Roundtable at Democratic National Convention

Date: Thursday, August 28, 2008 3:04 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1907 -- 8/28/2008 >>>>>

A roundtable discussion on technology was held in Denver at the Flatirons
Center at the Democratic National Convention. They call themselves the Silicon
Flatirons but they come across like a bunch of free-trade cultists at a Thomas
Friedman flat Earth society! The meeting was stacked with proponents of
increasing H-1B, like Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Sen. Rockefeller, and various
corporate executives.

This roundtable may have more influence on policy than it may seem at first
glance because one of the participants was Julius Genachowski, Obama's
Technology Advisor.

To look at the promotional web page for the meeting go these two pages:

http://www.2008rmr.org/Roundtable-Technology.asp

http://www.silicon-flatirons.org/events.php?id=513

PC Magazine just published an article that mentioned the meeting. The article
doesn't make any pretense of presenting other sides to the argument, but of
course neither did the roundtable. One thing really caught my eye:

Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chief executive of EchoStar. "Our
immigration policy is where we should be selfish as a country and
get the best and brightest."

Ergen made an excellent point. Why aren't American workers at the Democratic
Convention insisting that immigration policy be dictated by their own selfish
needs?

Supposedly a video of the roundtable meeting can be viewed at the following
website, but I ran out of patience trying to find it. The website contains
videos of a variety of meetings that happened at the DNC. I'm sure there are
some real gems for those that take the time to watch them.

http://www.nextgenweb.org/index.php

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http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328933,00.asp

Why Can't We Make U.S. Grads U.S. Citizens?
ARTICLE DATE: 08.26.08

By Chloe Albanesius
An immigration system that allows foreign students to earn advanced math and
science degrees at U.S. universities but refuses to let them work in the
country after graduation is counterproductive and will serve only to advance
the current innovation brain drain, according to a Tuesday panel of tech
experts.

"Over 50 percent of post-graduate degrees are given to foreign nationals,"
said Don Rosenberg, general counsel and executive vice president at Qualcomm.
"It's just insane to educate these people here and tell them they can't stay
here and join the companies here we are all trying to support."

"The fact that you could get a degree from MIT and not become immediately a
permanent U.S. citizen is crazy," said Brad Feld, managing director of the
Foundry Group, a venture capital firm.

Rosenberg and Feld joined Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, and others
at a technology innovation panel hosted by the Computer and Communications
Industry Association (CCIA) and the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University
of Colorado at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Immigration reform has sparked heated debates in Congress, but a subset of
that issue is the issuance of H-1B visas, which allow foreigners with
specialized skills to work in the United States for a certain amount of time.
The U.S. only issues 65,000 of these visas annually, however, and they are
usually snapped up immediately. Members of Congress have introduced bills that
would increase the number of H-1B visas, but none have seen any major action.

GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has issued his support for an
increase in the number of H-1B visas. Democratic hopeful Sen. Barack Obama
wants to overhaul the entire immigration system, produce more American-born
technology workers, and create a system that makes workers less dependent on
their employers.

"I'm very worried about getting good people," said Charlie Ergen, co-founder
and chief executive of EchoStar. "Our immigration policy is where we should be
selfish as a country and get the best and brightest."
Intel chairman Craig Barrett has alsoworried about improving the quality of
American students, and thus American employees.

In May, Lofgren introduced a bill, H.R. 6039, that would grant green cards to
foreigners who earn a masters or PhD from an American university in science,
technology, engineering, or math and receive a job offer from an U.S. company.

Lofgren had difficulty securing the support of Republicans on the Judiciary
Committee, she said. They agreed to a version of the bill that would put a cap
on the number of green cards issued to graduating students "but I don't want
to put a quota on the number of PhD's who are going to stay in the U.S.,"
Lofgren said.

"If we provide permanent [residency] to people who are top-notch graduates,
that would solve a lot of our [H-1B] problems," Lofgren said. "In Silicon
Valley, about 80 percent of H-1B visa holders are graduates of American
universities."

William Kennard, who served as Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
chairman from 1997 to 2001 and is now a managing director at the Carlyle
Group, said that the majority of new hires at Carlyle are coming from
overseas.

"It gives me a great sense of pride that we're welcoming these folks" to the
United States, but in the same respect, "we need to create opportunities for
kids in the U.S.," Kennard said. The quality of math and science education in
this country is "embarrassing. We can't talk about immigration reform without
talking about investment in the future" of our own children.

"If we want to give Obama the ability for change, we have to recognize the
political constraints," Kennard warned.

What about patents?

Another piece of the puzzle, panelists said, is the current state of the U.S.
patent system.

"The idea that you can patent something that you haven't even created yet"
is ridiculous, Feld said. "I am fervently anti-software patents."

"I do believe there is a need for patent reform [but] U.S. intellectual
property patents are the gold standard in the world," said Qualcomm's
Rosenberg. "Reform has to be in the Patent Office itself; adding resources,
but not necessarily doing many of the things [current patent legislation]
focused on, like changes to how damages are calculated."

Lofgren was confident that patent and immigration reform would be addressed
fully when Congress reconvenes under a new administration in January.

"We had a patent bill. Not to say it was a perfect bill, but we sent it out of
the House with the belief that the Senate would do further refinements and
instead they collapsed," she said. "So we will be starting again next year."

Ergen said he had mixed emotions regarding patent reform, given the numerous
patent battles he has gone after at EchoStar.

"I'd like to see the loser pay in any kind of patent case, so if you want to
sue us and you lose, you're paying our defense bill," Ergen said. "But I think
it's tough because we're on both sides. We'll spend $10 million to fight a
case that somebody would've settled for $100,000 because someone needs to do
it."

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http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2008/08/dispatch_from_denver_tech_tita.php

Dispatch From Denver: Tech Titans Talk
Julius Genachowski, technology adviser for presumptive Democratic presidential
nominee Barack Obama, keynoted a technology roundtable Tuesday at the Denver
Performing Arts Center. He was joined by House Energy and Commerce
Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-
Mass.; FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein; former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt;
and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Following Genachowski's remarks, a panel discussed the question: "How can the
Internet and technological changes transform the way the federal government
operates?" A second session addressed the question of what strategies the
federal government can use to promote technological development and
innovation. A third panel evaluated how to best enable U.S.
consumers to reap the benefits and opportunities of the Internet age.

Industry heavyweights slated to participate included Google Senior Director of
Global Public Policy Andrew McLaughlin, Verizon Senior Vice President Kathryn
Brown, First Data Corp. Senior Vice President Joe Samuel, Qualcomm General
Counsel Don Rosenberg, Oracle President Charles Phillips, Symantec CEO John
Thompson, AT&T Senior Vice President Dorothy Attwood, Microsoft Managing
Director Jack Krumholtz and others.

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http://www.silicon-flatirons.org/events.php?id=513

2008 Technology Roundtable
@ Ricketson Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex August 26, 2008 Webcast
Please note that a live webcast of the Roundtable will be available at
NextGenWeb.org.

Introduction
The 2008 Technology Roundtable is designed as a discussion of 18 participants.
Phil Weiser, University of Colorado professor of law and telecommunications
and executive director of the Silicon Flatirons Center, will lead the
Technology Roundtable, encouraging a dynamic, substantive interchange among
the participants. Seated in a venue with a capacity for 200 persons, the
audience for the Technology Roundtable will be by invitation and include
individuals with a particular interest in the subject of technology.

Roundtable Focus
This Roundtable will discuss the technology-related challenges and
opportunities our country faces in the years ahead. The first session will
take up the natural question after an election where the Internet transformed
the way politics is practiced in this country: how can the Internet and
technological changes transform the way the federal government operates. In so
doing, it will discuss how the federal government can use emerging
technologies to operate more efficiently and serve the public more
effectively. In particular, it will discuss, among other things, proposals
ranging from the call to install a Chief Technology Officer at the federal
government, the challenges around upgrading the technologies used by first
responders, opportunities to develop a strategy for public media in the
digital age, and how the government can embrace "Web 2.0"-type technologies to
best share information with the public and solicit its input.

The second session will address the question of what strategies that the
federal government can use to promote technological development and
innovation. In particular, it will evaluate what public policies can best spur
capital formation and protect the U.S. advantage in that area; what educations
reforms, particularly as to math and science education, can prepare a next
generation of engineers and business persons; and what innovation policies, be
they support for basic research or patent law reform can spur greater levels
of technological development.

The final session will evaluate whether and how to best enable U.S.
consumers to reap the benefits and opportunities of the Internet age. It will
thus evaluate the related questions of whether all Americans are equipped to
participate in the information age and what set of broadband policies should
be pursued by the next administration. The session will also discuss to what
extent competition in broadband and telecommunications markets has developed
in the wake of the 1996 Act and what reforms--to both the regulation of wired
and wireless networks--are appropriate. Finally, the panel will discuss
whether consumers are prepared for the challenges raised by the Internet--
etc.--and what, if anything, government should do about such concerns.

Welcome

9:00am - 9:10am

Julius Genachowski
Founder
Rock Creek Ventures
Obama Technology Advisor
John Hickenlooper
Mayor
Denver, Colorado
Phil Weiser
Professor of Law
Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program University of Colorado Executive
Director Silicon Flatirons Center

Government 2.0

9:10am - 10:00am

Kathryn C. Brown
SVP of Policy
Verizon
Former Chief of Staff
FCC
Don Gips
Group VP for Corporate Strategy
Level 3 Communications
Former Domestic Policy Advisor
Vice President Gore
Ellen Goodman
Professor of Law
University of Rutgers-Camden
Of Counsel
Covington & Burling
Reed Hundt
Senior Advisor
McKinsey
Former Chair
FCC
Andrew McLaughlin
Senior Director of Global Public Policy
Google
Joe Samuel
Senior Vice President
First Data Corp.

Promoting the Next Wave of Innovation

10:00am - 10:55am

John Seely Brown
Independent Co-Chairman
Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation
Charlie Ergen
CEO
Echostar
Brad Feld
Managing Director
Foundry Group
Mobius Venture Capital
Bill Kennard
Managing Director
Carlyle Group
Former Chairman
FCC
Honorable Zoe Lofgren
Congresswoman
U.S. House of Representatives
Charles Phillips
President
Oracle
Don Rosenberg
General Counsel and EVP
Qualcomm
David Thompson
Group President of Information Technology and Services Symantec

Keynote Remarks

10:55am - 11:10am

Jay Rockefeller
U.S. Senator
West Virginia

Internet Policy in a New Era: How Best to Protect Competition and Consumers?

11:10am - 12:00pm

Dorothy Attwood
Senior Vice President
AT&T
Larissa Herda
CEO
TW Telecom, Inc.
Larry Irving
President
Irving Group
Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce
Michael Katz
Professor of Economics and Business
New York University
Former FCC Chief Economist
Jack Krumholtz
Managing Director, Federal Government Affairs Microsoft Pieter Poll CTO Qwest

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