Our 33rd ambassador is Erik Cecil. He has over 12 years experience representing Internet Service Providers, content providers, and communications companies before state and federal agencies, legislatures, and courts. He represents companies in transactional as well as litigation matters under the Communications Act, and negotiates both commercial and regulated carrier-to-carrier agreements. He has advised national and international clients on matters of regulatory compliance, interconnection, wireless regulation, and provided strategic regulatory analysis to business executives and financial analysts. Here’s what he has to say about the importance of the Internet.
What & Why: The Internet is no one thing. The impulses that created the Internet and keep it running and growing are the very ties that bring any two people together; that sustain civilizations. Unlike at any other point in our history, however, the Internet collapses space and time. People, societies, civilizations separated by vast physical distances which took time to traverse are connected in an instant. This changes everything, from basic assumptions about who “we” are and who “they” are, to the manner in which we conduct business, our laws, and ultimately how we choose to conceive of all of these things. It is, ultimately the fabric of human perception and interaction. The Internet is us. Let us, therefore, treat it with care, awareness, and tolerance.
Future: Because the Internet’s future is ours, my only wish for the future is it’s continued unpredictible and unbridled but humane evolution.
