Bruce Kushnick
Executive Director of New Networks has been a telecom analyst for 40 years. If you ever used a touchtone phone, saw the phone number of the caller or listened to a recording over the last three decades, odds are Bruce Kushnick had something to do with it. In 1985, as Senior Telecom Analyst for IDC/Link, (a subsidiary of International Data Corp), Kushnick’s 1985 report (a best seller) predicted that the addition of new technologies and new networks would change the way America used communications. In 1992, Kushnick helped to invent and deploy the first 3-digit phone service, “511” with Cox Newspapers. In 1992, Kushnick also started New Networks Institute; in 2002 Kushnick was one of the founders that established Teletruth, a telecom advocacy group that was a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Kushnick is the author of a trilogy of books spanning 18 years; the most recent is “The Book of Broken Promises: $400 Billion Broadband Scandal & Free the Net”, released May 2015. NNI’s research was used to help create an investigation of Verizon New York, and settlement in July 2018, working with CWA union. Estimated at $300-500 million dollars, the settlement requires 30,000+ lines of fiber in unserved areas and the maintenance of the copper networks in non-fiber areas.
David Rosen
He is a business-development consultant and writer focusing on the intersection of media and technology.
He served as research assistant to the screenwriter Saul Levitt on ABC’s seven-hour mini-series, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. He was project direct for the Emmy-Award winning WNET/PBS series, The American City, hosted by John Lindsey. As vice president, entertainment services, LINK Resources/IDC, he worked with Philips (Los Angeles and Eendhoven) on the development of CD-I, the first interactive multimedia consumer product. He then was the international marketing director for Commodore (New York and Frankfurt), overseeing the worldwide launch of CDTV, the first CD-ROM system of player and 100-plus titles.
He also worked with the Sundance Institute where he authored, Off-Hollywood: The Making & Marketing of Independent Films. With the support of the Ford and Rockefeller, he organized and was project director of the multiyear, San Francisco conference, “Digital Independence: the Forum on Creativity, Technology and Democracy.” He served as the business-development officer for (i) MuSE/AVS (Albuquerque, NM), Sandia Labs massive data-visualization software company and (ii) ComCam (West Chester, PA), the world’s first wireless video network camera system; both companies received funding through private placement offerings. Subsequently, he prepared many business plans, strategic plans, marketing plans, private placement memos and business-case analyses for major U.S. and international corporations, non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs and independent media makers.
In addition, he is the author of three nonfiction books as well as many scholarly articles, book reviews and popular pieces on media-tech, telecom, politics and American life. His articles have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Black Star, Filmmaker, Logos, Medium, Monthly Review, New York Journal of Books, The Progressive, Salon, Sexuality & Culture, Truthout and The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. He served on the boards of directions/advisors of the Independent Television Service (ITVS-PBS, Treasurer), MoMA-NY Video Collection, Film Arts Foundation and a U.S. Congressman.
With the added assistance of the IRREGULATORS
Chuck Sherwood
As part of his involvement with national advocacy associations, Chuck is a former member of the Alliance for Community Media’s Public Policy Working Group and the Policy and Legal Committee of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. He has organized and spoken at many conferences and workshops dealing with cable, telecom and broadband network infrastructure issues with a focus on how they can be used for community, educational and economic development. In addition, he has written articles for the ACM’s Community Media Review (CMR) and the NATOA Journal and served as the Guest Editor for the Summer 2010 issue of the CMR entitled, “Community Connecting with the New Broadband Networks.”
Kenneth Levy, Esq.
Levy has worked as a telecommunications lawyer since the late 1970s, when he joined the FCC. He held several supervisory positions at the FCC, including Deputy Chief, Operations of the Common Carrier Bureau and Chief of the Tariff Division during the period leading up to divestiture and through the aftermath. He left the FCC to become General Counsel of the National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc., the organization charged with administering the FCC’s interstate access charge plan and universal service fund. Recently he has worked as a consultant on telecommunications regulatory proceedings involving universal service, inter-carrier compensation, Internet telephony and interconnection of networks.