2015 Turing Lecture: The internet paradox - How bottom-up beat(s) command and control
Dr. Robert Pepper discussed how the dynamics of technology policy and largely obscure decisions significantly shaped the Internet as the bottom-up driver of innovation we know today.
Dr. Pepper covered the next market transition to the Internet of Everything and the interplay between policy and technology and highlighting early indicators of what the future may hold for the Internet.
About the speaker
Robert leads Cisco’s Global Technology Policy team working with governments across the world develop strategies and address areas such as broadband, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, the Internet of Things, security, privacy, Internet governance and ICT development. His work on strategies and policy incorporates his extensive work on Internet and technology trends.
He joined Cisco in July 2005 from the FCC where he served as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development beginning in 1989 where he led teams developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, planning for the transition to digital television, and designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions.
Before joining the FCC, he was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation.
His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He serves on the board of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and advisory boards for Columbia University and Michigan State University, and is a Communications Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, the UK’s Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board, the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy and the UN Broadband Commission.
Pepper received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
