Tim Wu

Tim Wu

Tim Wu (traditional Chinese: 吳修銘) is a professor at Columbia Law School, the chair of media reform group Free Press, and a writer for Slate Magazine. He is best known for popularizing the concept of network neutrality in his paper Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination. The paper considered network neutrality in terms of neutrality between applications, as well as neutrality between data and QoS-sensitive traffic, and proposed some legislation to potentially deal with these issues.

Wu's academic specialties are copyright and telecommunications policy. For his work in this area, Professor Wu was named one of Scientific American's 50 people of the year in 2006. In 2007 Wu was named one of Harvard University's 100 most influential graduates by 02138 magazine.

Background

Wu is an American citizen, but grew up in Toronto, Canada. His father is from Taiwan and his mother is British. They both studied as immunologists at the University of Toronto. Wu and his younger brother were sent to alternative schools that emphasized creativity. Wu's father died in 1980 and his mother bought him and his brother an Apple II computer using some of the insurance money, starting Wu's fascination with computers. He is currently married to Kate Judge.

Clerkships and academic career

Wu graduated from McGill University in 1995 with a B.Sc. in chemistry and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1998. At Harvard, he studied under copyright scholar Lawrence Lessig. He worked with the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, after graduating law school, and before starting a clerkship with Richard Posner on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998-1999. Wu also clerked for Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court in 1999-2000. Following his clerkships, Wu worked at Riverstone Networks, Inc. (2000-02) and then entered academia at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Wu was Associate Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 2002 to 2004, Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School in 2004, Visiting Professor at Chicago Law School in 2005, and Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School in 2005. In 2006, he became a full professor at Columbia Law School and started Project Posner, a free database of all of Richard Posner's legal opinions. Wu called Posner "probably America's greatest living jurist."

Political contributions and activities

In 2003, Wu contributed to the Howard Dean and John Edwards presidential campaigns. During 2008, Wu has served as an adviser to the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Influence

Wu is credited with popularizing the concept of network neutrality in his 2005 paper Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination. The paper considered network neutrality in terms of neutrality between applications, as well as neutrality between data and QoS-sensitive traffic, and proposed some legislation to potentially deal with these issues.

In 2006, Wu wrote "The World Trade Law of Internet Filtering", which analyzed the possibility of the World Trade Organization treating censorship as a barrier to trade. In June 2007, when Google Inc. lobbied the United States Trade Representative to pursue a complaint against China's censorship at the WTO, Wu's paper was cited as a "likely source" for this idea. In 2006 Wu was also invited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help draft the first network neutrality rules attached to the AT&T and BellSouth merger.

In 2007, Wu published a paper proposing a "Wireless Carterfone" rule for mobile phone networks; the rule was adopted by the Federal Communications Commission for the 700 MHz spectrum auctions on July 31, 2007, with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps stating: "I find it extremely heartening to see that an academic paper—in this case by Professor Timothy Wu of Columbia Law School—can have such an immediate and forceful influence on policy." In November 2007 BusinessWeek credited Wu with providing "the intellectual framework that inspired Google's mobile phone strategy."

With his Columbia Law School colleagues Professors Scott Hemphill and Clarisa Long, Wu co-directs the Columbia Law School Program on Law and Technology, founded in 2007. In August 2007, in collaboration with the University of Colorado School of Law's Silicon Flatirons Program, the Columbia Law School Program on Law and Technology launched a Beta version of AltLaw, which he produced.

Selected publications

Book:

• Goldsmith, Jack L., and Tim Wu (2006) Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World New York: Oxford UP (ISBN 0195152662, ISBN 978-0195152661)

Articles:

• (2007) Wireless Net Neutrality: Cellular Carterfone and Consumer Choice in Mobile Broadband, New America Foundation: Wireless Future Program. Working Paper No. 17, Newamerica.net
• (2005) Copyright's Communications Policy, Michigan Law Review
• (2004) The Broadband Debate: A User's Guide, Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law 3.69
• (2003) Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination, Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law 2.2

Features:

• "Airports". Timwu.org. Accessed August 24, 2008. (Personal Webpage review.)
• "Keeping Secrets: A Simple Prescription for Keeping Google's Records out of Government Hands". Slate, January 23, 2006. Accessed August 24, 2008.
• "Network Neutrality FAQ". Timwu.org. Accessed August 24, 2008. (Personal Webpage feature; hyperlinked articles by Wu and others.)
• "No Ice". Timwu.org. Accessed August 24, 2008. (Personal Webpage feature.)
• "Why You Should Care about Network Neutrality: The Future of the Internet Depends On It!". Slate, May 6, 2006. Accessed August 24, 2008.

Further reading and resources

Articles about Wu

• Schneider-Mayerson, Anna "Wu-Hoo! Nutty Professor Is Voice of a Generation". The New York Observer, November 19, 2006.

• Ante, Spencer. "Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter". Business Week, November 17, 2007.

• Kim, Ryan. "Net Neutrality Guru to Speak at USF". "San Francisco Chronicle", January 25, 2008.

Audiovisual resources

• Futures of the Internet (Viewable and downloadable Web Video clip) (Flash, MP3, MP4, RealVideo, WMV, 3GP, YouTube, etc.). New York Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC–NY). 2008-04-16. Retrieved 2008-08-24..

External links

• Tim Wu – Faculty biography, Columbia Law School, Columbia University.
• Tim Wu – Personal Website.
• Tim Wu – Publications and papers by Tim Wu in the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) (abstracts; full texts).