Please join us on Tuesday, February 7th, 9:30 am-12:30 pm for part two of  MAP’s fifth annual Forum Series.

The entire series is free and open to the public. Continental breakfast will be available.

Please RSVP to Mera Szendro Bok at mera@mediaaccess.org

The Global Internet and the Free Flow of Information:

Events throughout the world have highlighted the role that the Internet plays in influencing the civil engagement, revolutions and the political process. The creation and deployment of free social technologies has reduced the barriers for individuals and groups who create and distribute their own content and those using technologies to organize groups or movements. As a result, some governments see the Internet as a threat to stability and seek to minimize its influence. Others seek to create a domestic Internet environment by placing barriers to content from other countries. Still other countries see their role as facilitating the creation of an unrestrained Internet marketplace of ideas, even as they try to impose restrictions on commercial uses in order to protect trade and intellectual property.

This forum will bring together diplomats, technologists, human rights advocates, and industry to discuss the freedom of expression opportunities and challenges presented to a variety of stakeholders by the Internet and new technologies.

9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Freedom of expression threats and challenges that online stakeholders face:

This panel will bring together technologists, diplomats, human rights advocates and industry experts. The panel will focus on the variety of challenges online freedom stakeholders face moving forward in 2012. Relevant issues to be discussed include freedom of expression issues, cyber security issues and surveillance tech issues in the context of how they affect online users free speech rights. Participants will also discuss the future role of innovation on how people will gain access to information.

11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Protecting online freedoms through effective public policy:

This panel will bring a variety of expert stakeholders together from government, industry and civil society to discuss the public policy forums and issues that are shaping freedom of expression online and internet governance. Currently, there are many discussions and actions being taken by international and public institutions that have the potential to shape the future of the Internet. Issues discussed will include, by whom and how the Internet should be governed, the challenges and importance of a multi-stakeholder approach, the role that network management plays and the creation of Internet Policy Principles.

Location:

Twitter hashtag: #MAPForum

This event will not be live streamed, so please plan on attending.

Held on Friday, November 19, 2010, at Dickstein Shapiro, Washington D.C.

Emerging online technologies are expanding consumer choice in the delivery of video content, potentially challenging over-the-air, cable, and satellite modes of commercial video distribution. Services such as Hulu, Netflix, Boxee, and YouTube give people even greater opportunity to decide what they view and when, adding mobility and flexibility while further segmenting audiences. Some of these services also allow people to create and share video content worldwide, assisting self-expression and, possibly, coverage of neglected communities. While these technologies are still in their infancy, it is clear that they are disruptive to traditional avenues of distribution.

Speakers at MAP’s forum discussed possible avenues for the development of online video. How will cable, satellite, and telephone company distributors respond to this new and disruptive technology? What are the implications for freedom of expression? Is there a need for government involvement?

Panelists:

• Kyle McSlarrow, President & CEO, National Cable & Telecommunications Association
• David Goodfriend, President, Goodfriend Government Affairs
• Susan Fox, Vice President of Government Relations, Disney
• Johanna Shelton, Senior Policy Counsel, Google
• Matt Wood, Media Access Project (moderator)

See PHOTOS of the event here.

See VIDEO FOOTAGE of the event here.

***

Online Censorship – Implications of Content Filtering At Home and Abroad

Held on Friday, June 11, 2010 at Dickstein Shapiro, Washington D.C.

Internet content and applications providers face a large and growing number of challenges from governmental filtering and censorship in countries around the globe.  Companies such as Google and Facebook have developed a range of responses to practices adopted by governments in China, Turkey, Australia, and elsewhere. The filtering practices themselves, and content providers’ responses to them, have domestic ramifications and relevance for policy debates in the U.S. about privacy, freedom of expression, and access to online content.  In the first event of its 2010 forum series, MAP led a dialogue between experts on filtering and representatives from affected providers to discuss the consequences of control over access and speech in the domestic and international contexts.

Keynote speaker: Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Panel 1: Online Censorship Technologies

• Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Internet Policy
• Jonathan Zittrain, Co-Founder and Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• Rob Frieden, Professor of Telecommunications, Penn State University

Panel 2: Policymaking on Content Filtering Online

• Wendy Seltzer, Fellow, Silicon Flatirons Center at University of Colorado Law School
• Robert Boorstin, Director of Corporate and Policy Communications, Google
• Michael “Wes” Macleod-Ball, Chief Legislative and Policy Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

See PHOTOS of the event here.

See VIDEO FOOTAGE of the event here.

***

Highlights from the 2009 Mapping Change series:

Read FCC Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd’s Keynote Speech at the December 2009 Forum.

Read Former National Economic Council Member Susan Crawford’s Keynote Speech at the April 2009 Forum.

Friday, March 11, 2011
10:00 am – 2:00 pm (breakfast begins at 9:30 am)
Dickstein Shapiro Conference Center
1825 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC.

The Federal Communications Commission is exploring whether to free up portions of radio frequency spectrum, currently licensed to television broadcasters, to expand spectrum availability for use by wireless broadband technologies. The Commission has suggested that Congress consider allowing “incentive auctions,” in which the proceeds would be shared by the federal government and the licensees that give up spectrum usage rights. In its National Broadband Plan, the Commission has also suggested that it might “repack,” i.e., realign for greater efficiency, the spectrum used by television stations to allow portions to be utilized for broadband more readily. But repacking might impact certain broadcast functions, such as multicasting, mobile video, and high-definition programming.

Media Access Project’s first panel will explore challenges and opportunities created by incentive auctions, and the second will address repacking. Both will feature prominent speakers from all sides of this debate.

Click to learn more!

In June, Media Access Project will launch the third annual MAPPING CHANGE public policy forum series. These events are intended to educate the public and stimulate dialogue among lawmakers and policy experts about cutting edge policy proposals in communications and technology.

This year’s program will build on topics raised in the two former series, to continue to drive debate and collaboration among audiences in Silicon Valley and Washington DC. Among issues discussed in previous years were broadband deployment and adoption, journalism and social media, green energy technologies, the management of broadband networks, and other topics relating to the future of access and innovation in the United States.

MAP’s 2010 series will focus specifically on policy solutions to support disruptive digital technologies and practices – ones that show particular potential to engage or dissuade individual participation in the creation of content, or to boost or limit public access to information.

Online Censorship – Implications of Content Filtering At Home and Abroad

Friday, June 11, 2010, 9:30am – 3:00pm
Dickstein Shapiro Conference Center
1825 Eye Street, Northwest, Washington D.C.

Internet content and applications providers face a large and growing number of challenges from governmental filtering and censorship in countries around the globe.  Companies such as Google and Facebook have developed a range of responses to practices adopted by governments in China, Turkey, Australia, and elsewhere. The filtering practices themselves, and content providers’ responses to them, have domestic ramifications and relevance for policy debates in the U.S. about privacy, freedom of expression, and access to online content.  In the first event of its 2010 forum series, MAP will lead a dialogue between experts on filtering and representatives from affected providers to discuss the consequences of control over access and speech in the domestic and international contexts.

Keynote: Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Panelists

• Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Internet Policy
• John Palfrey, Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• Robert Boorstin, Director of Corporate and Policy Communications, Google
• Rob Frieden, Professor of Telecommunications, Penn State University
• More updates soon.

To request a free DVD copy of the events, email Kamilla Kovacs at kkovacs@mediaaccess.org.

Friday, November 19, 2010
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m.)
Dickstein Shapiro, 1825 Eye Street, NW, Washington D.C.

Emerging online technologies are expanding consumer choice in the delivery of video content, potentially challenging over-the-air, cable, and satellite modes of commercial video distribution. Services such as Hulu, Netflix, Boxee, and YouTube give people even greater opportunity to decide what they view and when, adding mobility and flexibility while further segmenting audiences. Some of these services also allow people to create and share video content worldwide, assisting self-expression and, possibly, coverage of neglected communities. While these technologies are still in their infancy, it is clear that they are disruptive to traditional avenues of distribution.

Speakers at MAP’s forum will discuss possible avenues for the development of online video. How will cable, satellite, and telephone company distributors respond to this new and disruptive technology? What are the implications for freedom of expression? Is there a need for government involvement?

More at http://www.mediaaccess.org/press-room/2010-mapping-change-forum-series/.

Network Nation
How Business, Technology, and Government Shaped American Telecommunications

New America Foundation, Center for Social Media at American University, and Media Access Project
Thursday, December 9, 2010
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Location: New America Foundation, 1899 L St NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC, 20036, United States

Telecommunication forms a vital thread in the fabric of societal information and communication. It has shaped the ways in which global economies operate. Studying the history of telecommunications is essential to understand the evolution of the state, politics, and society in the present day.

In Network Nation, an exhaustively researched account of the history of American telecommunications, Richard R. John explains how the first electrical communications networks, the telephone and telegraph, emerged as mass communication offerings “nurtured by a particular configuration of governmental institutions and civic ideals,” despite strong business lobbying in favor of limiting services for an exclusive clientele.

Richard John will discuss his book and talk about how business and government institutions helped shape American telecommunications in a panel discussion with Patricia Aufderheide from the Center for Social Media at American University and Andrew Schwartzman from Media Access Project.

Introduction
Tom Glaisyer
Knight Media Policy Initiative
New America Foundation

Keynote Speaker
Prof. Richard R. John
Columbia University
Author, Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications

Panelists
Prof. Patricia Aufderheide
Center for Social Media, American University

Andrew J. Schwartzman
Media Access Project

To RSVP for the event: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/network_nation

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net

For media inquiries, contact Kate Brown at (202) 596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net

Media Access Project will host its annual reception honoring our generous contributors and officially welcoming Tyrone Brown as our new President.

Please join us at this important occasion!

When: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where: Dickstein Shapiro LLP, 1825 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Light refreshments will be provided.

The Obama administration made a strong commitment, both in stimulus funding and other supports, to expanding the use of smart, efficient, and green energy. Some view this commitment as an opportunity for promoting smarter and greener initiatives in other areas as well, such as rural wireless and rural broadband. The forum will bring together green technology experts and communications innovators to discuss smarter energy and communications facilities.

Speakers will include Nick Sinai, Energy and Environment Director at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and a panel of representatives from the public sector, technology companies, telecom industry, public utilities, and public interest organizations.

Participants will explore the tremendous opportunities, as well as potential opportunity costs, from devoting communications capacity and wireless spectrum to smart grid use. Panelists also will describe challenges faced in deploying smart infrastructure, as well as synergies and savings arising from the combination of efficient energy, transportation, and communications initiatives.

*Title:* Smart Grid, Green Tech, and Communications: Addressing Our Nation’s Green Energy Future
*Date/Time:* October 8, 2009, 11:30 am – 4 pm.
*Location:* Cisco HQ, Darling Conference Room
150 W. Tasman Drive, Building C, Floor 1, San Jose, CA

MAPPING CHANGE builds on communications and technology challenges identified in MAP’s 2008 series, Innovation ‘08, and challenges identified during the Obama campaign and administration. Like Innovation ‘08, MAPPING CHANGE programs are free of charge, and take place in Washington, DC and Silicon Valley, CA.

MAP is a non-profit, public interest law firm and advocacy organization that, for over 37 years, has occupied a unique role as a thought leader on communications and technology policy. MAP promotes the public interest before the FCC and in court, fighting for open and diverse communications systems that protect freedom of expression, promote universal and equitable access to media outlets and telecommunications services, and encourage vibrant public discourse on critical issues facing our society.

Contact:

Kamilla Kovacs
Development and Communications Manager
Media Access Project
202-454-5685
kkovacs@mediaaccess.org

*Title:* Broadband Stimulus and the National Broadband Plan: What They Mean for Communications, Technology, and Innovation

*Date/Time:* Friday, July 17, 2009, 10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

*Location:* Dickstein Shapiro Conference Center, 1825 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC

Speakers will include *Thomas Kalil* of the *White House Office of Science and Technology* and a panel of state-level organizations, private sector representatives, and other experts in the field. Participants will discuss elements of the broadband plan and stimulus, and the potential of these efforts for job creation and widespread broadband deployment and adoption.

The entire MAPPING CHANGE program is free of charge and open to the public.

Contact:

Kamilla Kovacs
Development and Communications Manager
Media Access Project
202-454-5685
kkovacs@mediaaccess.org

On Day 98 the President gave a very important address, on Monday, before the American Academy of Sciences, and you should have felt the electricity in the room.  I wish you all could have been there, maybe some of you were, but imagine all these scientists who respond to the remark that it would appropriate for facts to drive scientific decisions rather than the other way around.  And they leapt to their feet, well they’re scientists – they didn’t leap to their feet, but they clapped enthusiastically, it was really extraordinarily exciting.  And that address by the President, and I urge you to go read the transcript of those remarks, it was remarkable.  He reminds us that our nation’s purpose is not merely to survive.  That’s not our job.  Even in extraordinarily difficult times we never give in to pessimism.  We are always seeking out new frontiers.  We have great challenges today and enormous opportunities as well.  We have to build up short-term economic prosperity as quickly as we can, finding new jobs for Americans, while laying down the long-term architecture, the infrastructure that will propel us into a prosperous future through economic growth and the development of new opportunities.  This president, the first one with a computer on his desk and a Blackberry, that he fiercely held onto, in his pocket, could give an equally inspiring address about just technology, about the administration’s plan for technology and innovation as a focus for its policy.

Technology and information policy are absolutely critical to our nation’s future and to the long-term architecture that we need to build together.  At the same we are fixing the financial regulatory system, we’re shoring up the banks, we’re finding ways to keep Americans in their houses, we need to be making progress on our long-term innovation agenda – encouraging the development of new ideas that will help Americans find new ways of making a living.  Long-term job growth has to be our top goal, and technology and information policy will help us get there.  I’m here to talk about the first 100 days and the administration’s efforts in technology and information policy over this short period.  And, as Andy made clear, we’ve been quite active.  Let me start with the DTV transition.  In 2005, as you know, the Congress set February 17, 2009 as a hard cut-off date for ending analog transmissions.  That would mean that Americans who didn’t have a digital set or subscribe to cable or satellite would lose the ability to receive broadcasts after that cut-off.  That transition date fell just 28 days after the inauguration.  We found during the transition that there were concrete and dramatic shortfalls in planning for the DTV transition.  As many of you know, Congress had appropriated $1.34 billion dollars for 33.5 million coupons to be given to Americans to help defray the cost of digital-to-analog converters, and as of Sunday, January 4th, the coupon program hit its ceiling and NTIA stopped being able to hand out additional coupons and had to move any Americans calling in onto a waiting list, and would not be able to issue the additional coupons until the ones that were already out there expired.

At that point, NTIA could do no more than put Americans on a waiting list, and that was six weeks before the actual transition was supposed to happen.  Many of our most vulnerable populations were going to be affected by this transition – the elderly, the disabled, minority groups – are overwhelmingly represented in the population of analog television watchers.  We were also very concerned during the transition that coordination between NTIA and FCC had not been well-managed, was not coherent, and planning for consumer-assistance efforts in connection with the transition seemed to be insufficient, based on experience with the test-switch in Wilmington, NC.  There didn’t seem to be enough call-center capacity and outreach efforts were somewhat incoherent, un-coordinated.  At the same time, Congress, and in particular the Senate and House commerce committees, with whom we are working very closely, came to the conclusion that the only rational step to be taken at that point was to briefly delay the DTV transition, while taking significant actions to mitigate the effects of the transition on American households.  So, the final, non-extendable, date of the DTV transition will be June 12th, and Congress has appropriated funds to further support DTV transition efforts.  The waiting list of 4.2 million coupon requests has been cleared, and NTIA and FCC are working closely together to provide better targeted information to consumers, better customer outreach to Americans, and make sure that we’re enhancing call center capacity and on-the-ground outreach efforts, and substantially changing the coupon program so it doesn’t move quite so slowly.

This is not “mission-accomplished.”  I don’t want to over-promise here, but we’re making substantial strides.  The assistance of the cable and broadcast industry has been substantial, and we’re very grateful for their help.  The Consumer’s Union has worked closely with the FCC on creating a new DTV handout that is very useful, and you’ll be seeing it soon, which will simplify the steps consumers need to understand.  Converter box manufacturers have been very helpful.  We have had in effect also the phased transition that many people thought we should have had in the first place, because lots of television stations moved on February 17th, others are moving in between now and June 12th, so we ended up retrofitting ourselves into a phased transition.  I’m cautiously optimistic about the DTV transition at this point.  Our job was to do a better job at communicating to Americans exactly what was going to happen and how they could best prepare.  There is no such thing as a perfect transition, and we know from focus groups that many people will wait until the last minute, or beyond the last minute, to do anything.  We also know that there are serious technical issues that Americans will need to confront.  Signal contour issues, rescanning antenna issues – just having and hooking up a converter box may not solve the whole problem, but NTIA and FCC are doing their best, I believe, to reach people and to assist them and we should be grateful to the leadership of those agencies.  It’s also very exciting that AmeriCorps is working together with the FCC, so AmeriCorps volunteers are lining up to help go into people’s houses and work with them to fix those antenna issues.  This would never have happened without the administration getting involved.  Also, the firefighters are really digging in to the DTV transition and volunteering in numbers, so that’s a big help.  So, of course, an important part of the DTV transition is to reallocate broadcast spectrum for other uses, and the wireless high-speed access and public safety uses of that spectrum are very important to our future.  And, those uses will become reality as a result of this transition.  So, that’s the DTV transition.

Now, broadband.  The President said during the campaign that he wanted to bring broadband to every American.  As a very first step, a down-payment, towards this goal, the American Recovery Act calls for $7.2 billion to be given out in grants and loans, divided between two agencies – the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  This will not fill the broadband gap in this country, and so the FCC has been tasked with developing a national broadband plan over the coming year.  We have needed a broadband plan for years, and now we are finally going to get one.  We see the broadband stimulus program as part of a continuum, a seamless single silver thread, a single federal program administered right now by two agencies, USDA and DOC, that will make forward-looking investments, that will provide metrics and proofs of concept that will be useful to the eventual FCC-led plan.  Investments in back-haul networks, particularly rural communities, will likely be particularly helpful, allowing for a variety of service providers to help out in the last mile.  Additionally, Congress has instructed us to focus on community-anchor institutions like schools and hospitals and libraries, other public institutions, that can serve lots of people in communities with access.  Universities might be particularly important nodes for investment because the next great idea is likely to come from a student with a high-speed connection.  Remember where Mozilla and Google came from.

Whatever we do, we need to make investments that will be in the service of principles that are easy to understand and that are relevant to all Americans.  We also need to do some experimenting with this funding because we may find new models that may be very useful to us over the long-term.  We need to make investments that will provide data that will be useful for the FCC in the creation of a national broadband plan.  I’m personally intrigued by Prime Minister Rudd’s announcement in Australia that his government will invest approximately $30 billion dollars in a national open-fiber-to-the-home network.  This will be a wholesale network only, totally separated from the services that are going to be built on top of this infrastructure.  Singapore and the Netherlands and Britain are also looking into wholesale network infrastructure.  These governments understand that a wholesale network can deliver massive social and economic benefits.  In particular, I understand that Singapore has done a study of the externalities that are created through a wholesale network, and they appear to be very large.

Simply put, a digital economy requires fiber, and Australia is making the determination that for that to work it will require a utility approach.  Healthcare, energy, education, media, and public safety concerns will all need to be consulted in Australia to make this basic infrastructure useful for everyone as inexpensive input to their activities.  In other words, Australia thinks that having government invest in fiber will lower the cost of creating new ideas and new ways of making a living for Australians.

Broadband for everyone in America is a big idea.  It’s a technological advance that will be important economic growth.  The linear direct story of economic growth is easy to understand, you have people digging trenches that can have new jobs who didn’t have them before, but the story is not just linear.  Basic communications infrastructure advances can lead to new ideas about how to lower costs and raise profits in all kinds of industries – in other words – increasing returns.  Economic growth in part comes from better recipes, better ideas about how to use finite resources.  New ideas are non-rival, in that anybody can take advantage of them, and new non-rival ideas that we took new goods and services being introduced on a broad scale can trigger increasing returns and new jobs and push economies onward.  In Paul Romer’s words “It is ideas, not objects, that poor countries lack.”

The United States experienced explosive growth in the 19th century because it had abundant resources, a national transportation system, and a large population.  Market size increases incentives for innovation and cheap transportation helps inventors make their new ideas available.  With technological convergence pushing towards standardized machines to produce many kinds of goods and an integrated market and a large group of people to sell to, the United States took the lead over the rest of the world, and held it through much of the 20th century.  Technological change and new ideas helped the United States to surge ahead.  The problem for our country is that it will not be able to stay ahead, in terms of its economic growth rate, by importing ideas from elsewhere.  This means that the United States has to strongly support discovering new ideas within its own borders.

The President’s Monday address underscored this.  As a country, we are in need of meta-ideas about new ideas: ideas about new jobs for Americans, new ways of making a living.  The Monday speech supports investments in scientific infrastructure that are likely to produce new ideas.  It’s quite exciting – the largest single boost to investment in basic research in American history, doubling the budget for key science agencies, a strong focus on energy research, support for graduate education and fellowships, and a commitment to scientific integrity.  It will also be necessary to provide the basic communications infrastructure that will allow these new ideas to be collectively worked on.  Our scientists, researchers, students, and inventive Americans need to be in communication.  The internet provides a particularly fertile ground for new ideas that’s different from broadcast, that’s different from telephony.  It supports the development of persistent, visible groups that can collaborate and are highly likely, given the enormous scale and fast data being transferred across the internet, to trigger the development of unpredictably diverse new ideas.

No matter what study you look at, broadband penetration is lower here than in other developed countries.  The GAO says the median home has just two providers available.  We need to see some experiments with different ways of bringing connectivity to Americans and new ways of stimulating demand as well. The demand side of this equation is extremely important.  Connectivity has always been an issue for online innovation.  As Sir Tim Berners-Lee tells the story of demonstrate the world wide web for the first time in 1991 in Texas, he had to persuade a hotel manager to bring a phone line near the conference room, and then he had to persuade a local university to give him dial-up access to the internet, and then in order to get his modem to work he had to undo it with a screwdriver and use a soldering iron to connect it to the power source that was there.  He would obviously have a much easier time today, but maybe not easy enough.  Jonathan Seff said in MacWorld last week that we should do a better job as a nation of making sure fast, affordable broadband is as ubiquitous and easy-to-obtain as electricity, water, snail mail, or any other utility.  World War II and the launch of Sputnik prompted a new set of principles about the role of the government in support of science, fundamental concepts, and infrastructure.  These principles are potentially as relevant today as they were then.

But let’s see first how the stimulus program pans out.  We need to make investments that are sensible and that are understood, and accountable metrics are extraordinarily important for this program.  And these investments should provide information that will help the FCC with its national broadband plan.  So, that’s broadband.

Finally, another major development in the last couple of weeks was the appointment of Aneesh Chopra as the country’s Chief Technology Officer.  The CTO position is a distinct position from that of the Chief Information Officer, who’s the terrific Vivek Kundra.  Watch what Vivek is up to, a little parenthetical here – data.gov will be coming in the coming months.  It’ll be opening up government data in structured feeds so that anybody can use it, any new business can find a way to access the terabytes of data that the government creates all the time.  Vivek is working very hard on steadily opening up government processes and using innovation more efficiently for all of us – making sure that technology is used effectively by the federal CIO’s as well.  But, that’s Vivek.

This is Aneesh Chopra, who is the CTO, and his responsibility is to develop national strategies for using advanced technologies to transform our economy, much along the lines of what I’ve just been talking about, and our society, such as fostering private sector innovation, lowering the costs of health care, using technology to change the way teachers teach and student learn.  Aneesh has had a very successful run in Virginia as the Secretary of Technology there.  Last year, Virginia was ranked number one in technology management, as a direct reward for Aneesh’s work.  He’s made significant achievements in health care and education.  He got the nation’s first open-source textbook approved.  He initiated competitions for students to create iPhone apps.  He designed a social network for physicians in remote areas.  He is a perfect appointment because he’s very practical and yet very knowledgeable about new technology.  And, he’s going to use the best tools we have to get the job done.  So his appointment and Vivek Kundra’s appointment are also very important developments over these first 100 days.  So, we are privileged to serve President Obama who does, as Andy says, understand the power of technology and understands that it needs to be harnessed in the service of the nation’s goals.  He also understands that advances in science and technology are crucial to our economic future, and that’s the future we have to be focused on.  Thanks again for having me here.