NYC, the City’s new hub for tech and startups, Mayor Bill De Blasio talked about his new technology initiatives. So this brings up the question: Will things get worse or will they get better? What will happen to the gains made by the Bloomberg Administration? Or will there not even be a new inflection point, and things will remain the same? What does it take to make a successful tech ecosystem?

Disruptive Technologists is an organization dedicated to finding out what makes Disrupters tick – what they are thinking, how they do what they do and then inspire, promote, support, mentor and advise  in order to future Disruption in NYC through tech. We do this through the weekly publication DisruptiveTechnologists.com, monthly panels through our organization Digital Technologists in NYC and through our monthly newsletter. We also report on and cover new Disrupters and attend the hottest events in order to spread their Disruptive words.  We offer an intimate look at this new breed of tech entrepreneurs and their innovative products and services.

Join us for the event to hear from some of the most qualified, dedicated, and passionate Disrupters in the business.
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INET New York: An Open Forum on the Copyright Alert System – Nov 15 @ New York Law School

Posted on by joly

INET New YorkOn Thursday November 15 2012 the Internet Society’s North American Bureau in collaboration with its New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) will present INET New York: An Open Forum on The Copyright Alert System – a half-day conference at New York Law School. Public advocacy organizations and Internet users will have the opportunity to participate in a multistakeholder dialogue on key issues relating to the Copyright Alert System (CAS) – sometimes called the 6 strikes program, and due to kick off on November 28 2012 – with representatives and members of the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) which is administering the system.

Registration is now open (free), and you can also ask questions in advance, via the links below. It is not necessary to register for the webcast, but you can via our meetup group.

What: INET New York: An Open Forum on The Copyright Alert System
When: November 15 2012 – 3-7pm
Program: http://www.internetsociety.org/events/inet-new-york/inet-new-york-agenda
Webcast: http://www.livestream.com/internetsocietychapters
Twitter: #inetny | #copyright | #6strikes
Registration: http://www.internetsociety.org/events/inet-new-york/ (free)
Questions: http://inetny2012.backchan.nl/
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Internet Society statement on DNS Filtering in the US

Posted on by joly

The Internet Society has noted with concern a number of U.S. legislative proposals that would mandate DNS blocking and filtering by ISPs in order to protect the interests of copyright holders. We agree with proponents of the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that combating illegal online activities is a very important public policy objective. However, policies that are enacted to achieve this goal must not undermine the viability of the Internet as a globally reachable platform. After close examination and consultation with the Internet community, we do not believe that the current U.S. legislative proposals are consistent with these basic principles.

In particular, we are concerned with provisions in both laws regarding DNS filtering. DNS filtering is often proposed as a way to block illegal content consumption by end users. Yet policies to mandate DNS filtering have not proven to be effective – these approaches interfere with cross-border data flows and services undermining innovation and social development across the globe. In addition, DNS blocking raises significant concerns with respect to human rights and freedom of expression and may curtail fundamental international principles of rule of law and due process.

The United States has an important leadership role when it comes to online Internet freedoms and should show the way when it comes to balancing local responsibilities and global impact, especially with respect to Internet policy.

In short, the negative impact of DNS filtering far outweighs any short-term, narrow, legal, and commercial benefits. The Internet Society believes that sustained, global collaboration amongst all parties is needed to find ways that protect the global architecture of the Internet while combating illegal online activities. We must all work to support the principles of innovation and freedom of expression upon which the Internet was founded.

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Don’t take the Internet for granted, Internet Society warns at INET conference

Posted on by joly

ISOC logo23 Frankfurt 2011, FRANKFURT – The Internet Society warned today that taking the Internet for granted would be one of the surest ways to ruin it.

At its INET conference in Frankfurt on the threats, challenges and opportunities facing the Internet, the Internet Society cautioned users that they would take it for granted at their peril.

“The future success of the Internet is heavily dependent on its openness, access and transparency,” said Frederic Donck, director of the Internet Society’s European Regional Bureau. “Remove any of these core attributes, and the Internet will be become virtually useless as a platform for communication and innovation.”

The Internet Society called on all users to take urgent steps to ensure that the future development of the Internet takes a course that is in the best interests of everyone.
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Markus Kummer appointed ISOC VP of Public Policy

Posted on by joly

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and RESTON, VIRGINIA, USA – 19 January 2011 – An internationally recognized leader in a broad range of Internet policy issues will join the Internet Society as head of its public policy department. As the Internet Society’s Vice President of Public Policy, Markus Kummer will advance key Internet Society policy positions on issues such as privacy, cybersecurity, and network neutrality. Most recently the Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat supporting the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum, Kummer has extensive experience with Internet policy at the global, regional, and national levels
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Internet Society lends initial support to Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG)

Posted on by joly

The Internet Society’s North American Bureau, to which ISOC-NY is affiliated, is lending initial support to a U.S. industry effort to form a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) to develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience. This is a collaborative industry effort to identify and address operational issues that have been at the heart of some of the recent issues attracting governmental attention. Constructively, this activity could result in organized, forward-looking discussion driven by key stakeholders and also provide opportunities to educate and inform policy makers by shedding light on underlying technical issues from the perspectives of diverse stakeholders.

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Internet Society Publishes Statement on Open Inter-networking

Posted on by joly

GENEVA–26 February 2010–The Internet Society this week submitted a paper on “Open Inter-networking” to a Net Neutrality expert group convened by French Minister of Internet Economy, Nathalie Kosciusko MorizetI. The paper proposes a set of policy considerations derived from the need to preserve access, choice, and transparency as key to ensuring the Internet remains a platform for innovation and economic development.

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P.I.R. appoints Kathy Kleiman as Director of Policy

Posted on by joly

ISOC-NY would like to congratulate both Kathy Kleiman and the Public Interest Registry on her appointment as their Director of Policy. As noted on the PIR blog, Kathy has long stood up for the interests and rights of the the Internet using public, not only as a co-founder of the Noncommercial Users Constituency of ICANN (of which ISOC-NY is a member), but in countless other ways. That she will now have the opportunity to pursue such interests full-time on behalf of the .org community is great news!

See below for a classic example of Kathy in action in a recent ISOC-NY webcast:

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Webcast: ISOC-DC discussion “Choices for the Smart Grid”

Posted on by joly

On Jan 20 2010 the DC area members of the Internet Society held a discussion: “Choices for the Smart Grid“. The electric power grid–and the appliances in your home–are being networked, enabling electric utilities to better control electric power generation, consumption, and distribution–and give consumers ways to save energy and money. But it is not clear how the Smart Grid will develop. Will the Smart Grid be fully integrated with the Internet or will proprietary technologies and security concerns make that difficult? What steps will be needed to ensure the security of the Smart Grid? How will the Smart Grid interoperate with home networks and other systems? Will each utility and each country adopt different approaches or will there be global standards–and who will set those standards?

Details, slides and video below:
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