 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Giving Directions In Politics And Tech
by Heather Greenfield
Julie Barko Germany will officially become director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet starting next month. Germany has been the acting director since longtime Director Carol Darr left in September to teach at Harvard University.
Management Dean F. Christopher Arterton of the George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management, which houses IPDI, launched a national search for a new IPDI director but said after a few months that he realized "the right choice was right in front of us."
"We believe that Julie will lead IPDI in producing future analysis and intellectual exchanges that bring insight and academic rigor to the emerging trends in politics and technology," Arterton said. "Julie brings energy, creativity, experience and connections to the institute."
Germany said she will focus on "growing the institute's programs, doing restructuring and developing content that will take us to the next decade."
She said IPDI has been known for studying new media tools like video, social-networking and microtargeting of voters based on their characteristics. She hopes to explore not just how to use the technology but how it will affect the political process.
Germany became deputy director of IPDI in 2003 and has authored and edited several publications, including "Constituent Relationship Management: The New Little Black Book in Politics," "Person-to-Person-to-Person: Harnessing the Political Power of Online Social Networks and User-Generated Content," "The Politics-to-Go-Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics," and "The Political Consultants' Online Fundraising Primer."
Before that, she worked on healthcare issues in Haiti and the Ukraine for the Rome Foundation International and was a freelance writer and editor.
Germany received her master's degree in political management from GWU and studied literature, philosophy and ancient Greek as an undergraduate. Her interest in politics and technology was partly the result of inspiration from Darr and partly reading William Gibson's book "Pattern Recognition." She said the book made her think of intellectual history and the role the Internet is playing in that now.
IPDI is planning its annual online political conference March 4-5.
The University of California at Berkeley, meanwhile, announced its plan for an endowed faculty chair in new media. It was made possible by a donation of $1.6 million from Craigslist, the online classifieds service.
Teaching The World To Innovate
After a career as a computer scientist for a major corporation and a few years teaching business students, David Pensak plans to teach people around the world to be innovators.
Pensak, an internationally known leader of computer software technology and innovation, has joined GWU law school's Creative and Innovative Economy Center as a research fellow.
He told Technology Daily that he left his job as chief computer scientist at DuPont to teach after realizing the importance of sharing what he knows. Pensak owes the realization to a biography of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Herbert Kroner written by the engineering group IEEE in which Kroner thanked his former Princeton University laboratory partner, Pensak's father.
Since then, Pensak has challenged business master's students at the University of Pennsylvania to think. "Everyone has the ability to innovate; they just need to have permission," he said. Pensak has nearly finished his upcoming book, "Innovation for Underdogs."
He began the position at GWU this month and already taught a workshop in Jordan in conjunction with the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship. "I'm thrilled to be working with people at George Washington. It's a noble cause they're trying to do," Pensak said, adding that he is glad to help people around the world improve their lives.
Pensak has more than 38 patents and applications being prepared in areas ranging from computer security to solid-state physics, business-process modeling, new ways of cooking pizza and faster ways to bring orchids into flower.
Lessig Joins MapLight.org Board
Stanford University law professor and copyright reform advocate Lawrence Lessig has joined the board of MAPLight.org. The nonprofit startup is dedicated to searchable information on the connection between money and politics.
Lessig, who is known for his groundbreaking work in the fields of intellectual property and the law of cyberspace, decided last June to shift his focus of scholarship and activism to the problem of corruption.
"MAPLight.org's correlations between money and votes elegantly illustrate how special-interest campaign money pervades and weakens our democracy," Lessig said. "The site's unprecedented findings helped convince me that there was more that could be done to fight corruption and how this issue is at the root of so many of our country's problems."
"Professor Lessig helped change how people think about copyright in the Internet age," said Dan Newman, executive director of MAPLight.org. "We are thrilled that he will be helping MAPLight.org use the power of the Internet to shine a light on our broken system of money-dominated politics."
At Stanford, Lessig founded the school's Center for Internet and Society. Lessig is the CEO and founder of Creative Commons, a nonprofit that defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright and the public domain. Creative Commons licenses help content creators keep copyright protections while inviting certain shared uses of the creators' works.
NAM Manufacturers Two Positions
Jay Timmons has been promoted from senior vice president for policy to executive vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers.
In his new role, Timmons will handle policy development and external relations for NAM, including government relations, communications and grassroots advocacy. The internal operations of the NAM will continue to be managed by chief operating officer LeAnne Wilson.
Meanwhile, NAM President John Engler announced that Emily Stover DeRocco will become president of the Manufacturing Institute's National Center for the American Workforce, which is dedicated to fostering a new generation of manufacturing workers for the 21st century.
DeRocco came from the Labor Department, where she led the Employment and Training Administration. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said DeRocco's "seminal leadership on behalf of America's workers will be missed."
FCC Attorneys Promoted
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has promoted two attorneys -- Matthew Berry to general counsel and Ajit Pai to deputy general counsel.
Berry had been Martin's deputy general counsel. Before joining the FCC, he served as counselor to the assistant attorney general for the legal policy office in the Justice Department. Berry also worked as an attorney-adviser in the Justice's office of legal counsel. He was a visiting professor at William and Mary law school and a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Pai most recently was associate general counsel and before working at the FCC was chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee. He also had a stint on the Judiciary Administration and Oversight Subcommittee and was a senior counsel at the Justice Department.
Quote Of The Week
"The telecom lobbyists have launched a full-court press for retroactive immunity. George Bush and Dick Cheney are doing everything in their power to ensure it passes. And too many Senate Democrats are ready to give the lobbyists and the Bush administration exactly what they want."
-- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, asking supporters to urge a filibuster to block a vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
