Jerry Brito
Jerry Brito is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and director of its Technology Policy Program. He also serves as adjunct professor of law at GMU. His research focuses on technology and telecommunications policy, government transparency and accountability, and the regulatory process. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife Kathleen O’Hearn and their dog Jerkface. Here is his LinkedIn C.V.
Unbelievably, the media sometimes quote Jerry or let him blab on radio or TV. Here are some clips.
- A Bitcoin For Your Thoughts
- The Mark News, July 14, 2011.
- Speed Bumps on the Road to Virtual Cash
- The New York Times, July 4, 2011.
- Skeptics Question AT&T's Logic In T-Mobile Deal
- All Things Considered, June 20, 2011.
- Bitcoin virtual currency
- Al Jazeera's The Stream, June 16, 2011.
- Stealing "entertainment services" now a crime in Tennessee
- Ars Technica, June 3, 2011.
- USA erklären das Netz zum Kriegsschauplatz
- Der Spiegel, June 1, 2011.
- Bitcoin & the End of State-Controlled Money: Q&A with Jerry Brito
- Reason.tv, June 1, 2011.
- The rise of the cybersecurity-industrial complex
- The Washington Examiner, April 27, 2011.
- Two Fascinating Exhibits on Data Security
- The Atlantic, April 26, 2011.
- Podcast: Jerry Brito on a Career in Ideas
- Kosmos, September 10, 2010.
- Tumbleroo for the iPad
- TWiT's iPad Today, August 28 2010.
- Take $787 Billion. Now Show Where It's Going.
- The New York Times, March 21, 2010.
- Online earmark transparency
- Federal News Tonight, NewsChannel 8, March 18, 2010.
- Watching the Stimulus
- Cato Daily Podcast, December 9, 2009.
- A look at where stimulus spending is going
- Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU, December 7, 2009.
- New Features on Stimulus Watch 2.0
- Federal News Radio, November 25, 2009.
- Stimulus spending transparency
- Channel 9 News, November 17, 2009.
- Eye Opener: What to watch with the stimulus
- The Washington Post, October 20, 2009.
- Inside OpenRegs.com
- Federal News Tonight, NewsChannel 8, July 21, 2009.
- Redesigning Recovery.gov
- Fox and Friends, Fox News, July 10, 2009.
- $9.5 million contract to redesign Recovery.gov
- Federal News Radio, July 10, 2009.
- Contract to Upgrade Recovery.gov Stimulates Criticism
- The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2009.
- Making Stimulus Spending Transparent
- All Things Considered, NPR, April 20, 2009.
- Web Users Offer Their Two Cents On How to Spend Stimulus Billions
- The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2009.
- Online transparency and future of local news
- Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU, March 23, 2009.
- House Testimony: Preventing Stimulus Waste and Fraud: Who Are the Watchdogs?
- C-SPAN, March 19, 2009.
- Could Crowdsourcing Help Control the Stimulus?
- The Washington Post, March 18, 2009.
- A More Transparent Federal Government
- Cato Daily Podcast, March 11, 2009.
- A Zealous Watchman to Follow the Money
- The New York Times, March 9, 2009.
- Some Agencies Are Slow in Handing Out Stimulus Grants
- The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2009.
- See-Through Stimulus
- Columbia Journalism Review, February 6, 2009.
- Tracking Stimulus Funds Presents Daunting Task
- NPR, February 4, 2009.
- Everything You Need to Know About the Stimulus Is Online
- Fast Company, February 3, 2009.
- Bush's Midnight Regulations
- NBC Nightly News, December 4, 2008.
- Lame Duck on the Clock
- CNN American Morning, November 20, 2008.
- Dems eye midnight regulations reversal
- Politico, November 12, 2008.
- Dear Mr. President
- Popular Science, October 2008.
- Outdated Radios Fail Capitol Police
- The Washington Post, June 2, 2008.
- Sunshine Week and Government Data
- Cato Daily Podcast, March 21, 2008.
- Flying Blind in a Red-Tape Blizzard
- The Atlantic, July 2007.
Writing
A lot of what Jerry does is writing. He is the author of more than a few published scholarly articles, as well as a regular contributor to TIME.com’s tech section and the Technology Liberation Front blog. He’s also published a bunch of newspaper and magazine articles.
- Loving the Cyber Bomb? The Dangers of Threat Inflation in Cybersecurity Policy
- 3 Harvard National Security Journal 39 (2011). With Tate Watkins.
- Running for Cover: The BRAC Commission as a Model for Federal Spending Reform
- 9 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 131 (2010).
- Transparency and Performance in Government
- 11 North Carolina Journal of Law & Tech. 161 (2010). With Drew Perraut.
- All Your Data Are Belong to Us: Liberating Government Data
- Open Government (Daniel Lathrop & Laurel Ruma, eds., O'Reilly 2010)
- Midnight Regulations and Regulatory Review
- 61 Administrative Law Review 163 (2009). With Veronique de Rugy.
- Toward a More Perfect Union: Regulatory Analysis and Performance Management
- 8 Florida State Business Law Review 1 (2009).With Jerry Ellig.
- Hack, Mash & Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency
- 9 Columbia Science & Technology Law Review 119 (2008).
- A Tale of Two Commissions: Net Neutrality and Regulatory Analysis
- 16 CommLaw Conspectus 1 (2007). With Jerry Ellig.
- Growth in Regulation Slows: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008
- The 29th Annual Regulators’ Budget Report. With Melinda Warren. June 2007.
- Sending out an S.O.S.: Public Safety Communications Interoperability as a Collective Action Problem
- 59 Federal Communications Law Journal 3 (2007).
- Video Killed the Franchise Star: The Consumer Cost of Cable Franchising and Policy Alternatives
- 5 Journal on Telecomm. & High Tech. Law 199 (2006). With Jerry Ellig.
- The Spectrum Commons in Theory and Practice
- 2007 Stanford Technology Law Review 1 (2007).
- An Orphan Works Affirmative Defense to Copyright Infringement Actions
- 12 Michigan Telecomm. & Tech. Law Review 75 (2005). With Bridget Dooling.
- Relax, Don’t Do It: Why RFID Privacy Concerns Are Exaggerated and Legislation Is Premature
- 2004 UCLA Journal of Law & Technology 5 (2004).
- Much Ado about Nothing: The Effects of the Post-Enactment Acquisition Rule in Palazzolo v. Rhode Island
- 14 Federal Circuit Bar Journal 543 (2005).
- The Cybersecurity-Industrial Complex
- Reason, August/September 2011. With Tate M. Watkins.
- BRAC the federal budget: Fiscal commission needs real power to cut programs
- The Washington Times, May 28, 2010.
- Cyberattacks: Washington is hyping the threat to justify regulating the Internet
- Christian Science Monitor, April 29, 2010. With Tate M. Watkins.
- Information Trickles Up
- Local Knowledge, September, 2009. With Daniel M. Rotshchild
- Why pay millions of dollars to defense contractor to build Recovery.gov?
- The Washington Examiner, July 10, 2009.
- An Accountability Agenda
- Regulation, Winter 2008. With Jerry Ellig.
- OIRA at Midnight
- Regulation, Fall 2008. With Patrick McLaughlin.
- Can Congress tweet? Should bloggers care?
- Ars Technica, July 28, 2008.
- Improving Government Transparency Online
- The Public Manager, Spring 2008.
- Put more government data online
- The Des Moines Register, January 8, 2008.
- Transparency
- Regulation, Winter 2008. With Mark Adams.
- Considering Net Neutrality
- Regulation, Fall 2007. With Jerry Ellig.
- Regulators’ Budget
- Regulation, Fall 2007. With Melinda Warren.
- Net Neutrality: Where’s the Beef?
- Tech Central Station, July 24, 2007.
- Failure to Communicate
- The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2007.
- Think Diffident
- The American, January 23, 2007.
- Public Safety Interoperability
- Regulation, Fall 2006.
- Will Broadband Kill the Broadcast Star?
- Tech Central Station, September 6, 2006.
- Public Nuisance: The Costs of Giving Everyone A Say on Cable Television
- Doublethink, Fall 2006.
- Who’s your daddy?
- The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2006. With Bridget Dooling.
- Spectrum commons
- Regulation, Spring 2006.
- Orphan works
- Regulation, Winter 2005.
- Competing with piracy
- Brainwash, October 16, 2005.
- The Castro generation
- Doublethink, Winter 2005.
- “Free Culture,” free book
- Brainwash, April 11, 2004.
Podcast
Jerry is the host of Surprisingly Free, a weekly half-hour podcast featuring in-depth discussions with an eclectic mix of authors, academics, and entrepreneurs at the intersection of technology, policy, and economics. The most recent episode features Surprisingly Free?s 100th Episode.
Web Stuff
Jerry is constantly making things on the web, many of them with his partner Peter Snyder. These include:
- OpenRegs.com, an alternative interface to the federal government's regulatory docketing system
- Very Local Data, demographic information for every jurisdiction in the country
- Stimulus Watch, crowdsourced accountability for federal stimulus spending
He also co-developed Tumbleroo, the first full-featured Tumblr client for the iPad.
News
The latest happenings get posted to Twitter or to Jerry's Tumblr blog. Photos are on Flickr and videos on Vimeo and YouTube. You can also subscribe to a firehose RSS feed that will give you everything Jerry posts. Here are some recent notable updates.
Contact
If you'd like to reach him, the best way is to send e-mail to jerry at brito dot com. The worst way is via Facebook messages, which he rarely checks. But, he'll definitely respond to Twitter messages.