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New Speaker!

Jonas Birgersson, the Swedish founder of Bredbandsbolaget (The Broadband Factory, one of the first truly broadband, symmetrical residential access services, SMART Letter writeup here) and more recent entrepreneurial Internet ventures, has joined the F2C roster!

New Sponsors!

Verizon has agreed to be an intermediate-level sponsor of F2C: Fredom to Connect. This is big news because the major carriers usually run the other way when isen.com produces an event. Kathy Brown, Verizon SVP, Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility, will open the Carbon-Negative Internet session on Tuesday afternoon. Making the Internet Carbon-Negative is critical to BellHead and Nethead alike, regardless of business model, incumbency or locus of control. But Verizon seems to be going further; recently Tom Tauke, Kathy Brown's boss, just explicitly rejected AT&T-style network policing, and seems to be embracing a separation between carriage and services. And then there's FIOS; without FIOS, FTTH in the U.S. would be a pinprick of light at the end of a very long guide. Bring your hardest questions and deepest insights -- this could be a learning experience for everybody.

More News:

The New America Foundation will be a sponsor too. Their sponsorship is almost certainly bigger, relative to their budget, than Verizon's. Michael Calabrese, Director of New America's Wireless Future Program, will be an F2C speaker.

The Agenda is taking shape, a complete, up-to-date speaker roster, and the emerging agenda are here.

37Signals will be joining F2C's technical support sponsors again this year for its help with F2C's Campfirenow Group Chat -- now open for participation!

The F2C Wiki is up. You can use it for ride-sharing, lodging-sharing, and whatever substantive contributions you think might be useful or interesting to other F2C participants.

Hotel deal for F2C: $226 a night includes tax, etc. at Crowne Plaza, one of three hotels within walking distance of the F2C venue. This may seem expensive, but compare the other hotels near by. (Also, no extra Wi-Fi charges!) This rate is not available on line, to book it call Leslie at 301-563-3712, mention F2C.

Admission rates are F2C's Early Bird Rate expires February 15 -- so register now.

Technorati Tags: Conferences, F2C, F2C2008