I am uniquely qualified to lead this interdisciplinary effort since I am an Attorney licensed to practice in New York State holding a J.D., LL.M., and Certificate in Law, Technology, and Management from Syracuse University's College of Law.

I am member of the New York State Bar Association (where I a member of Intellectual Property Section's Internet and Technology Law Committee), The American Association for Artificial Intelligence, The Association for Computing Machinery, and The IEEE Computer Society.

As an independent scholar I’ve focused on Innovation Management, Information Science, Law and AI, Hypertext, Human-Computer Interaction, End User Programming, and Digital Library research attending many academic conferences in a broad number of technical sub-disciplines. I’ve spoken with countless professionals, librarians, and researchers; beta tested commercial software; and looked at more enabling technologies than I could even begin to enumerate.

Accordingly, I will be wearing many hats and handling the daily operations of The Institute until such time as professional staff can be brought on board to assist us.

We are at a unique juncture in history with the potential to leverage over thirty years of research in computer and information science to remake the information infrastructure of our nation and its allies, to empower ordinary people to make technology work for them, and to launch a new era of economic expansion. The scope of this endeavor is indeed staggering, but with your help and the insights that you can bring to the table, we can make history.

If not us, who?- If not now, when?

Brian Carl Laskiewicz, Esq., is an attorney-at-law admitted to practice law in the States of New Jersey and New York, as well as the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Mr. Laskiewicz has practiced as a general practice attorney with an emphasis on local government law in New Jersey, during which time he appeared along with co-counsel on the briefs in the New Jersey Supreme court case Warren County Community College v. Warren County Board of Chosen Freeholders, 176 N.J. 432, 824 A.2d 1073 (N.J. 2003), a case dealing with the legal issue of whether a community college established without perfecting all statutory and constitutional requirements had the power to compel a county legislative body to make appropriations. Prior to practicing law in New Jersey, Mr. Laskiewicz served as a Law Clerk in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Hudson County, Law Division, Special Civil Part.

Mr. Laskiewicz is a member of the Intellectual Property Law Sections of the American Bar Association, New Jersey State Bar Association, and the New York State Bar Association, where he is a member of the Internet Law, Trademark Law, and Copyright Law Committees. In connection with his involvement with the Internet Law Committee, Mr. Laskiewicz gave a presentation to the Committee in April 2004 regarding the lack of a fair use defense under copyright law as applied to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a piece of legislation passed by Congress in 1998 designed at providing adequate legal protection to owners of copyrights in works of digital media, such as CDs, DVDs, and computer software. He is also a member of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section and Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association. In April 2004 he became a member of the Internet and Computer Law Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers Law School in Newark, NJ in May 2000. He also holds Bachelor of Arts (Economics) (May 1996) and Master of Business Administration (Finance) (May 1997) degrees from Seton Hall University. Mr. Laskiewicz also has an interest in studying the Spanish and Russian languages.

Discoverer of Akscyn's Law and one of the earliest pioneers of Hypertext Technology, Robert Akscyn has distinguished himself through tireless service to the academic community in helping to bring success to many a conference.

Gerry McKiernan currently serves as a Science and Technology Librarian and Bibliographer at Iowa States University (ISU) with specializations in Computer Science and selected fields of Engineering. Before joining ISU in April 1987, Gerry served as the Museum Librarian of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as an Assistant Librarian with the Library of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York, his hometown.

Gerry is a member of the editorial boards of Science and Technology Libraries andThe Serials Librarian. He is contributing editor for Library Hi Tech News for his original column 'eProfiles,' and since 1997, he has been the contributing editor for the 'News from the Field' column for the Journal of Internet Cataloging. He has served as a proposal reviewer for the National Science Foundation is the Curator of The CyberStacks(sm), a virtual science and technology reference collection, and compiler of several Web registries and clearinghouses.

Gerry is a graduate of the University of Illinois, School of Library Science (1975), and the City University of New York.

Susan Thomas majored in Religion and Sociology, with a deep concentration in Psychology, as an undergraduate student at Syracuse University. The emphases of her studies were on science and technology as humanities -- a bridging of a long-standing Western cultural divide -- and the implications of contemporary opportunities for such a reunification regarding accountability/responsibility issues, therein.

Susan pursued such interests as a masters student in Public Administration, a doctoral student in Social Science, and an adjunct professor in Innovation Management, and Entrepreneurship and Emerging Economies, at Syracuse University's Maxwell and Management Schools, respectively. Her dissertation is a first consideration of "a consciousness to innovation" in the case of the creation of The Center for Advanced Technology in Computer Applications and Software Engineering (The C.A.S.E. Center) at Syracuse University.

In her doctoral research Susan applied a "creation-setting perspective," originating in the social sciences, to "the technical sciences," and examined what was, and was not, understood about the CASE Center, specifically, and the relationship between technology change and economic development, generally, during the formative stages in the CASE Center's creation. Organizational and cultural challenges in the foregoing regards, and their applicability to a 21st century advanced technology, global economic community, comprise her ongoing and current interests.