Open Infrastructure Alliance
Press Release
Experts on the Broadband Opportunity
Plan for New York State Tom Allibone, President of LTC
Consulting, is the Director of Teletruth's Auditing
Division. He has been a telecommunications professional
with over 38 years experience. Prior to founding LTC
Consulting in 1989, Tom worked for New Jersey Bell and
AT&T as a systems consultant and National Account
Manager, starting in 1970. Tom is an
AT&T 'legacy' as his grandfather and father (and
his wife) all worked for AT&T and the Bell
System. Tom has led Teletruth's auditing
capabilities which has resulted in the settlement of 2
class action suits against Verizon, New Jersey, as well
as telecom auditing resulting in over $20 milloin in
refunds. Tom was a member of the FCC Consumer Advisory
Committee, and featured in the Emmy-nominated Bill Moyer
PBS "The Net at Risk." Peter Cattaneo, has been a
technologist since the 1970's when he worked for
Intermetrics. From 1997 through 2006, Peter was the
Director of Java Card Business and Solutions, for Sun
Microsystems, Inc, which included issues of security and
'smart cards' Prior to that, Peter worked at Genoa
Systems doing enhanced computer boards and Thomson
Consumer Products, Worldwide. Peter attended
MIT. Gordon Cook has been involved in
the computer and telecommunications industry since the
1960's. A former Senior Analyst US Congress Office of
Technology Assessment, 1990-1992, since that time he has
been the Editor and Publisher of The COOK Report on
Internet Protocol. The newsletter and active listserve
covers a wide range of issues, from fiber optic
deployments throughout the world, to applications such as
VOIP and telecommunications reform. John Friedman is an attorney and
law professor specializing in telecommunications and
technology law. John has over 24 years of experience in
the telecommunications industry in legal, operational,
finance and technology roles, with extensive experience
in domestic and international transactional and
regulatory issues. This unique combination of business
and legal expertise enables him to provide a depth of
operational, transactional and regulatory advice simply
unavailable from traditional law firms and consultancies.
In addition to his practice, John
is a member of the adjunct faculty of the Hofstra
University School of Law where he teaches
telecommunications law, policy and economics. An expert
in the universal service system, John served for three
years as a board member, treasurer and secretary of the
New York State Targeted Accessibility Fund which
administers and funds New York's universal service
programs. Bob founded Software Arts in 1979
with Dan Bricklin to develop and sell VisiCalc. VisiCalc
was the first electronic spreadsheet program and remained
a widely used program for personal computers for many
years. Awards include PC Magazine's "Lifetime Achievement
Award," Esquire Magazine, "The Best of the New
Generation". http://www.frankston.com/public/Bob_Frankston_Bio.asp
Fred Goldstein has over a
quarter-century of experience in the telecommunications
industry, offering consulting services designed to make
competition work in the telecommunications, Internet,
cable, wireless and information technology sectors. He is
the author of "The Great Telecom Meltdown", published by
Artech in 2005. He has provided expert testimony before
several state regulatory agencies, courts, and the
Federal Communications Commission, on behalf of
Competitive Local Exchange Carriers and other competitive
service providers, primarily focusing on the technical
and economic impact of interconnection agreements and
intercarrier compensation. David S. Isenberg started his
technology career, working at the premier AT&T Bell
Labs until 1997, when "The Rise of the Stupid Networks
was published. Since that time he has been a independent
analyst, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for
Internet and Society in 2005, and running the cutting
edge technology and telecommunications, broadband and
Internet conference: "Freedom To Connect".
Bruce Kushnick has been a respected
telecommunications analyst and visionary for over 25
years. New Networks Institute was formed in 1992, and is
a founding member of Teletruth since 2002. From 2003-2004, Teletruth was a
member of the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee. In 2006,
"$200 Billion Broadband Scandal" was released and was
featured on the Emmy-nominated PBS Special, "The Net At
Risk". Bruce Kushnick is currently a contributor to
Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism's Watchdog
Project. Bruce Kushnick holds a BA in
Music Composition, and was a special graduate Student at
MIT's Division for the Study in Research and Education
(now part of the Media Lab) and
Harvard. Dean is a Media, Marketing and
Communications professional, enabling successful delivery
and transmission and distribution of information. This
can be content, messages, ideas, promotion,
entertainment, inter-departmental data, or simply
conveying an intended message, thought or idea, from one
source to another. That can be one to one, one to many,
or in participatory or collaborative efforts, many to
many. Dean's work includes program development, market
research, promotional and introductory implementation.
Kate Lynch is the president of
Bway.net, a woman-owned, independent, New York
state-based broadband Internet provider. Bway.net was
founded in February of 1995 with the goal of providing
the highest quality Internet service for the residents of
New York City. Bway.net has since expanded our geographic
boundaries, but has remained committed to excellence and
to the philosophy that first inspired us: we are
pro-privacy, anti-censorship, pro-open source and still
believe that the Internet might just change the world.
Kate is also the President of the NIA, National Internet
Alliance, and has been active as part of Teletruth's
Board of Advisors. W. Scott Mc Collough's focus of
practice has been on public law, including consumer;
civil and voting rights; procurement; telecommunications,
electric and gas utilities; administrative law; economic
regulation; consulting; governmental relations; and,
instruction and training in those areas to individuals,
groups, companies and governmental agencies. Clients
include several competitive telecommunications companies
and Internet service providers. Contract Consumer
Advocate (representing residential and small business
consumers) with City of Austin Electric Utility
(1994-1999). Regulatory Counsel for Texas ISDN Users
Group and Texas Internet Service Providers
Association. From 1984-1994, Represented State
of Texas before regulatory agencies with jurisdiction
over gas, telephone, water and electric utilities, and on
appeal. Assisted and advised state agencies and local
9-1-1 emergency service providers in utility and network
planning, purchasing, operation and interconnection.
Represented agencies in billing and rating disputes with
utilities. Served as regulatory counsel for General
Services Commission and regulatory and general counsel
for Advisory Commission on State Emergency
Communications. Past Member, State Cogeneration Council
and Relay Texas Advisory Council. Since 1998, Jerry has been an
independent consultant, doing business as Sociate, a name
he coined because he is skilled at associating ideas and
people, and also because he believes that the social
changes that we are going through as a result of all the
new connectivity (e.g., Internet, cell phones,
inexpensive cameras, podcasting) will be more profound
than the structural and economic changes we have already
seen. Jerry works with some larger
companies such as UBS, Target and Boeing; nimbler players
such as IDEO and McKinsey; educational institutions such
as the Wharton Executive Education program; and
non-profits such as the Institute for the Future and the
Deliberative Democracy Consortium. Jerry also acts as a technology
advisor to startups ranging from TheBrain.com to
Socialtext and Seedwiki. During the dot-boom days, Jerry
was an advisor to eGroups (now YahooGroups) and Pyra (now
Blogger, part of Google). For the five years before he
founded Sociate, Jerry was the Managing Editor of Release
1.0, Esther Dyson's monthly newsletter, and co-host of
the annual PC Forum. For the five years before that,
Jerry was an industry analyst and research service
director with New Science Associates, which was later
bought by Gartner Group. Jerry earned an MBA from the
Wharton School and a BA in Economics from UC
Irvine. Joe Plotkin is a marketing
specialist and advocate in broadband, Internet, VOIP and
wireless technologies. Working for an independent ISP in
New York, Bwaynet, Joe is also on the Board of Teletruth,
and the NYC Wireless Association. Joe has worked on
Teletruth projects, including working with Congressmen
Nadler on the creation of the proposed piece of
legislation, "The Broadband Bill of Rights", and worked
with the Small Business Administration's Office of
Advocacy to create a "Roundtable" for Internet Providers
and Small Business Issues. David Rosen has well established
careers in various areas of technology and its merger
with content. Since 2005, David was vice president,
corporate development for ComCam International, which
introduced some of the first wireless video networks;
technology used by US government agencies and private
corporations in security sector; From 2002 through 2004,
David was founder and executive producer of Digital
Independence, a forum of creativity, technology and
democracy; supported by the Ford and Rockefeller
Foundations. Prior to that, David consulted to many
telephone companies and computer/gaming manufacturers.
From 1980-1985, David was Project
Director, Educational Services for PBS/Thirteen, offering
TV-based courses for adult learners based on British Open
University model; Dana Spiegel is an independent
software consultant and founder of sociableDESIGN, a
software and consulting firm that specializes in social
software and wireless technology research and
development. He has worked with industry leading
companies and small start-ups including Yahoo!, Nike,
Primedia, IBM, OnForce, and Bloostone to develop products
and programs that utilize innovative social software and
integrate new wireless technologies. He has also appeared
as a speaker at Wireless and Media Industry conferences,
and has guest lectured at NYU, SUNY Purchase, Parsons
School of Design, and The New School University. Dana
holds a Bachelors Degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences
from MIT and a Masters Degree in Media Arts and Sciences
from the MIT Media Laboratory's Sociable Media
Group. Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia
Law School. He is the co-author of Who Controls the
Internet? (Oxford U. Press 2006), and a writer for Slate
Magazine. In 2006 Wu was recognized as one 50 leaders in
science and technology by Scientific American magazine,
and in 2007 Wu was listed as one of Harvard's 100 most
influential graduates by 02138 magazine. Tim Wu's best known work is in the
development of Net Neutrality theory, but he has also
written about copyright, international trade, and the
study of law-breaking. He previously worked for
Riverstone Networks in the telecommunications industry in
Silicon Valley, and was a law clerk for Judge Richard
Posner and Justice Stephen Breyer. He graduated from
McGill University (B.Sc), and Harvard Law School, and has
taught at the University of Virginia, the University of
Chicago, and Stanford Law School.