Marvin Ammori

In two months, UNL’s Space & Telecom Program will present its Third Annual DC Conference, with the first day focused more on cyber/telecom issues and the second day focused on space issues.  This year, the cyber panels and keynotes will focus on emerging cybersecurity issues; the space panels and keynotes will focus on the recently issued national space policy.

Both of the first two conferences were great events, sparking thought-providing conversations and bringing together top decision-makers and thinkers.  As I focus on cyber/telecom aspects of UNL’s program, I am posting here the agendas for the cyber days from the first two conferences.

The first conference, shortly after President Obama’s election, evaluated the previous eight years of telecom policy and looked forward to the next four.  Speakers included a then-FCC Commissioner, a former FCC Chairman, a senior UK spectrum official, AT&T’s head lobbyist, and others. The conference generated news in Reuters, the Washington Post (print and blog), and CNet, PCWorld, Internet News, Media Post, Ars Technica, and Huffington Post.

The second conference focused on international and trans-Atlantic issues.  Speakers included the State Department’s top official on cyberdiplomacy, the Director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau, the head of NTIA’s policy shop, a former Estonian defense minister, and the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, a legal advisor to the 24th Air Force, among others.  The conference generated several stories in the Washington Post and The Hill.

The full agendas are after the flip.

First Conference

Looking Back at the Past Eight Years, Looking Toward the Next Four

November 13, 2008

8: AM Welcome Matt Schaefer, Director, UNL Space & Telecom Law Program

8:10 AM  Morning Keynote FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein

9:00AM: Morning Keynote Discussion

• Richard Wiley, Partner, Wiley Rein, former Chairman, FCC
• James Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs, AT&T
• Ben Scott, Policy Director, Free Press
• moderated by Cecilia Kang, Washington Post

10:00-11:00AM Wireless Issues

• Fred Campbell, President, Wireless Communications Association & former Wireless Bureau Chief, FCC
• William Webb, Head, Ofcom Research & Development (U.K.)
• Terri Natoli, Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs, Clearwire

11:20-12:20 Network Neutrality

• Marvin Ammori, Professor of Law, U. of Nebraska College of Law (moderator)
• Frannie Wellings, Telecom Counsel, US Sen. Byron Dorgan
• Rebecca Arbogast, Principal, Stifel Nicolaus,
• Markham Erickson, Executive Director, Open Internet Coalition
• James Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs, AT&T

12:30 Lunch

2:00-3:00PM  International Issues

• Tricia Paoletta, Harris, Wiltshire, & Grannis

• Ambassador Richard Russell, US Ambassador to ITU WRC-07
• Helen Domenici, International Bureau Chief, FCC
• Jonathan McHale, USTR

3:20-4:20PM Broadband Policy/Universal Access

• Sascha Meinrath, Research Director, Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation (moderator)
• Jessica Rosenworcel, Senior Communications Counsel, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate
• Derek Turner, Research Director, Free Press
• Link Hoewing, Vice President – Internet and Public Policy, Verizon
• Scott Reiter, Director of Industry Affairs, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association—The Voice of Rural Telecommunications

Second Annual Conference

November 19, 2009

Space & Telecom in the Transatlantic Arena: Cooperation, Competition, and Comparison

9:00-9:15: Welcome Marvin Ammori and Matt Schaefer

9:15-10:00: Cyber-diplomacy Keynote

Alec Ross, US State Department, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the office of Secretary Clinton

10:05-11:30: Trade Policy and Competition in Europe and the US

• Marvin Ammori, Assistant Professor, U. Nebraska
• Erzsebet Fitori, European Competitive Telecommunications Association
• Bertrand Vandeputte, Head, Broadband and Next Generation Access Unit, ARCEP, France
• Debroah Lathen, Board Member, BT Group, Plc. (British Telecom)
• Earl Comstock, Comstock Consulting, former President and CEO of COMPTEL

11:35-1:00: Communications as a Civil Right

• Jeremie Zimmermann, La Quadrature Du Net
• Jan Malinowski, Head of Media and Information Society Division, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe
• Sascha Meinrath, Director, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation
• Monica Horten, Communications and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster
• Clothilde Le Coz, Washington, Director, Reporters Without Borders USA
• Ben Scott, Free Press (moderator)

Lunch 1:00-2:00:

Lunch Keynote at 1:15

David Vladeck, Director, Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission

2:00-3:15: Conversation on Trade, Civil Rights, Security

• Tim Wu, Professor, Columbia Law School,
• Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy Chief Technology Office for Policy, White House
• Moderated by Cecilia Kang, Washington Post

3:30-4:55 Cybersecurity panel,

• Maeve Dion, Program Manager for Cyber & Education, Center for Infrastructure Protection, George Mason U. School of Law
• Daniel J. Weitzner, Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development, National Telecommunications and Information Administration
• Derek Jinks, Charles H. Stockton Chair of International Law, U.S. Naval War College, Center for Naval Warfare Studies
• Lauri Allman, former Undersecretary of Defense for Estonia (head legal advisor to the government during their 2007 incident, helped set up the NATO-accredited Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn)
• Vicki Belleau, Major, US Air Force, 24th Air Force