Derek leads Free Press’ research and policy analysis and advises the co-CEOs and policy team. Since joining Free Press full time in 2006, Derek's landmark research has revealed racial inequities in the digital divide, investigated the dismal state of media ownership among women and people of color, and exposed waste in federal broadband programs. He tracks the media, tech and telecommunications industries and writes on a wide range of policy issues, including broadband competition, broadcast consolidation, the economics of the media industry, and the future of journalism. He is the lead author of the book Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age, and his work has appeared in Ars Technica, Salon and Wired. Derek holds a master's degree in public policy from the Goldman School at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received the 2006 Smolensky Prize for Outstanding Advanced Policy Analysis.
Expert Analysis
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Cable One — a broadband provider to 923,000 customers in 24 states — made some honest comments that should make regulators at the FCC sit up and take notice.
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Lawmakers finally seem to be getting more concerned about the deepening crisis in local journalism. Here’s our look at the bills that have been proposed so far.
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During the late 2010s, 21 rural Massachusetts towns voted to build their own fiber networks. A broken process from the Trump FCC nearly imperiled these networks.
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Free Press COO Kimberly Longey organized a municipal project to bring fiber internet to her community. Now the FCC is endangering this network — and others.
News
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WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Free Press called on the FCC to reinvent its Universal Service Fund policies to ensure affordable internet access for millions of people in need.
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Just four months after disclosing a massive data breach, T-Mobile has again been hacked.
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Free Press explains that the FCC must remove any barriers that broadband providers might put in the way of people seeking to use these benefits to get online.
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The FCC doesn’t have the data it needs to ensure that the broadband-infrastructure money is spent where it’s most needed. But there’s a clear place to start: in communities of color.
From the Policy Library
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In these comments, Free Press outlines specific steps for the agency to take to ensure that millions more people can connect to affordable internet.
FCC Filing & Correspondence
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In these comments, Free Press offers guidance to the FCC on how to implement the infrastructure bill’s $14.2-billion Affordable Connectivity Program.
FCC Filing & Correspondence
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This filing documents a meeting Free Press held with members of FCC Commissioner Starks’ office about a Free Press report on the rising cost of internet access.
FCC Filing & Correspondence
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This Free Press study offers a comprehensive look at the skyrocketing cost of internet access in the United States.
