Drew Clark

Drew Clark

Executive Director at BroadbandCensus.com, Telecom, Media and Tech Journalist
Joined on July 6, 2007
Total Post Views: 31,380

About

Drew Clark is Executive Director of BroadbandCensus.com, which is designed to provide publicly-available information about broadband availability, competition, speeds and prices. He also writes frequently on the politics of telecom, media and technology at DrewClark.com.

Drew is also Assistant Director of the Information Economy Project at George Mason University School of Law. He is pursuing a J.D. degree at the law school, where he is member of the Moot Court Board.

Previously, Clark was Senior Fellow and Project Manager at the Center for Public Integrity from August 2006-October 2007, where he headed the Center’s telecommunications and media project. The project providing reporting about the campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures of industry players.

From 1998 to 2006, Clark was Senior Writer at the National Journal Group, reporting on free speech, intellectual property, privacy, telecommunications and media for Technology Daily, a leading publication on information technology and public policy. He was also Senior Editor of National Journal’s Insider Update: The Telecom Act, devoted to daily coverage of communications policy, and Contributing Editor of Congress Daily, where he explored the digital convergence of broadcasting, satellite, cable, wireless, telecommunications and technology.

He is a frequently sought-after speaker on technology trends, addressing the Consumer Electronics Show, EDUCAUSE, International Association of Privacy Professionals, Internet Law and Policy Forum, and other organizations. At the 2008 Politics Online Conference sponsored by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, he chaired a keynote panel on “Building a Broadband Strategy for America.”

Drew earned his B.A. with Honors from Swarthmore College, and received an M.S. degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. He is the recipient of several journalism awards. He lives in McLean, Virginia, with his wife and two children, and is a member of the McLean Community Center Governing Board.

He can be reached via e-mail: drew at drewclark.com.

Except where otherwise noted, all postings by Drew Clark on CircleID are licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Featured Blogs

Net Neutrality Advocates: Wireless Carriers’ Network Management Must Be ‘Reasonable’

Emboldened by their summertime victory against Comcast, advocates of network neutrality said Thursday that the next front in battle for the principle would be against wireless carriers who make "unreasonable" network management decisions. In a panel discussion on managing wireless networks at the Wireless Communications Association conference here, Free Press Policy Director, Ben Scott and Google Telecom Counsel, Richard Whitt said that the FCC's Net neutrality principles would bar discrimination over wireless networks -- while conceding that the networks are, for the time being, more bandwidth-constrained than wired-based network. more

The Real White Spaces Debate: To Create or Abolish a Market in the Airwaves

I've been following the "white spaces" for as long as it has been happening -- four, maybe five years -- and I must admit that I am surprised by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's sudden fondness for them. Until the last days of his chairmanship, Martin never cared for this somewhat radical notion: allowing techies and community activists to spew electromagnetic frequencies in zones currently occupied (at least ostensibly) by the broadcasters. more

Google, the NAB, and a Third Way in ‘White Spaces’ Debate

Google co-founder Larry Page came to Washington last week to take on the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the lobbying group that represents over-the-air television stations. It's a whole new adversary for the beleaguered broadcasters, who have been fighting cable and satellite television for years. The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering a proposal, by Google and other tech players. It would allow tech companies to build electronic devices that transmit wireless internet signals over the "white spaces," or the vacant holes in the broadcast television band. "We have an ambitious goal called pervasive connectivity through ubiquitous broadband networks," said Page... more

FTC Report on Broadband Resurrects Freedom of Service Information

The Federal Trade Commission intends to monitor the information that telecom and cable companies provide about high-speed Internet service in the service plans they offer to customers, according to a report issued last week by the agency. The FTC asserts in the report, released on June 27, that since it has jurisdiction over matters involving consumer protection, it "will continue to enforce the consumer protection laws in the area of broadband access."... The consumer protection sections of the FTC report raise this question: are broadband providers engaging in a deceptive practice when they advertise a connection speed of, for example, "up to" 768 kilobits per second (kbps) - and yet actual speeds are considerably lower? more