I got to moderate a lively conversation at the Asia Society with two heroes of mine, Reshma Saujani and Nina Davuluri. Each has a remarkable personal story, an inspiring record of activism and achievement, and an active commitment to advancing equity and opportunity in science/tech/engineering/math. (There’s so much fantastic programming at the Asia Society — if you live in NYC, you should keep it on your radar screen.)
In honor of the network’s 40th anniversary, here was my first appearance on C-Span, back in 2004. The obscurity and, um, specificity of this event shows the remarkable dedication of C-Span to bring anything and everything in and around Congress right into any American’s living room, no matter how boring. The event was, AFAIK, the very first time "net neutrality" was uttered in public in the US Capitol. Along with Tim Wu, Larry Lessig, Michael Copps, Mark Cooper, and others, we laid out the policy rationale for net neutrality, and argued for FCC action and Congressional legislation to protect the Internet from control by the big carriers. Happily, these ideas went from a handful of network policy nerds to national policy, thanks to an amazingly diverse and effective coalition of activists working hard for more than a decade. The Obama administration implemented a truly groundbreaking set of protections for net neutrality, and the next administration will certainly reinstate them, hopefully in partnership with Congress.
Seems like yesterday, and also 1000 years ago. TIGR was the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform team on the Obama/Biden transition.