page_title: Alec Ross (author)
section_title: Government service
hierarchical_section_title: Alec Ross (author) / Government service
caption_attribution_description: English: Alec Ross
context_page_description: Alec Ross is an American technology policy expert who was Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the duration of her term as Secretary of State. After leaving the Department of State in 2013 he joined the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University as a Senior Fellow and is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Industries of the Future. The Industries of the Future has been translated to fifteen languages, and was named the 2016 Book of the Year by the TriBeCa Film Festival's Disruptive Innovation Foundation. Ross is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm.
context_section_description: During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ross played a key role in developing then-Sen. Barack Obama's technology and innovation plan, convening more than 500 advisors in the process of cultivating the candidate's innovation agenda.
  In April 2009, Ross joined the State Department as Senior Advisor on Innovation. Hillary Clinton described his work by saying that "Alec Ross has been my right hand on all that we're doing for internet freedom." Alec worked with Hillary Clinton instituting Civil Society 2.0.
  Through his work at the State Department, Ross institutionalized ways to use Web video and social networking sites. In 2009 he told U.S. News and World Report, "It's about how can you reach large numbers of people who otherwise would be difficult to impossible to reach." Ross argued that governments using modern communications technologies can be more creative and responsive in how they enable people to engage directly with each other and with other countries.
  Ross also drove efforts to aid other countries through digital development initiatives like wiring schools, adding wireless capacity to public works, text-message reminders to HIV patients, and leap frogging communities from cash culture to mobile banking. During the Libyan uprising, Alec drove the State Department's efforts to "restore communication networks in rebel-held territories such as Benghazi, working with the late Amb. Chris Stevens, to fight the Internet blackout imposed by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi." Ross' team also "provided communications technologies to opposition members in the Syrian border areas and trained NGOs on how to avoid the regime's censorship and cyber snooping."
  During his tenure at the State Department, Ross was a vocal critic of efforts to control or surveil the internet.
  In addition to concerns over countries increasing surveillance capabilities, Ross highlighted cases where businesses prioritized profit motives over the potential harms of technologies. In 2011, he publicly "criticised the developers of internet surveillance equipment who were willing to sell their services to repressive regimes and allow governments to censor their citizens.”
caption: Senior Advisor Ross speaking at the State Department in 2014
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