Tech Policy Leaders

Susan Walters is the Senior Vice President of the California Emergency Technology Fund a non-profit that focuses on closing the digital divide in California. She was previously the Regional Director of Community Relations for Citibank in Greater Southern California. Prior to Citibank she operated a small consulting practice in corporate social responsibility. The work focused on building strategic partnerships between nonprofit organizations and corporations, strategic planning, communications and marketing. She has worked in myriad areas ranging from telecommunications policy, disability access to multimedia projects. Examples of her work include designing a highly successful technology job training program for low income adults and youth, creating a brand strategy for a buy local food campaign and marketing programs to reach emerging markets.

Her firm's clients included: AOL, Verizon, Microsoft, Independent Television Service (ITVS), San Francisco Giants, Freddie Mac Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the FoodRoutes Network.

In this episode we discussed

• the homework gap.
• the history of the FCC's Lifeline program.
• how to expand Lifeline to make high-speed Internet more affordable.

Resources

California Emerging Technology Fund

Internet for All Now

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Lita Rosario is one of America's foremost entertainment lawyers.

Lita got her start in the entertainment business as a founder and the VP of Business and Legal Affairs for Universal Music Group, Inc., producers of multi-platinum recording artists Dru Hill, Sisqo and MYA.  Lita has negotiated distribution and publishing agreements with all of the four major record distribution/music publishing companies including Warner Music Group, Sony/RCA; Universal Music Group; EMI/Capital Records as well as major television and cable companies, including, Disney, UPN, TV One, BET, VIACOM/MTV, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, E! NETWORK and Universal Pictures.

Lita’s client roster has included among others:

Grammy award winning and platinum selling artists George Clinton and the Estate of Garry Shider (Parliament Funkadelic), Missy Elliott, Tank, Sisqo, DRU HILL, Peaches & Herb, Crystal Waters, Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force, Davy D producer of RUN DMC and Kurtis Blow, Ronald “Peanut” Frost producer of Jill Scott,  and Dave Evans producer and music director for Keith Sweat.

Lita’s practice involves administration of copyrights, including negotiation of syndication rights, mechanical, synchronization, sample clearances, and performance licenses for music in major motion pictures, including Soul Food, Romeo Music Die, The Fast and The Furious, Road Trip, My First Mister, Buying the Cow, and Brothers, as well as synchronization licenses for commercial advertisements for Bermuda Tourism, Lincoln-Mercury, Mitsubishi, Doritos, Jeep, Cingular, MAC Make-Up and Miller Brewing Company.

Lita is an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia’s Department of Mass Media Visual and Performing Arts teaching “The Business of Music,” a course focusing on legal, accounting and other business aspects of music, TV and film industries.

Lita is a member of the District of Columbia, New York & Massachusetts Bars, the Federal Court bars in the Southern District of New York and the District Court for the District of Columbia.  Atty. Rosario attended The Howard University School of Communications in Washington, D.C.; were she graduated Cum Laude in 1983.  Lita also attended The Howard University School of Law, where she earned a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1986, graduating in the top 10% of her class.

Resources

Lita Rosario, Pllc.

IP Law 360 (Intellectual Property)

LinkedIn Music Royalties Group

Music and Copyright in America: Toward the Celestial Jukebox by Kevin Parks

Lita Rosario is one of America's foremost entertainment lawyers.

Lita got her start in the entertainment business as a founder and the VP of Business and Legal Affairs for Universal Music Group, Inc., producers of multi-platinum recording artists Dru Hill, Sisqo and MYA.  Lita has negotiated distribution and publishing agreements with all of the four major record distribution/music publishing companies including Warner Music Group, Sony/RCA; Universal Music Group; EMI/Capital Records as well as major television and cable companies, including, Disney, UPN, TV One, BET, VIACOM/MTV, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, E! NETWORK and Universal Pictures.

Lita’s client roster has included among others:

Grammy award winning and platinum selling artists George Clinton and the Estate of Garry Shider (Parliament Funkadelic), Missy Elliott, Tank, Sisqo, DRU HILL, Peaches & Herb, Crystal Waters, Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force, Davy D producer of RUN DMC and Kurtis Blow, Ronald “Peanut” Frost producer of Jill Scott,  and Dave Evans producer and music director for Keith Sweat.

Lita’s practice involves administration of copyrights, including negotiation of syndication rights, mechanical, synchronization, sample clearances, and performance licenses for music in major motion pictures, including Soul Food, Romeo Music Die, The Fast and The Furious, Road Trip, My First Mister, Buying the Cow, and Brothers, as well as synchronization licenses for commercial advertisements for Bermuda Tourism, Lincoln-Mercury, Mitsubishi, Doritos, Jeep, Cingular, MAC Make-Up and Miller Brewing Company.

Lita is an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia’s Department of Mass Media Visual and Performing Arts teaching “The Business of Music,” a course focusing on legal, accounting and other business aspects of music, TV and film industries.

Lita is a member of the District of Columbia, New York & Massachusetts Bars, the Federal Court bars in the Southern District of New York and the District Court for the District of Columbia.  Atty. Rosario attended The Howard University School of Communications in Washington, D.C.; were she graduated Cum Laude in 1983.  Lita also attended The Howard University School of Law, where she earned a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1986, graduating in the top 10% of her class.

Resources

Lita Rosario, Pllc.

IP Law 360 (Intellectual Property)

LinkedIn Music Royalties Group

Music and Copyright in America: Toward the Celestial Jukebox by Kevin Parks

Ron Busby, Sr. is the President and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and a native of Oakland, CA.

He is also a successful business owner with significant experience in the small business arena.  Recognized as one of the country’s best CEOs, he grew his first business, USA Super Clean, from $150,000 annual revenue to over $15 million per year.  

He has received countless awards including the Western Region SBA Small Business Person of the Year in 1996, the Greater Phoenix Chamber Small Business Person of the Year in 2006, and the Maricopa County Small Business of the Year in 2007, to name a few.  Trained by some of the country’s leading executives, Busby developed many of his skills at major corporations (such as Exxon, Xerox, IBM and Coca Cola USA) in various senior management positions.  In the course of his corporate America career, President Busby received nationwide recognition from several major corporations as National Sales Person of the Year.

While residing in Houston, Texas, he lead and served on many boards and committees.  Most notably, he was co-chair of the XL II Super Bowl Host Committee.   Other boards that he served on include the Arizona Governor’s African American Leadership Council, The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Bay Area Chapter of the 100 Black Men (he was president of this chapter), the Urban League and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Busby graduated with honors from both Florida A&M University and Clark Atlanta University.  He is a major advocate and promoter of education; especially, the importance of higher learning. In his spare time, you can catch Ron golfing or spending time with his two sons.

In this episode we discussed:

• Ron's own, inspiring story of how he overcame serious, life-changing obstacles.
• the mindset black business owners must have to succeed in any field, particularly tech
• how Ron and U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. are helping to accelerate black-owned businesses.

Resources

U.S. Black Chambers, Inc.

Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? by Reginald Lewis (2012)

Ron Busby, Sr. is the President and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and a native of Oakland, CA.

He is also a successful business owner with significant experience in the small business arena.  Recognized as one of the country’s best CEOs, he grew his first business, USA Super Clean, from $150,000 annual revenue to over $15 million per year.  

He has received countless awards including the Western Region SBA Small Business Person of the Year in 1996, the Greater Phoenix Chamber Small Business Person of the Year in 2006, and the Maricopa County Small Business of the Year in 2007, to name a few.  Trained by some of the country’s leading executives, Busby developed many of his skills at major corporations (such as Exxon, Xerox, IBM and Coca Cola USA) in various senior management positions.  In the course of his corporate America career, President Busby received nationwide recognition from several major corporations as National Sales Person of the Year.

While residing in Houston, Texas, he lead and served on many boards and committees.  Most notably, he was co-chair of the XL II Super Bowl Host Committee.   Other boards that he served on include the Arizona Governor’s African American Leadership Council, The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Bay Area Chapter of the 100 Black Men (he was president of this chapter), the Urban League and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Busby graduated with honors from both Florida A&M University and Clark Atlanta University.  He is a major advocate and promoter of education; especially, the importance of higher learning. In his spare time, you can catch Ron golfing or spending time with his two sons.

In this episode we discussed:

Resources

U.S. Black Chambers, Inc.

Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? by Reginald Lewis (2012)

Ad van Loon (@advanloon) is a communications lawyer based in the Netherlands. In 2008, he created the strategy consulting group X-Media Strategies--where he has advised leading broadcasters including BBC, Deutsche Welle, Euronews, MTV, NHK, NPO, RAI, RTL, SBS, TV5, TVE, and operators of electronic communications networks (KPN, Tele2, UPC, Ziggo) on rights management strategies and on distribution and jurisdiction issues. From 2008-2010, Ad coordinated a joint project of the EU and the Council of Europe on the promotion of European standards in the Ukrainian media environment.

From 2000-2008 he was Manager Legal & Regulatory Affairs at NLkabel, the trade association of cable operators in The Netherlands and a member of Cable Europe’s Regulatory Group.

From 2001-2009, Ad was also an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School, where he taught courses on ‘European Telecommunications Law’, ‘Broadcasting Regulation in European States’ and ‘European Intellectual Property Law’. He also taught European Telecommunications

Law at the University of Sergio Arboleda in Bogota, Colombia.

Ad lived in France for awhile, where he worked at the Council of Europe. Before that he worked at the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam.

Ad’s expertise covers media and acquisitions in the media and telecommunications business, copyright, personal data protection and cross-border content distribution.

In 2014, the Chinese government invited Ad to their first World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, where he held a presentation on ‘Why payment platforms will rapidly become redundant?’

Ad contributed to several studies on media and antitrust law for the Council of Europe, Unesco and the Dutch government) and to several studies commissioned by the European Commission on the implementation of European rules in the broadcasting sectors of the Member States. He also has a longstanding experience (since 1989) in advising lawmakers in Central and Eastern European countries on how to create more democratic media structures.

He studied Law at Tilburg University.

In this episode, we discussed:

• The European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights and the foundations of data protection laws in the EU.
• How European citizens who feel their data protection rights have been violated should expect to proceed through the appropriate European agencies and courts.
• The so-called 'Safe Harbor', how it benefited U.S.-based tech companies, and how the 'Schrems Case' led to its undoing following Edward Snowden's revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) spying program.
• The aftermath following the European Court of Justice's decision to strike down the Safe Harbor.
• How the "right to be forgotten", "data protection by design" and "data protection by default" will play a role in the EU's data protection rules going forward.
• What is at stake for international trade should the EU and US fail to find a resolution.

Resources

X-Media Strategies

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

The European Court of Justice's Decision to Strike Down the Safe Harbor

The Circle by Dave Eggers (2014)

The Value of Our Digital Identity (Boston Consulting Group, 2012).

Ad van Loon (@advanloon) is a communications lawyer based in the Netherlands. In 2008, he created the strategy consulting group X-Media Strategies--where he has advised leading broadcasters including BBC, Deutsche Welle, Euronews, MTV, NHK, NPO, RAI, RTL, SBS, TV5, TVE, and operators of electronic communications networks (KPN, Tele2, UPC, Ziggo) on rights management strategies and on distribution and jurisdiction issues. From 2008-2010, Ad coordinated a joint project of the EU and the Council of Europe on the promotion of European standards in the Ukrainian media environment.

From 2000-2008 he was Manager Legal & Regulatory Affairs at NLkabel, the trade association of cable operators in The Netherlands and a member of Cable Europe’s Regulatory Group.

From 2001-2009, Ad was also an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School, where he taught courses on ‘European Telecommunications Law’, ‘Broadcasting Regulation in European States’ and ‘European Intellectual Property Law’. He also taught European Telecommunications

Law at the University of Sergio Arboleda in Bogota, Colombia.

Ad lived in France for awhile, where he worked at the Council of Europe. Before that he worked at the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam.

Ad’s expertise covers media and acquisitions in the media and telecommunications business, copyright, personal data protection and cross-border content distribution.

In 2014, the Chinese government invited Ad to their first World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, where he held a presentation on ‘Why payment platforms will rapidly become redundant?’

Ad contributed to several studies on media and antitrust law for the Council of Europe, Unesco and the Dutch government) and to several studies commissioned by the European Commission on the implementation of European rules in the broadcasting sectors of the Member States. He also has a longstanding experience (since 1989) in advising lawmakers in Central and Eastern European countries on how to create more democratic media structures.

He studied Law at Tilburg University.

In this episode, we discussed:

• The European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights and the foundations of data protection laws in the EU.
• How European citizens who feel their data protection rights have been violated should expect to proceed through the appropriate European agencies and courts.
• The so-called 'Safe Harbor', how it benefited U.S.-based tech companies, and how the 'Schrems Case' led to its undoing following Edward Snowden's revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) spying program.
• The aftermath following the European Court of Justice's decision to strike down the Safe Harbor.
• How the "right to be forgotten", "data protection by design" and "data protection by default" will play a role in the EU's data protection rules going forward.
• What is at stake for international trade should the EU and US fail to find a resolution.

Resources

X-Media Strategies

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

The European Court of Justice's Decision to Strike Down the Safe Harbor

The Circle by Dave Eggers (2014)

The Value of Our Digital Identity (Boston Consulting Group, 2012).

Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).

He has served on the Steering Committee for the D.C. Bar's Computer & Telecommunications Law Section, and currently serves on the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee(COMSTAC). Szoka has chaired, and currently serves on, the Board of Directors of the Space Frontier Foundation, a non-profit citizens' advocacy group founded in 1988 and dedicated to advancing commercial opportunity and expansion of human civilization in space.

• the history of the FCC's regulation of monopolies.
• federal legislation regarding municipal broadband networks and how that legislation should be built upon.
• whether the FCC abused its "Section 706" authority to preempt state laws that prevent municipal broadband providers from extending their boundaries.

Resources

TechFreedom

The Future and its Enemies, Virginia Postrel (Free Press, 1999)

Strategic Ituition: The Creative Spark in Human Intuition, Jeffrey Dutton (Columbia University, 2013)

Technology Liberation Front

Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).

He has served on the Steering Committee for the D.C. Bar's Computer & Telecommunications Law Section, and currently serves on the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee(COMSTAC). Szoka has chaired, and currently serves on, the Board of Directors of the Space Frontier Foundation, a non-profit citizens' advocacy group founded in 1988 and dedicated to advancing commercial opportunity and expansion of human civilization in space.

• the history of the FCC's regulation of monopolies.
• federal legislation regarding municipal broadband networks and how that legislation should be built upon.
• whether the FCC abused its "Section 706" authority to preempt state laws that prevent municipal broadband providers from extending their boundaries.

Resources

TechFreedom

The Future and its Enemies, Virginia Postrel (Free Press, 1999)

Strategic Ituition: The Creative Spark in Human Intuition, Jeffrey Dutton (Columbia University, 2013)

Technology Liberation Front

Charlton McIlwain (@cmcilwain) - As a researcher, writer and teacher, Dr. McIlwain's primary interests focus broadly on issues of race and media, particularly within the social and political arena. His previous work centered on how political candidates construct, mobilize, benefit or suffer damage from race-based appeals. In 2011 Dr. McIlwain co-authored the book Race Appeal: How Candidates Invoke Race in U.S. Political Campaigns (Temple University Press). In 2012, the book won the prestigious Ralph Bunche Award, given by the American Political Science Association for the best book addressing ethnic pluralism. The same year, the American Library Association recognized the book as one of the Best of the Best books among academic publishers. In addition to authoring/coauthoring four additional books and close to thirty scholarly journal articles and chapter in edited volumes, and regularly providing expert commentary for local, state, national and international media, Dr. McIlwain continues to pursue research about racial appeals through collaborative work focused on analyses of individuals’ real-time perceptions of race-based appeals in political advertising, as well as a variety of cognitive/physiological responses to racialized communication. You can stay informed about his ongoing work in that area at the RaceProject.

Dr. McIlwain's recent interests, however, have turned to the intersections of race and digital media, principally as they relate to three primary questions: to what degree can/has the internet and other forms of digital media use lead to increased political participation, voice and influence for people of color?; in what ways might internet use provide greater access to social, professional and economic mobility for people of color?; and in what tangible ways do forms of racial discrimination, disparate treatment and denial of opportunity take place in online environments? He is currently working on a number of projects in this area, including:

• An article titled, Racial Formation Online: Representation, Inequality & the Political Economy of the Web.

• A book project titled Digital Movement: Black Politics, Organizing & Activism on the Web, which traces the roots and charts the development of racial justice networks online since the 1990s.

• A related project analyzing the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter. The project is in collaboration with lead investigator Deen Freelon, and Meredith Clark, and is funded by the Spencer Foundation.

Dr. McIlwain is also working on the following with other collaborators:

• A book project titled, Good Feelings: The Story of Race & Barbecue in America with Kathleen McElroy.

• A final book project with Stephen Maynard Caliendo titled Nigger 2.0: The Turbulent Transformation of a Still Troublesome Word.

In addition to these projects, Robin R. Means Coleman and I edit the Routledge Transformations in Race & Media book series for Routledge.

In this Episode we Discussed

• The history of race and racism on the Internet in the context of the civil rights and the post-civil rights eras
• How algorithms can both intentionally and unintentionally create real-world discriminatory harm
• Why scholars should continue to study race and racism at the intersection of technology and the Internet.

Resources

The Project on Race in Political Communication

Obfuscation: A User's Guide for Privacy and Protest by Fin Brunton and Hellen Nissenbaum (MIT Press, 2015)