—Systemic change begins with personal change—
In his words, from his bio:
I am an author, attorney, expert witness, and professional speaker on the legal and cultural implications of emerging technology. After graduating from Amherst College and Boston College Law School, I clerked for two years for the Honorable Frank H. Freedman, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. After practicing law for five years and writing my first book, Vermont Jury Instructions — Civil and Criminal (with John Dinse and Ritchie Berger) [Butterworth 1993], I launched a computer consulting business that in time led to my current work as a computer forensics expert and author.
In response to the passage of the Communications Decency Act in 1996, I began researching the legislative and media response to the rise of the online adult industry. The resulting book, Obscene Profits: Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age, was the first of what are now seven mainstream non-fiction books. The others are:
In addition to these books, I have written numerous magazine articles on a variety of topics, including constitutional rights (particularly freedom of speech), privacy online and in the workplace, the impact of technology on our rights and liberties, and the separation of church and state.
Over the last twenty years, I have frequently been invited to lecture before college, university, and professional audiences to lecture on Internet technology, workplace and personal privacy, computer forensics, and censorship issues. An extensive list of my recent public speaking appearances is available by clicking here. On August 23, 2006, I had the honor of appearing on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewartâ€Â to discuss The Decency Wars. I have also appeared as a guest on a variety of other national television programs, including ABC’s “Good Morning America Weekend,†NBC’s “Weekend Today,†ABC’s “Nightline,†CBS’s “60 Minutes,†and assorted BBC documentaries. In addition to those televised appearances, I have been interviewed by numerous radio shows, magazines, and newspapers around the world on topics relating to my books.
In my capacity as an expert witness in the field of computer forensics, I have worked on pornography and obscenity-related litigation for a variety of clients, including the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the City of Charlotte, N.C., assorted businesses, and individual defendants.
I live in Brooklyn, NY with my wife, Dr. Amy Werbel, and occasionally one or more of our four boys. From October 2001 through March 2011, I served on the Burlington School Board. I chaired the Board’s Finance subcommittee from April 2006 to March 2009, and served as Clerk of the Board from April 2003 through March 2009. I served as Board Chairman from April 2009 through March 2011. I also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Vermont Community Access Media, one of the region’s three public access television stations, from May 2008 through May 2010.
Frederick was a great sport in allowing me to explore working on a patterns that happens sometimes but that I had let slide before. We started talking about nature, then his commitment. About halfway through I noticed that his motivation to the commitment from his first episode didn't seem to come from inside, which I believe led to him doing the task for extrinsic, not intrinsic, reasons, resulting in him doing his task perfunctorily. Then came the part that may be uncomfortable to listen to---or may be intriguing or fun. I can't tell because I was in the conversation. I tried to find a new sledding hill of his to ground a new activity. From then on we had a cordial conversation, but at cross-purposes. I don't think he understood what I was getting at and I couldn't see how to explain my point any better. I'm grateful to Frederick for maintaining his interest. Those interested in starting a podcast may find a lot to learn since guests often disconnect from their sledding hill and feel they have to fix something or do something big. I don't think we reached a resolution, but I think we valued the conversation. If you're considering starting a podcast in the This Sustainable Life family or to do The Spodek Method with many people, you'll find this conversation useful.
A topic making among the most headlines these days are digital mobs and their justice reacting to what people say. I've touched on it somewhat in this podcast and on my blog and I feel the risk teaching at NYU, which has kept me from expressing myself as openly as I could in the past. Another way of looking at this phenomenon is that we have become more vigilant about respecting groups that society hasn't stood up to before. We all see it. We all have opinions. Frederick approaches the phenomenon from a less partial, legal standpoint: what is going on? What risks are there? Who faces them? How can we respond? How should we respond for what reasons? How is technology changing our discourse? What do Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake have to do with it? What was appearing on Jon Stewart's Daily Show like? A reason I wanted to bring him on was to learn his views on my talking about abolition, a movement we can learn from, and attraction coaching, which informed my leadership practice. So I got to ask him his experienced views.