Sidecut Reports

If you like the idea of smart, concerned and passionate people being involved in the government’s oversight of all matters broadband then you should welcome the news of the FCC naming University of Colorado associate professor Douglas Sicker as its new chief technologist.

News reports and releases can spell out Dr. Sicker’s considerable resume and background, but they really don’t tell you what I think is the most important attribute Sicker will bring to the FCC, namely his passion for good technology and finding the best solution. Though we’re not close friends, I can attest from several meetings with Dr. Sicker at confabs like the old PFF Aspen Summits and at the wonderful Silicon Flatirons events in Boulder that he is not just knowledgeable about complex legal and technical matters in the communications world, he is incredibly enthusiastic about finding the best answers — making him a perfect fit to be the FCC’s CTO.

Sicker’s appointment is just the latest in a string of smart-people moves from CU to the government, following Phil Weiser’s jump to the DOJ and the impressive idea of a new technical advisory group led by CU telecom legend Dale Hatfield. Congrats to all, especially to Dr. Sicker. Looking forward to great results, soon!

It’s been a pretty amazing day of discourse at this year’s Silicon Flatirons conference, hosted at the University of Colorado by Phil Weiser and the rest of the Silicon Flatirons gang. It’s going to take some time to process all the thoughts, opinions and even insider telco humor that reverberated inside the spiffy new CU law building during Sunday’s sessions, but stay tuned because there was as usual some great stuff about topics like network neutrality, why communications should matter more and what industry, politicians and the public at large should do to make broadband better. I am still doing some news posts on the conference for the GigaOM blog, so after I’m done with that I plan to weigh in with some more thoughts here.

As a tease, let me say that it is no small feat to get so many big personalities in the world of telecom, media and communications into one small auditorium — from commissioners from the FTC and FCC, to top execs from companies like Comcast, Google and Verizon to the leading legal and policy thought leaders — and then get them to not just speak, but to challenge each other and respond to the multiple queries from the just-as-wired members of the audience. More soon, after a break for dinner.

Update: More tomorrow, not tonight. Promise!