 Okay. Wonderful. Well, it's my pleasure to keep the party going by introducing our special guest keynote speaker. And he's here to share his own view on the unique time we're facing in tech policy. Our special guest speaker is a former IP3 awardee from way back in 2007, and someone who I know many of you have read, Tim Woo. He's been a leading thinker and author in tech policy for the past two decades. He first made his name in coining the term net neutrality, or network neutrality, I think you called it first. And people have been debating about whether that's a good term or not ever since. But we're grateful for you, Tim, for making that analysis. He served as an expert on tech markets both inside and outside government. He stayed in the public eye because of his ability to explain tech issues in a digestible way for the public, whether that's in his best selling books, or on the campaign trail when he ran for statewide office in New York, or on a roller coaster with Stephen Colbert. And if you haven't seen that video, YouTube it, it's hilarious. We're very proud that Tim Woo had time to schedule to join us today. So please welcome our keynote speaker, author, consumer advocate, and Columbia Law professor, Tim Woo. Tim, take it away. Thank you. Hi everybody. And let me begin by offering a toast to public knowledge of Chris Lewis, just for being who they are. And, you know, there's some things we can still do, including drinking. Now, I, like many of you, take 2020 have been a challenging year, but with every challenges, we all know comes great innovations and a great one this year is going to be the 10 minute keynote speech, which I think probably be a great improvement. It's forced me to trim my material and get to the point. So, as Chris was saying earlier, this is the 17th annual and somehow I was one of the earlier winners back when I was a young man in a hurry. And I thought I'd use our time today. The nine minutes left to talk a little bit about that period. It started getting me thinking about what was going on back in 2007 and how it compares with now and, you know, how things have changed for the years and what public knowledge did then and what they're doing now so why don't we turn the clock back a little bit and think about you know where we were in 20 and 2007. Well, just that January time magazine as some of you may remember, had just named you as a person of the year. And they did this for the following reasons for seizing the reins of the global media for founding and framing the new digital democracy for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game times person of the year for this is you. So you know what did they say, well it's according to time about the cosmic companion of knowledge Wikipedia, the million channel million channel people's network YouTube, the online metropolis of my space. It's about the many wrestling power from the few, helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world but also change the way the world changes. So, that was that was a while ago, and it's, it's interesting to think about the kind of issues that were big back then. I would say that it was safe to say the time public knowledge saw a lot of its mission is keeping that that dream alive. Keeping this vision, I'd say of a quote time magazine again the small contributions of millions of people, making the matter. Some of the issues that public knowledge was interested in and they said it this way just to read your old press releases back to you. We live in a world where the laws and policies surrounding intellectual property information policy and the internet are increasingly interconnected, even converging with one another. So, well, what kind of things was PK worried about. Well here's a press release from August 8 2007 by Shiva Stella public knowledge calls AT&T censoring a Pearl Jam appalling. And it's nothing short of appalling that AT&T should take it upon itself to censor a webcast, because it didn't like the contents of lyrics being signed by a band so a dynamic resolving around the question of control of speech on the internet is always an important topic. I would say an oh seven that that intellectual property and particular copyright really loomed larger than they seem to today. Here's Harold Feld in September of 2007. By the way, I spent a lot of time here on the internet archive I should point out that Carl Malamud won this IP three award the next year. Here's Harold Feld September 20 2007 Harvard co op gets an F in intellectual property. And he writes with the exception of the IP mafia, and its supporters enablers, just about everyone recognizes that folks sometimes use copyright as an anti competitive tool for intimidation rather than to promote the progress of science users. Well, we can argue about how much this occurs how much it genuinely chills free speech. You occasionally run into a case of copyright abuse so blatantly blatant that it cries out for legal action, or at least a healthy dose of ridicule. I've never written a blog post or a press release lacking in interesting readable language. So as a royal loyal Princeton alum gives me great pleasure to hold up for public ridicule general mockery and possible legislative action, organizing the claims by the Harvard University bookstore which I can tell you about some other time. Generally, I'd say moving back at that time. Public knowledge was one might say less critical of the companies that we later became know as big tech. Here's an example, Google wanted to buy double clicker in that year. And our broad ski in another blog laid into the bells in fact for doing nothing but hacking Google at the hearing that merger was we know how to had its effects on online advertising but generally speaking, maybe because the companies were much smaller. Maybe they just seemed so much more vulnerable infant industries. I would say that the tone was slightly less critical in a broad ski said there were some things to be worried about maybe with a merger but focused more on that. So, when we looked at today and 2020 and look at what kind of things have changed. You know, what are we interested in today was public knowledge concerned about now. Very unscientifically I'd say that antitrust is covered much more extensively. Let's say copyright. I wouldn't say copyright is never brought up as a matter of concern but it is a different picture. I wonder if maybe there's some maybe not in Europe and maybe in the United States, a mild softening and in the in the degree to which there seem to be such, you know, outrageous claims made with intellectual property, not in copyright in particular whether the industry softened a little bit. Maybe, maybe it's the case that PK or community became more sympathetic to authors and some of their play. Other changes, obviously concerns about big tech are are much larger as compared to 2007. Obviously, Chris Lewis is in charge of the place, and I will say that not everything has changed. You know, for example, public knowledge is still fairly even as recently as this week defending the cores of section 230, which other people are not PK I think believes maybe some amendments would be in order but has rejected the Justice Department's approach to 230. And the other thing that has not changed I should note coming close to closing is public knowledge is core statement of its mission and I'll say it again because I think it's so important. So public knowledge promotes freedom of expression and open Internet and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. And, you know, I translate into a couple core values that seem to me not to have changed even if the issues, even if the power dynamics, even if the, the technologies have changed since those times PK to my view stands up against bullies. It doesn't take the side of the powerful. It does something very important which it does it is really important and sometimes understated, which is that it won't let obscurity be a mask, or be disguised that that prevents action on matters that are important to the public, or or even, you know, their, their lack of headline value I noticed PK, it wasn't this week or last week, no file on amicus and a, in a case surrounding the public access channels and main or Vermont which is probably not think it's in main big channels and probably not from page news in a period where the Supreme Court is up for grabs but to my mind is worthy kind of thing that you need groups to stand up for for the obscure that the non headline grabbing the important issues and telecom into the actual property. They get they get lost. And overall I think that PK is at bottom, fundamentally committed to healthy debate committed to these ideals of freedom of expression. And I for one think these are worthy values. And I hope that we keep these awards winning I would love to come back in 10 more years. It looks like the sun is setting here in New York and that's a sign for me to wrap up my speech so a last toast to public knowledge. Thank you for being who you are. Tim, thank you. Thank you so much. And cheers right back at you that was great. A great trip down blog post and press release past folks are like I wrote that when I was an intern so I think that was fantastic. We really appreciate you taking the time out to be with us today. We know you have a lot going on and are busy there with your family so not to mention two children who are about to jump through my door here so I have to go tend to them. But thanks again so much for having having. Thank you Tim. Tim move everybody. And, you know, it's perfect. A perfect point actually because Tim was citing the work of our staff. And we have a really talented team there public knowledge I'm so excited to come in and work with them every day. I think some of them on here, just about everyone has the PK logo background to the virtual background so you can, you can find them. And, and we've got a short video that we want to show to celebrate just a portion of the work that our team does, and has done this last year. I consider it a real privilege to work with this talented team every day. So if everyone will sit back and relax and check out this video to get a taste of what. Public knowledge has been busy over the past year busy calling for change from Congress busy advocating for consumers and busy protecting users as they navigate the internet. We've shared dozens of policy proposals and written letters to encourage greater accountability for dominant digital platforms. So I urge you to both press enforcement at the agencies, update the laws, but add new powers so that we have the right set of pro competition tools to drive entry into these digital platform markets. I hope that platforms will choose to be open and deal fairly with the companies that are using the platforms. Choose to be interoperable. Choose to make those APIs available. Stop shutting down the adversarial interoperability attempts. Don't discriminate anti competitively when you are the recommendation algorithm. All of these rules that we're thinking about, they could start following them now. We've spoken up for small businesses struggling to survive online even before the pandemic. Congress must set rules of the road that protect small businesses from anti competitive abuse and provide the stability necessary for investment and for commerce to thrive. And our experts testified before Congress seven times published five papers and filed eight amicus briefs in the highest courts. And when COVID-19 changed all of our lives, our work became more important as policymakers and the public rediscovered issues that public knowledge had consistently championed such as open access to knowledge and information and affordable access to broadband for all. The pandemic didn't shut us down. It accelerated the importance of our role. Public knowledge continued to connect key stakeholders in industry and public interest to find consensus. And we began hosting online events to connect the public to the policy issues facing them in these unprecedented times. It's not just that everybody needs broadband to participate. It's that society is a whole benefits when everyone is connected. In about 10 years since we passed or since the FCC created the National Broadband Plan, and we've been talking about getting the entire country connected to broadband for many, many years, not just that decade, but even before that. And so to see, you know, this issue raised up as important in this crisis just shows us how much further we have to go. The pandemic has introduced this crazy paradox. People are turning to their local journalism outlets more than ever before for reliable, deeply local information about how the virus is impacting their communities. And they're also using it to counter the misinformation that they're seeing all over the internet and in social media. But at the same time, shelter in place orders and shuttering of local businesses have cratered local advertising. In the midst of important social movements, we showed how systematic policy changes could make things better for everyone. In order to actually fix the problem and ensure that broadband is deployed universally across the country, you know, we need to make sure that every community has access to quality service and affordable rates. We advocated for creating comprehensive privacy legislation to protect Americans online, including their data collected in contact tracing apps. How to prevent this from becoming some dystopian nightmare is that there needs to be controls on how the data is used. And there should be three basic controls that we're seeing. One, only collect data that's absolutely necessary. Two, only use the data for what you say you're going to use it for and not share it with anyone else. And then three, delete it once it's done. The problem here is we don't have a federal privacy law, so this all has to come from written agreements with tech companies, with application developers, with governments. What we'd much rather see is these principles enshrined in law. And we've helped protect free speech online, ensuring that every voice can be heard during powerful moments to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice. The Internet is how we bear witness. It is how we see with the hope of understanding those whose experiences, whose struggles are not our own. It is how many Americans were first exposed to the tangible reality of police brutality and systematic oppression. It is how the work of community activists and organizers is amplified and how injustice is brought before the eyes of the world. If we are to strike any sort of new balance, it must keep the needs of 229 million voices and their ability to speak at front of mind. 2020 has made everyone examine how we can help each other, including those of us at public knowledge. And although none of us could have predicted what would happen this year, we've worked hard to meet these new challenges. We are so excited to be celebrating with everyone today, even if we can't be together in person. This year has sparked immense growth and change in our organization. And we're better positioned than ever to tackle the challenges of 2021, our 20th anniversary. We hope you'll join us along the way. Thank you for your support. Fantastic. That gets me pumped up. Meredith Rose, Meredith Rose's testimony gets me pumped up. I love that. Thank you. And if you're as pumped up as I am, then I hope you're ready to give away some awards because that's what's next. Okay. As most of you know, the IP three awards is actually named after the three categories of awards that we give away. So one in internet protocol, one in intellectual property and one in information policy. Our award winners are selected by a diverse judges panel who select from a list of nominees submitted by the public. So just remember if you think of someone who has not been honored but should be honored. Send us your suggestions for next year's nominations. We love suggesting from from folks out in the public. I also want to thank our wonderful judges panel this year, who did a great job in selecting our awardees. This year our judges were former from our board and former chair more Corbett from the Glen Echo group. Also from our board, Michael Petricone from the Consumer Technology Association. And our old friend Larry Irving from the Irving group, Nima Giuliani from ACLU and PK alum Charles DeWon now with the R Street Institute, a fantastic judges panel. Thank you guys for your work this year. Okay.