May 23, 2012  ---  Warren, R.I.

 

Levi C. Maaia, the third-generation vice president of Full Channel, Inc. is in Washington, D.C. this week for the F2C: Freedom to Connect conference.  The annual, two-day gathering, just outside the nation’s capital, focuses on preserving what its founders see as the essential open properties of the Internet. 

 

Maaia’s perspective from his position at the small, independent company provided insight into how Full Channel remains profitable amidst the present climate of corporate consolidation and media mergers.  

 

Speaking before the audience of scholars, lobbyists and engineers, Maaia explained how his family’s small business is different from its much larger competitors.

 

“Nationwide we’re seeing a trend of people getting television from a variety of places, not just cable TV” Maaia said in reference to the growing consumer trend known as “cord-cutting. Unlike many others in the telecommunications and media industries who lament the shift, Maaia says that his family’s small company welcomes the change. ”For customers that we’ve lost to ‘cord-cutting’ … we’ve gained (and will gain) customers in high-speed Internet, digital phone and whatever’s next.”

 

Among the other speakers at the 2012 Freedom to Connect conference were Vint Cerf, an Internet pioneer and the inventor of the online protocol suite called TCP/IP which is the underpinnings of the Web; Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor and the founder of the Creative Commons non-profit; and Susan Crawford the former Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy to the Obama administration.

 

Maaia is presently a graduate research fellow in education at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevertz School.  His research there focuses on the use of new media technologies in education. 

 

Maaia’s presentation, as well as many others from Freedom to Connect can be found online at: http://youtu.be/YSeXinuwBgU