This week, a group of legal scholars, high government officials, Nobel prize recipients and economic experts gathered for the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss e-government , telecommunications and intellectual property, among other issues.
One of the more colorful speakers was Mart Laar, former president of Estonia. On his watch, that nation [...]

continue reading.....

If San Francisco City Hall can barely afford to provide residents the critical services that matter most, such as police, fire protection, and public transportation, why would anyone think it will be able to maintain a high-quality, cutting-edge broadband network? Those who agree with the mayor should consider the many examples of city broadband plans [...]

continue reading.....

Directly after the Senator Ensign meeting, I went to the airport, hopped on a plane, and 8 hours later I was in Iceland. The main city here, Reykjavik, reminds me of Edmonton, Canada (same type of trees and look of the buildings). I’m near downtown at the moment and everything looks fairly new [...]

continue reading.....

I attended a small Lead21 gathering last night featuring Senator Ensign (R-NV). Topics we discussed included stem cell research (he supports working with adult stem cells), Iraq (he thinks Americans aren’t hearing the full story and that there’s some positive things happening over there), telecom (he introduced one of the most free market bills [...]

continue reading.....

The SF Chronicle quoted me on this issue today, and for whatever reason felt the need to say that PRI is funded by SBC, but of course they didn’t say by how much, leaving the false impression that SBC is a big part of our budget. Well, let me set the record straight. SBC [...]

continue reading.....

Today I led a discussion seminar at Command College on technology issues such as broadband, communications applications, privacy, security, intellectual property, nanotech, robotics, and biotech. The officers in the program were engaging and thoughtful — a good sign for the future of law enforcement in California.
Here is a list of some of [...]

continue reading.....

I recently saw the movie Wedding Crashers starring Christopher Walken as the political father of the bride. Now, someone just sent me a link to his supposed run for president in ‘08. A joke? Who knows.

continue reading.....

If you’re wondering why, it’s because I changed my mind on TIA and this NY Sun piece by Josh Gerstein quotes me and others on the need to re-examine government data-mining programs.

continue reading.....

Here’s my weekly column on the recent FCC DSL decision.

continue reading.....

With all the hoopla over drug importation from Canada, this might be a big surprise. The LA Times also did a story on it, but note that this link will expire soon.

continue reading.....

Texas Instruments recently announced the availability of its single-chip technology for cell phone makers in emerging markets, allowing for the availability of cheaper handsets. Here’s an interesting bit from a News.com story:
India is among the fastest-growing cell phone markets in the world. The country expects to add more than 100 million new subscribers in [...]

continue reading.....

I’ll be participating in a discussion about San Francisco and the digital divide tonight at 7:30 pm. The first part of the show is a panel discussion, but during the second half we will be taking questions from callers. If you’d like to call in or listen online here’s the info:
The studio call-in [...]

continue reading.....

Imagine if you were forced to share your property with your business competitors — you probably wouldn’t be thrilled and likely wouldn’t do much to upgrade that property. Unfortunately that’s been the state of things in the telecom sector, but

continue reading.....

A few years ago I was staunchly against TIA. Now that I’ve had more time to think about it (as well as watch the technology advance — think social networking sites etc.), I have a different perspective on information gathering systems and liberty. Here’s my column on the subject.

continue reading.....

Econ professor Marius Schwartz just wrote a short, yet incredibly useful analysis of competition in the Internet backbone space. You can find the AEI-Brookings publication here, but if you want the summary version it’s this: there is tons of competition and the SBC/AT&T merger won’t change that.
And here’s one bit you [...]

continue reading.....

This is a fascinating radio interview with inventor Ray Kurzweil. I’m currently reviewing his upcoming book and so far it’s a great read. When I write my column, I’ll post it here.

continue reading.....

Not really. Antitrust rulings usually replace market imperfections with government failure, creating a worse situation. This book argues for the abolition of antitrust and this column by David Henderson is a nice summary.

continue reading.....

Science writer Ron Bailey has written a new book on why biotech advances are positive for humanity. Here’s a review from Ken Silber at TechCentralStation.com.

continue reading.....