DISQUS

Hi Robert,

I am the co-founder of the Tech Policy Summit conference...I've been meaning to contact you and this post is a great reminder. We'll be debating this issue, and others like it, at our next Summit in 2009. If you're interested in being part of the program, we'd like to have you there. It's March 23-25 in San Mateo (so no plane flight required for you!).

I'll email you as well, but I thought I'd ask you in public since that's where you spend most of your time.

For the record, because we get asked about this, we're not affiliated with any political party, trade association, lobbying group, etc. The Summit is strictly nonpartisan. We're *just* a startup that produces tech events.

Mitch Kapor, Esther Dyson, David Hornik, John Chen, Craig Newmark, Chris Shipley, Kim Polese, Reid Hoffman and Prith Banerjee have agreed to volunteer for our 2009 advisory board, and we're looking forward to creating an event that sparks discussion...and action!

We're still in the early planning stages on the agenda, but I hope you can participate as a speaker. Feel free to DM me on Twitter at TechPolicy.

Thanks,
Natalie

Thanks, Jim. I didn't understand how the fraud alert process worked -- your abs analogy did the trick. :-)

Hi Jim,

Interesting post. I have a followup question I was hoping you would answer re: the credit agency reporting services (not LifeLock but the other monitoring services by TransUnion, Equifax, etc.)...other than thinking that it's not worth the money, are you saying that your credit rating can be hurt just by signing up for these services?

Also, couldn't agree more about being careful when it comes to handing out your SS number. I've been shocked by how often it's requested on just about any type of paperwork.

Thanks for the mention, Adam. We look forward to seeing you, and other TLF'ers, in March.

My biz partner and I are hosting a conf in March on a range of tech policy issues -- copyright/fair use is just one of them. And we've been talking about something similar to your idea, a more focused discussion for the social media community. We even have a lead on a venue in the Bay Area. If you'd like help in organizing, please let me know. The SL idea might work too to allow people to participate from anywhere since getting people in one place at one time always has its challenges.