"Big Ideas About Information" Lecture Series
World-class thinkers about markets, public policy and technology have lectured at the Information Economy Project at George Mason University. Among them: Vernon Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics, on the lessons from FCC license auctions; Martin Cooper, CEO of Arraycomm and "father of the cellphone"; Brian Lamb, founder and CEO of C-SPAN, about his revolutionary cable network; former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Dennis Patrick, who abolished the "Fairness Doctrine"; and University of Minnesota Professor Andrew Odlyzko, on the 1840s railroad mania and the Internet bubble of the 1990s.
'Big Ideas' Archive
Technology Manias: Comparing the 1999 Internet Bubble with the 1840s Railroad Mania (March 18, 2008)
Andrew Odlyzko, Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Digital Technology Center and the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota, compared the Internet bubble of the turn of the century with the British Railway Mania of the 1840s, the greatest technology mania in history.
Abolishing the Fairness Doctrine: Looking Back After 20 Years (July 18, 2007)
Recently, policymakers have flirted with the idea of resurrecting the “Fairness Doctrine,” regulating TV and radio broadcasters. At the National Press Club on July 18, 2007, the IEP showcased the man who killed it, former FCC Chairman Dennis Patrick. Introduced by Dan Polsby, Dean of the George Mason University School of Law (and a former FCC attorney who argued for abolition in the 1970s), Patrick gave, for the first time, a fascinating insider’s account of the FCC’s version of shock therapy, abruptly ending the Fairness Doctrine on August 4, 1987. The speeches were aired on C-SPAN, and an essay by Dennis Patrick and Thomas Hazlett, “The Return of the Speech Police,” appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Personal Communications and Spectrum Policy in the 21st Century (February 21, 2007)
By Martin Cooper, CEO,
Arraycomm & “Father of the Cellphone”
Present at the Revolution (October 4, 2006)
By Brian Lamb, Founder and CEO, C-SPAN
FCC License Auctions: Lessons from a Tumultuous Twelve Years (May 2, 2006)
By Vernon Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2002; and David Porter, professor in the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science at George Mason
University