Announcing More Great Speakers
Friends and Colleagues,
Announcing . . . (drum roll) . . .
More high-powered speakers for F2C: Freedom to Connect
March 30 & 31, Washington DC.
(Register now: Price goes up February 28!)
The speakers announced below join already-announced speakers such as the CIO of San Francisco, the CTO of Seattle, the Chief Technologist of the FCC, and the visionaries of Lafayette LA, Burlington VT and Glasgow KY municipal networks.
Also, see announcements below:
- F2C Musician in Residence!
- Special hotel deal for F2C participants.
- New Collaborating Partners.
- F2C on Facebook
SPEAKERS:
1) Billy Ray, CEO, Glasgow (KY) Electric Power Board
In the mid-80s, Billy was spurred by energy crisis #2 and an unresponsive cableco to create a broadband network for the citizens of Glasgow KY. By 2001 it was serving 75% of Glasgow’s households at less than 60% of the U.S. average price. Today Ray is building FTTH and thinking about how fiber can asuage the need for new electric power plants.
2) Kevin Werbach was co-leader of President Obama’s FCC Transition Team
He also produces the high-powered, well-respected SuperNova tech conference, and he authored the 1999 FCC report entitled, “Digital Tornado.” Kevin will discuss his experiences on the Obama FCC Transition and the prospects for the new FCC
3) Andrew C. Revkin is the New York Times science reporter
on the “beat” of global climate disruption. He travels the world, witnessing first-hand changes that may indicate bigger changes to come. He’s surfing the edge of Internet reporting on his blog dotEarth
4) L. Aaron Kaplan
will discuss how Vienna Austria’s community-built, community-owned, 500-device, 30-km diameter, Wi-Fi mesh network, free-of-charge to its users has achieved financial sustainability.
MUSICIAN IN RESIDENCE:
John Jorgenson Quintet!!! John Jorgenson earned “best guitarist” three years in a row from the Academy of Country Music. The John Jorgenson Quintet plays hot, hot, hot Django Reinhardt-style Gypsy Jazz. The quintet boasts burning jazz fiddler Jason Anick and a rhythm section so smokin’ I’ve bought carbon credits.
SPECIAL HOTEL DEAL:
The brand new Hampton Inn, across the street from F2C and down a block, has offered us a real deal — just under $180 a night, which is substantially cheaper than any other hotel within walking distance.
YOU MUST CONTACT THE MANAGER PERSONALLY to get this deal:
Aloysious Cory Phillips, Sales Manager
Phone: 301-563-3843
Email: aloysious.phillips@hilton.com
COLLABORATING PARTNERS
F2C depends on word-of-web to get the word out! Here are a few of the Collaborating Partners who are helping us with publicity, and what they’re up to:
FTTH Council: Fiber to the Home Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of fiber to the home networks. It has been a major driving force in bringing fiber to American homes. It is also very active in Europe and Asia. It’s holding a service provider workshop open to all in New Orleans, March 11.
Agenda here [.pdf] that will include a very knowledgeable analysis of what’s in the Obama stimulus package to spur FTTH networks by Tom Cohen. I went to the FTTH Workshop in Petaluma CA — a most fascinating day! The FTTH Council annual meeting, also open, is another great event featuring the superstars of fiber — this year it is scheduled for Houston, Sept. 27 through Oct. 1.
DSL Prime and FastNetNews: Dave Burstein, editor, is a close observer of the Internet scene, an original who talks to everybody and calls it like he sees it without regard for convention or what passes as wisdom. I’m delighted to give him a plug, and I appreciate his heartfelt enthusiasm for F2C!
Said of FastNetNews — “Often interesting reporting.”
New America Foundation: The New America Foundation hosts the public-spirited network work of my friends Michael Calabrese and Sascha Meinrath. Sascha’s co-chairing an F2C panel on “What we can learn from Networking Failures,” and he’s one of the prime movers behind M-Lab, a suite of tools announced two weeks ago designed to assess the quality and neutrality your Internet connection.
Personal Democracy Forum: How Technology is Changing Politics . . .
PDF’s organizers, Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry are friends and mentors. The annual PDF conference in June 2008 was stellar, unmissable. This year’s PDF event has not been announced yet, but it is certain to be better. This is from the heart: I love these guys and the spectacular events they do!
OpinionSource is a service that consolidates and summarizes Op-Eds and other opinion materials, and puts them all in one place, or slices and dices, e.g., you can get the daily China summary, the Middle East summary, etc. Friend Jack Hidary runs this worthy operation.
F2C ON FACEBOOK
Join the Facebook event. Invite your friends.
The registration price goes up 100 bucks after February 28, so please register asap!
I’ll see you at F2C on March 30 & 31!
