NetCaucus Staff

Dear Members of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee),

We’re getting close to the end of our programmatic year and we have just a few more Internet Caucus AC briefings remaining. Once we host our Spectrum briefing and our FCC Open Internet Decision briefing (assuming the court rules in 2013) we will have capped off one of the most productive and influential educational years in the 17 years since the Congressional Internet Caucus was created to help assure sound Internet policymaking.

We have detailed below the remarkable breadth of Internet policy briefings and events hosted by the NetCaucus AC in 2013. We thank those of you who have lent your time, expertise and (to some) who lent much needed financial support to this important Internet policy program. If your organization has year-end funds please consider becoming a supporter of this indispensable program.

Thank you for a fantastic 2013. Looking forward to working with you all to make 2014 even better.

2013 Highlights:

* In 2013 we will have hosted a record number Congressional briefings on Net policy in the Capitol complex (despite a government shutdown!),
* A whopping 40% of our briefings were telecast on the CSPAN network, radically expanding our audience,
* A record number of Congressional staff attended ICAC briefings,
* We inspired the House of Representatives to embrace STEM by creating legislation and regulations for the first ever youth Congressional App Challenge (expected launch Feb 2014),
* The NetCaucusAC and the State of the Net transitioned to new, more powerful website platforms (respectively),
* Launched a pilot project to coordinate educational programs on Internet Ecosystem Economics,
* And we threw a 20th anniversary party for the World Wide Web!
* See the full list of program below …

2013 Summary of Program

Remaining 2013 Events

Spectrum Briefing
Fri. December 13, 2013
Details TBD – Rayburn HOB
Overview

The FCC’s Open Internet Order Decision Briefing
Details TBD Upon Court Decision

Past 2013 Events

The New European Data Privacy Regulation and What It Means for Global Privacy and the Internet Industry: A Presentation From European Commission Officials
November 19, 2013 – Rayburn HOB
Overview

Are the Kids Alright? Assessing the Impact of 20 Years of the Internet on America’s Youth
Fri., October 25, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, 2237
Overview

The NSA Internet Surveillance System: Who Has Oversight and How Transparent is the Program?
12:00 to 1:00 PM, Fri., October 25, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, 2226
Overview

Buying Your Next Plane Ticket Online: How Can the Internet Make Travel More Efficient?
Wed., Aug 28, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, 2226
Overview | Video | Audio

Privacy, the NSA, and Your Constituents’ Phone and Internet Records: An Experts’ Primer on the Law, the Technology and the History.
Fri., June 21, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, 2237
Overview | Video | Audio

Faceoff: A Fact-Based Debate on U.S. Internet Policy and Access Networks
Fri., June 7, 2013 – Capitol Visitors Center, Room SVC 203-02
Overview | Audio

Patent Litigation Strangling High Tech? Congress?
Thurs., May 30, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, 2226
Overview | Audio

Enabling Do Not Track Privacy: Is It Dead or Alive?
Fri., May 24, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, B-339
Overview | Video | Audio

The World Wide Web 20th Anniversary Cocktail Reception
Thurs., May 9, 2013 – Sewall-Belmont House & Museum
Overview

Collecting Online Sales Taxes: Should Congress Weigh In?
Thursday, Mar. 21, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, Room 2237
Overview | Audio

Cyber Security After the White House Executive Order: Will Congress Make the Next Move?
Friday., Mar. 15, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, B-339
Overview | Audio

Combating Piracy Online: The Copyright Alert System, A Voluntary Approach
Friday., Mar. 8, 2013 – Rayburn HOB, Room 2168
Overview | Video

State of the Net / Mobile Net Events

State of the Mobile Net
May 9, 2013

Keynotes
– The Honorable Jason Chaffetz, Member, U.S. House of Representatives Video
– The Honorable Hank Johnson, Member, U.S. House of Representatives Video

Mobile Location: The Policies of Where,
May 9, 2013
Overview | Video

The “State” of Mobile Privacy: Should It Be Treated Differently?,
May 9, 2013
Overview | Video

Mitigating the Mobile Broadband Squeeze: Creative Approaches to Avoiding a Bandwidth Catastrophe,
May 9, 2013

Overview | Video

State of the Net Conference Events
January22/23, 2013

Keynotes:
– The Honorable Anna G. Eshoo, (CA-18), Co-Chair, Congressional Internet Caucus VIDEO
– The Honorable Jerry Moran, (KS) VIDEO
– Victoria A. Espinel, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, The White House VIDEO
– Nicol Turner-Lee, President and CEO, National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications VIDEO
– Fred Humphries, Vice President of U.S. Government Affairs, Microsoft VIDEO

Plumbing the Policy Implications of Data Analytics and Defining “Big Data,” the Year’s Most Overused Term
January 22, 2013
Overview| AUDIO

Should Congress Rewrite the Telecom Act?
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

Congress as NetMusic’s DJ: Is It Spinning the Turntables in the Right Direction for Innovation and Creativity?
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

Luncheon Keynote Discussion:VIDEO
– Travis Kalanick, CEO and Co-Founder – UBER with
– The Honorable Bob Goodlatte, (VA-6), Co-Chair, Congressional Internet Caucus

Post-Petraeus: Privacy, Passion, Probable Cause?
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

Big Broadband: What Happens When the Psychology of Abundance Confronts Both the Economics of Deployment and the Rules of Regulators?
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

First Sale and No Resale: Could SCOTUS and the Internet Redefine Content Ownership?
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

Cyber Security Legislation, Regulation and Executive Order: Government Officials Discuss
January 22, 2013
Overview

No Rest for the WCIT: Charting An Affirmative Plan to Safeguarding Internet Freedom!
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

Demystifying the Cloud: What Adopters and Policymakers Need to Know
January 22, 2013
Overview | AUDIO

The Internet Leadership Challenge: Restoring America to Economic Greatness Through Sound Internet Policy
January 23, 2013
Overview

Keynotes

– The Honorable Steve Scalise, U.S. House of Representatives (LA-1) & Chairman, Republican Study Committee VIDEO
– Blair Levin, Communications & Society Fellow – Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program “The Politics of Abundance” VIDEO
– Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform VIDEO

Today the Internet Education Foundation announced that Internet governance expert and Syracuse University professor Milton L. Mueller has been selected to serve as a Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Fellow. Mueller is a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies where his research and teaching explores the political economy of communication and information. For the past 15 years his research, teaching and public service have concentrated on problems related to global Internet governance. Mueller is an acclaimed author and is a founding academic of the Internet Governance Project.

As an Internet Caucus Advisory Committee fellow Mueller will apply his vast knowledge of Internet governance, global free expression and international multistakeholderism to facilitate several debates at the State of the Net Conference in January 2014. The State of the Net is the largest Internet policy conference in the United States and features discussions and debates on key Internet policy issues. The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee is neither a trade association nor an industry advocacy group. It blends all Internet stakeholders (academics, consumer groups, industry, think tanks) together with government stakeholders around the common cause of assuring informed Internet policymaking. The program demands only that stakeholders debate Internet policy issues seriously and in good faith while always putting the health of the Internet first and foremost.

Given our mission to broker honest and intelligent debates on critical Internet policy issues Professor Mueller is a perfect fit to help drive those discussions.

Professor Mueller will be working through the fall to organize the discussions and stakeholders for the State of the Net Conference in January. Registration is now open and an agenda will be posted shortly.

For additional inquiries, please contact Tim Lordan at [email protected].

Verizon’s David Young and Public Knowledge’s John Bergmayer to Co-Chair the Task Force with Initial Push on “The Economics of Broadband Access Networks”

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC) launched a new educational effort to bring a better economic understanding of the Internet ecosystem as it relates to Internet policy. The task force will be chaired jointly by David Young (Verizon) and John Bergmayer (Public Knowledge) who will bring balance and experience to this important endeavor.

We care deeply about the future of the Internet and it is critical that lawmakers and the congressional staff advising them make informed decisions. This “Internet Ecosystem Economics Task Force” will lay down a solid base of economic understanding so that lawmakers can make good decisions in major areas such as the Open Internet, Internet TV, peering, compulsory licensing, competition policy, spectrum policy, and many more. The Task Force will vigilantly adhere to our mission to curate balanced and dynamic debates among Internet stakeholders. Our volunteer board of directors will ensure that the task force dutifully executes that mission. In fact, the architecture of the board reflects our balanced mission.

The Task Force will begin by planning a congressional staff briefing on “The Economics of Broadband Access Networks” in the coming weeks. The chairs will develop a sound factual “economic understanding of broadband access networks, competition in the market, and how the broadband industry compares globally.” The briefing will include a balanced set of speakers reflecting diverse economic theories in collegial debate — which is the hallmark of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory program.

We hope this will be the first in a series of excellent programming from these task force chairs. We will share the briefing description and a suggested slate of debaters in the coming days.

About the Internet Caucus Advisory Committee

The Advisory Committee to the Internet Caucus is a diverse group of public interest, non-profit and industry groups working to educate the Congress and the public about important Internet-related policy issues. With participation from Members of the Caucus and logistical support from the Internet Education Foundation, the Advisory Committee hosts regular forums to discuss important Internet-related policy issues. Since its founding, the Advisory Committee has built a membership of over 190 organizations from a broad cross-section of the public interest community and the Internet industry. Additional information, including an updated membership list, is available at https://www.netcaucus.org.