Alec Ross
PopTech 2009
“If Paul Revere had been a modern day citizen, he wouldn’t have ridden down Main Street. He would have tweeted.”
In 2006, Alec Ross put his considerable job experience at the intersection of philanthropy and technology to work for then Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, where he coordinated hundreds of policy advisers—including Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig—active in the fields of technology and creative cooperation. Earlier this year Ross took a position at the U.S. State Department. His office is propelled by the idea that innovative social networking technologies can shape diplomatic efforts both at home and abroad.
Ross has worked with Teach for America (his teaching efforts were the subject of a three-part series in the Baltimore Sun), Enterprise Community Parners, and in 2000 he co-founded One Economy Corporation, a nonprofit group devoted to democratizing broadband Internet access. Under Ross’s leadership, and with his remarkable knack for forging productive partnerships, One Economy quickly grew from a basement operation to a multi-million dollar global enterprise.
Watch Alec Ross’s talk at PopTech 2009