« The Problem with Customers | Main | - Danger Danger Steve Balmer »
February 11, 2008
Guest Blog - Jonathan Askin
Askin’s Back in Town
Hello Carl’s friends and followers (and stalkers and nemeses, monitoring his activities). Jonathan Askin here. Some of you might remember me from my old pulver days. Maybe not so old. I left pulver last year, primarily to pursue a career in academia. I’m proud to say that I am now a Professor at Brooklyn Law School, teaching Internet, Telecom and New Media Law. I am also returning to pulvermedia as a fellow blogger and VON gadfly. My blog (“Who’s Askin? -- http://blogs.pulver.com/whosaskin/) launches today and Carl was kind enough to allow me to introduce myself to his community and to provide me some linklove.
I’m also pleased to announce that we are bringing back the VON “Town Hall Meeting” to kickoff Spring VON in San Jose on March 17 at 5pm. We’re bringing back a lot of the regulars, but with some new perspectives. The goal of the Town Hall is to build our community, to find common ground and common objectives, to make sure that each of us has the opportunity to play a role in shaping the ever-evolving policies that are shaping the Internet and communications industries. There is simply too much going on for us to sit by idly while the rules are set by those that might not share our vision for an Internet-enabled communications future.
So, here are the details for the Spring VON Town Hall Meeting:
Register
Town Hall Meeting: “Back to the Future”
(Monday, March 17, 5pm-6pm)
The VON Town Hall Meeting is back … with a vengeance.
When Internet communications was new, no one cared if we lived or died. We were not an immediate threat to any existing revenue streams or business models … we were cute … like a baby tiger cub just being born. The industry has grown up, untamed, and is now disrupting, disrupting communications providers, disrupting vendors, disrupting regulators, disrupting users. We know this disruption is ultimately for the public and private good, but folks always tend to be wary of disruption.
Because communications can now be delivered from anywhere to anywhere, over any transmission facilities, everyone is playing on everyone else’s turf and no business, old or new, is immune from disruption. But, we, as the innovators and entrepreneurs and vendors and providers and thought-leaders, across the spectrum of the communications world, need to understand one another and figure out ways to get along, so that we, as a community, may revolutionize communications and the capabilities of the Internet to maximize the utility and good, for us and for society.
The Town Hall meeting, with respected advocates on all sides of the communications policy debate, come together to kick off VON, to build bridges, to understand where technology, business and policy are going, and to appreciate the ultimate value and the revolution that is occurring.
I’ll serve as a facilitator, along with some of the major policy thought-leaders like Rick Whitt (Google), Kathy Brown (Verizon), Larry Irving (former Director of NTIA), and a few surprise guests. But, the goal is open dialogue with the members of the VON community.
I look forward to reengaging. The world of academia can be a stifling place. I miss the VON buzz and the reality check that only returning to VON could offer me.
Posted by carl at February 11, 2008 10:02 AM
Comments
Welcome back, Jonathan.....we've missed your insights, wit and perspective...Brooklyn Law is lucky to have recruited you, and we are lucky to have you blogging our issues and representing our community again.....
Posted by: joe mazzeo at February 13, 2008 09:20 PM