View the Press Release
Read the Transcript (PDF)

Biography

James Allen Smith

James Allen Smith is an expert on the cultural sector, philanthropy, and policy.  He has worked at the Twentieth Century Fund, was the first resident scholar at the Rockefeller Archive Center, was executive director of the Howard Gilman Foundation, and serves as a consultant to a number of foundations across the world.  He has written extensively about the history of philanthropy, the role of American think tanks, and public policy research.  His books include: The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite, Brookings at 75, and Strategic Calling.   He is currently at work on a history of American foundations and serves as President of the Board of the Center for Arts and Culture.

back to top

Biography

Patricia Aufderheide

Patricia Aufderheide is the author of the Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat.  Among many book chapters, academic articles, and editorial activities, she has written Communications and the Public Interest: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding.

Since 1989 Patricia Aufderheide has been a professor in the School of Communications at American University.  She has also served as visiting professor at the University of Brasilia and Duke University.  Ms. Aufderheide's previous positions include Policy Analyst for the United Church of Christ, Senior Editor of American Film, and Cultural Editor for In These Times.

back to top

Biography

Jerry Berman

Jerry Berman founded the Center for Democracy and Technology in 1994 and now serves as its Executive Director.  At the Center he directs a staff of lawyers and policy experts engaged in research and public policy activities affecting democracy on the Internet.   Mr. Berman is also the President of the Internet Education Foundation, a non-profit organization which sponsors projects to educate policy makers on why the Internet is a unique and valuable medium for democratic participation, communications, and commerce.

Mr. Berman has served as the Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Chief Legislative Counsel at the ACLU, and founder and director of ACLU Projects on Privacy and Information Technology.

back to top

Biography

Lori Perine

Lori Perine is the Senior Policy Advisor or Computing, Information, and Communications at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  She is currently a member of the Panel of Experts for the Council of Competitiveness' Internet Learning Network, and an observer to the External Visitng Committee for the National Partnership for Academic Computational Infrastructure.

Ms. Perine previously served as Senior Policy Advisor for technology with the Secretary of Commerce's Office of Policy and Strategic Planning.  Her past responsibilities also include the coordination of economic and policy analysis in the former Office of Enterprise Integration at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

back to top

Biography

Adam Clayton Powell III

Adam Clayton Powell III is the Vice President for technology and programs at The Freedom Forum, where he supervises forums and programs on information technologies and new media for journalists, media managers, educators, policy makers and reserachers.

Mr. Powell is the co-author of Lethargy '96: How the Nedia Covered a Listless Campaign, and has contributed to four recent books:  New Media, The Internet for Broadcasters, Demystifying Media Technology, and Death by Cheeseburger: High School Journalism in the 1990s and Beyond.

Mr. Powell has also filled the role of director of technology studies and programs at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University.  HE has twice served as a Media Studies Fellow, and has coordinated a series of South Africa media projects in which he analyzed and supervised a journalist exchange program between the United States and South Africa.

back to top