(Subject to change.)
Muni Tsunami
Tuesday, April 4, 2006, 11:00am - 12:30
The most prominent break in the telco-cableco duopoly comes from municipalities that are moving to provide their own networks. Baller, Sege, Salter and Vos are four of the most distinguished and visible actors on the muni scene. Ron Sege will keynote, then join Vos and Baller in a conversation moderated by David Isenberg. Finally, James Salter will enter for something completely different.
Jim Baller, Senior Principal, Baller Herbst Law Group
Jim Baller, an attorney based in Washington, DC, represents public and private entities in a wide range of communications matters in more than 35 states. Since 1992, he has been involved in most of the leading public communications projects America and in nearly all of the major battles against barriers to public communications initiatives. He was NATOA’s Member of the Year for 2001. The FTTH Council calls him "the nation's most experienced and knowledgeable attorney on public broadband matters," and MuniWireless has recently observed that he is "the foremost legal expert on U.S. public broadband matters." He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Cornell Law School.
David Isenberg, Principal, Isen.com
David S. Isenberg spent 12 years at AT&T Bell Labs until his 1997 essay,"The Rise of the Stupid Network," was received with acclaim everywhere in the global telecommunications community with one exception -- at AT&T itself! So Isenberg left AT&T in 1998 to found isen.com, LLC (an independent telecom analysis firm based in Cos Cob, Connecticut) and to publish The SMART Letter, an open-minded commentary on the communications revolution and its enemies.
Om Malik, Senior Writer, Business 2.0.
In addition to maintaining a personal weblog of ruminations on broadband and its impact on our lives, Om Malik is a senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine in San Francisco. He has been writing telecom and broadband related stories since joining Business 2.0 in April 2003. He also has two online columns, ConvergeSense and The Telecom Report, published twice a month on Business2.com. Previously, Malik was a senior writer for Red Herring, focusing on the telecommunications sector. He was also a senior editor on the founding team of Forbes.com. As a technology journalist and a brief tenure as a venture capitalist, Malik has witnessed and documented firsthand the rise and fall of the Internet and telecom industries. He graduated from St. Stephen's College in New Delhi with an honors degree in chemistry in 1986. http://www.gigaom.com/
Ron Sege, CEO, Tropos
Ron Sege is President and Chief Executive Officer of Tropos Networks. He has over 20 years of experience managing high-growth businesses in the networking industry.
Prior to joining Tropos Networks, Mr. Sege was CEO of Ellacoya Networks, which develops intelligent bandwidth management products for broadband access providers. While at Ellacoya, Mr. Sege raised $14 million in venture funding during the toughest fund-raising environment in memory. Before Ellacoya, he served as President of U.S. Operations for Terra Lycos. At Lycos, Mr. Sege was responsible for generating significant traffic growth and consolidating a series of acquisitions into the "Lycos Network." Prior to joining Lycos, he spent 10 years at 3Com Corporation, most recently as Senior Vice President of one of three business units within the $6 billion revenue company.
Mr. Sege holds a bachelors degree from Pomona College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
James Salter, CEO, Atlantic Engineering Group
Mr. Salter founded Atlantic Engineering Group in December, 1995. Prior to that, he served as the General Manager of a municipal utility that owned and operated a broadband telecommunications system. In the field of telecommunications, Mr. Salter has served in the role of operator, designer, and contractor. He has served as a Board of Director and past President of the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council. Mr. Salter was a keynote speaker at the 2003 FTTH Conference in New Orleans. Prior to founding Atlantic Engineering Group, he held the positions of System Planning Engineer, Transmission/Generation Operations Engineer, and General Manager.
Esme Vos, Founder, Muniwireless.com
Esme de Guzman Vos is the founder of Muniwireless.com, the portal for news and information about municipal wireless broadband projects. Since its launch in June 2003, Muniwireless.com has become the primary resource for cities, counties, consultants, systems integrators, vendors, and service providers in this space. Muniwireless organizes conferences and roundtables, and publishes a quarterly magazine. Esme is an intellectual property lawyer and runs her own company, Lemon Cloud BV, based in Amsterdam. She has served as Chief Legal Officer of Spray Network, a pan-European portal and Director Legal Affairs for Baan Business Systems worldwide.
