Christopher Mitchell

Christopher Mitchell is the Director of the Telecommunications as
Commons Initiative with the New Rules Project of the Institute for
Local Self-Reliance. He has worked as a server administrator, web
geek, and in automated quality assurance for software. He earned a
Master's degree in Public Policy from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of
Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree
in Political Science from Macalester College.

Mitchell is a leading national expert on community broadband and
speaks at conferences across the United States on the subject,
occasionally to directly debate opponents of public ownership.

On a day-to-day basis, Mitchell runs MuniNetworks.org, the
comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community
broadband. His research and reports are available online at
http://www.newrules.org/publications/information. In May, 2010, he
published the comprehensive report on publicly owned broadband
networks titled “Breaking the Broadband Monopoly: How Communities Are
Building the Networks They Need.” In April 2011, Mitchell released
the Community Broadband Map, the first map to plot all the wired
community owned networks in the nation.

His Twitter identity is @communitynets

He is also a professional sports photographer, shooting regularly for
Minnesota’s Golden Gophers and other clients in Minnesota.