State of the Net Wireless 2015

Mobile continues to evolve and explode. This panel will look at what’s making waves in wireless. What does mobile native look like? What’s the latest in mobile and the cross-screen environment? How are consumers engaging content and finding new content on mobile devices? Our panel of experts will discuss.

In the 1990s the World Wide Web went from creation to dominance. The 2000s spanned the creation of the smartphone’s app economy to near total ubiquity. Experts predict that 2010s will see the extension of the Internet and mobile devices to the Internet of Things (IoT). Whether this IoT future will be utopian or dystopian (certainly somewhere in between) seems to be the focus of many policy conversations. Perhaps by 2020 we will know. Professor Ellen Goodman and Dr. Nicol Turner Lee will discuss what lies ahead for the Internet of Things and how we can help ensure an IoT future of civil liberties and civic inclusion.

The introduction of the iPhone less than a decade ago spurred an astounding wave of innovation in mobile devices. It also spurred a desperate quest to find wireless bandwidth to satisfy exponential increases in bandwidth consumption. Government agencies first worked to clear spectrum bands for commercial use. At the same time technologists, industry players and government agencies started to recognize technologies allowing for the sharing of spectrum bands and unlicensed use schemes could massively complement existing programs. It’s a really exciting time where more and more players are entering the wireless data market and providing new services. Cisco now estimates that almost ½ of global data is offloaded to femtocell networks and that number is increasing. The federal government is exploring sharing mechanisms to make some government allocated spectrum "shareable" for all wireless users — government and commercial users alike. Our panel will discuss what these developments mean for consumers, businesses and government agencies in the coming months and years. They will discuss the dynamic developments that are happening in the marketplace and how opportunities for sharing are increasing.

The rapid evolution of the Internet into advanced mobile networks and now extended to the Internet of Things has made policymaking a challenge to say the least. Long gone are the days when you would hear a regulator or a lawmaker make a folksy quip about his lack of technology savvy. In fact, many agencies and departments are actively enhancing their technical acumen by recruiting technologists who can help in the policymaking process. Our panel will feature the top technologists from a range of agencies and departments. Can these folks help the government keep pace?