[Discuss-gnuradio] FROM NAPSTER TO FCCSTER: WILL 'SMART RADIO' AND DIRECT CITIZEN ACCESS TO THE AIRWAVES MAKE THE FCC OBSOLETE?

[Steve Schear]

The New America Foundation cordially invites you and your colleagues to a 
Brownbag Broadband Forum on Spectrum Policy Reform

FROM NAPSTER TO FCCSTER: WILL 'SMART RADIO' AND DIRECT CITIZEN ACCESS TO 
THE AIRWAVES MAKE THE FCC OBSOLETE?

with

SCOTT RAFER FCCster.com Blog Author and Chairman, WiFinder, Inc. (worldwide 
registrar of Wi-Fi hotspots)

DEWAYNE HENDRICKS Founder, The Dandin Group and FCC Technical Advisory 
Council Member

ERIC BLOSSOM Founder & Architect, GNU Radio Project (a free toolkit for 
building and deploying smart, Software Defined Radios)

Mark McHenry President, Shared Spectrum Company; and former Program 
Manager, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

and

Alan J. Scrime Chief, Policy Rules Division, Office of Engineering and 
Technology, FCC

moderated by

MICHAEL CALABRESE Vice Presiden & Director, Spectrum Policy Program, New 
America Foundation

Friday, 31 October 2003 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
New America Foundation, 7th Floor 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, D.C.

refreshments served

RSVP to 202-986-4901 or to Jennifer Buntman at address@hidden

Because the FCC has been slow to provide adequate spectrum for unlicensed 
broadband applications like Wi-Fi, growing numbers of software-savvy 
citizens are poised to adapt off-the-shelf Wi-Fi equipment to operate on 
the largely vacant, licensed bands adjacent to the crowded unlicensed 
frequencies. According to Scott Rafer, author of the provocative 
FCCster.com web site, unless the FCC acts quickly to provide more 
unlicensed spectrum for citizen access, the coming era of software defined 
radios will subvert the paradigm by which our airwaves are regulated and 
controlled. Is this vision just hype, or has the revolution begun? Will the 
military's emerging XG software defined radio lead the way or will it be a 
Kazaa-like company beyond the reach of the feds? Will the key enabling 
technology be Linksys' frequency agile routers, Intel's next-generation, 
smart radio technology embedded into its microprocessors, or some pirate 
smart radio chip smuggled in to this country like cocaine? The New America 
Foundation invites you to a brownbag forum with a panel of "smart radio" 
gurus, practitioners and policy makers, including:

Dewayne Hendricks, called a "broadband cowboy" by Wired for building 
unlicensed broadband networks on Indian Reservations, the Kingdom of Tonga 
and other underserved locations. 
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.01/hendricks.html>

Eric Blossom, founder of the GNU Radio Project, whose mission is "to give 
ordinary software people easy access to 'hack' the electromagnetic 
spectrum...and think of clever ways to use it." 
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/12/18/gnu_radio/>

Mark McHenry's Shared Spectrum Company creates agile radio technologies 
that create a spectrum environment where airwaves can be shared 
dynamically, thus enhancing spectrum capacity and bandwidth. 
<http://www.sharedspectrum.com>

Scott Rafer's controversial blog, FCCster 
(<http://www.fccster.com/>fccster/) is raising awareness about the 
potential for airwave "hackers" to migrate from the crowded unlicensed 
bands into licensed frequencies.

New America Foundation will provide Wi-Fi access to attendees of this 
brownbag forum!

www.newamerica.net