Tim Wu in the Meat Packing district in Manhattan, NY on December 19, 2010. Tim Wu specializes in telecommunications law, copyright, and international trade. He is the co-author of Who Controls the Internet?
Jimmy Jeong for The Globe and Mail
The visionaries
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
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How do you crack this lineup? By seeing things others don't. Example: How chemistry can radically remake food and wine pairings. Or: Why a half-million drug-research scientists are doing things all wrong
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Tim Wu: A freedom fighter for the digital age
Tim Wu in the Meat Packing district in Manhattan, NY on December 19, 2010. Tim Wu specializes in telecommunications law, copyright, and international trade. He is the co-author of Who Controls the Internet?— Jimmy Jeong for The Globe and Mail
‘This is not about selling wristwatches or sweaters,” says Tim Wu, the Columbia Law School professor considered one of the world's leading thinkers on technology policy. “This is information – information is power.”
Raised in Toronto and a graduate of McGill University, he argues in The Master Switch, his new book, that information empires from radio to the modern Internet have a standard “cycle.” They begin with intense and extremely positive innovation but eventually lead to the rise of monopolistic entities that stray from their roots and, in some cases, stifle progress rather than foster it.
“Right when a monopolist takes over, things are great for a little while,” he said recently, citing such examples as Hollywood in the 1930s and the early days of network television.
“The negative consequences start … 10 or 20 years later. That's when you start to notice that entrepreneurship has dried up.”
Prof. Wu first came to prominence in 2003 when he coined the term “network neutrality.” It describes a universally accessible Internet in which the quality of service is not dependent on factors such as the kind of device being used or the kind of content being accessed.
In effect, he set out the guidelines for one of the more important debates of the Internet age: Should the Web remain a flat space, easily accessible to everyone, or is the future of Internet access similar to other for-profit industries, in which companies can offer tiered services at different costs?
After growing up in Toronto, where his mother, Gillian, is a cancer researcher who teaches at York University, and earning his bachelor's degree from McGill, Prof. Wu studied law at Harvard University. After serving as a law clerk for leading members of the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals, he began teaching at the University of Virginia and then Columbia.
Now his expertise in the nature of monopolistic empires and Net neutrality is about to become even more important. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission is set to introduce rules on Net neutrality that critics say will fall far short of what's needed to keep the Web a level playing field.
In addition, some of the world's largest tech firms are under intense scrutiny for potentially monopolistic behaviour – from Google's dominance in searches to Apple's in mobile apps. As a result, Prof. Wu will be called on to help consumers and governments decide what should be done to ensure the Web doesn't follow the same cycle as previous information empires. “These are special industries,” he says. “These are political companies.”
Nevertheless, the dim sum aficionado (he once worked at Hoo's Dumplings in Charlottesville, Va.) looks ahead with some optimism as public figures such as U.S. Senator Al Franken declare Net neutrality “the most important free-speech issue of our time.”
Rather than despair, he suggests that “whether we are destined, or in some way it is inevitable the Net becomes consolidated, is something which I actually think we have more control over than we think.”
“If we want to keep the Net more open, we can do that.”
– Omar El Akkad
To see Tim Wu in action:
One-on-one with Tim Wu (video)
Are the Internet's 'wild west' days coming to an end? (video)
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François Chartier, 45
Wine expert and author
Pickles and ice cream: A practitioner of so-called molecular gastronomy, Mr. Chartier is the first to apply chemical analysis to the pairing of food and drink. His book Taste Buds and Molecules: The Art and Science of Food with Wine shatters age-old conventions about which wine goes with what food, garnering a “best innovative food book” prize at the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris. He has consulted to top chefs, notably foam maestro Ferran Adria of Spain, to come up with radical new flavour combinations. Cauliflower and papaya, anyone?
From misfortune: A sommelier by training, Mr. Chartier, who lives in Sainte-Adèle, north of Montreal, began his scientific explorations after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the mid-1990s. Interest in a new MS diet and the healing powers of plant compounds sparked curiosity about the aromatic-molecule links between plants and wine. Example: hydrocarbon molecules called terpenes associated with coniferous plants, including rosemary, share a flavour note with Riesling wine.
His 2011 moment: Mr. Chartier hopes to ink a deal with a U.S. publisher this year, and he has just signed a five-year deal with Lasalle College in Montreal to share his research as part of the wine-and-bar-services curriculum.
The breakthrough he dreams of is that the stu-dents there convert to his scientific gospel – and go on to spread it through the world like molecular Johnny Appleseeds.
– Beppi Crosariol
François Chartier while working at elBulli restaurant
He has consulted to top chefs, notably foam maestro Ferran Adria of Spain, to come up with radical new flavour combinations. Cauliflower and papaya, anyone?
For more on François Chartier:
A growing genre of cookbooks skips recipes and focuses on science
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Aled Edwards, 48
CEO and director of the Structural Genomics Consortium
Crystal castle: Internationally renowned for developing new ways to produce crystals, a basic element of genetic research. In recent years, Dr. Edwards has become an aggressive proponent of open-access drug development and, with the Structural Genomics Consortium, shown the approach can work.
Pharma plus: Dr. Edwards's goal is to fundamentally change how pharmaceutical research is done. There are about 600,00 scientists around the world doing drug research at a cost of $200-billion a year, yet the industry produces only about 20 new drugs annually. “We need to throw a hand grenade in that model,” he says. “They're all doing the same stupid experiments secretly in parallel and failing 90 per cent of the time.” If the fundamental findings were funded with pooled resources and published freely, far more innovative medicine would be produced.
His 2011 moment: On Feb. 16, 2011, leaders in the drug-research field will gather in Toronto to lay the groundwork for a private-public partnership that will increase open-access drug development. “This is going to be a game-changer,” Dr. Edwards says.
– André Picard
Structural Genomics Consortium Chief Executive Officer, Aled Edwards hams it up for the camera at the company lab in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
For more on Aled Edwards:
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Anil Walji, 57
Physician and professor, University of Alberta
African dream: Chairman of an international team developing a new Kenyan medical school funded by the Aga Khan, meant to train well-rounded, homegrown doctors in East Africa. The team hopes to open it by 2015, and is fast-tracking its unique curriculum.
The teacher: Dr. Walji was educated in Kenya and the U.K. before coming to Alberta 23 years ago. He's overhauled the programs of two medical schools, including one in Pakistan backed by the Aga Khan, and will build this one from scratch. “We're trying to create graduates who are going to be thinkers, leaders and innovators,” he says. The challenge? “We're going to have to create incentives for these graduates to stay in East Africa.”
His 2011 moment: In January and July, Dr. Walji and his team will meet in Nairobi to put the finishing touches on the middle “pre-clerkship” stage of the six-year academic program they're developing.
– Josh Wingrove
— Credit: University of Alberta
We're trying to create graduates who are going to be thinkers, leaders and innovators — Anil Walji
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Larry Beasley, 62
Planner
City on a hill: As co-director of planning, he was the poster boy for Vancouver's contemporary remodelling, his so-called Vancouver Model emulated around the globe.
Less than six months after retiring from that post in 2006, he was named special adviser on city planning to the government of Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest of the United Arab Emirates. Beasley and Associates founded the emirate's planning agency, which has more than 200 employees.
A steady climb: Mr. Beasley worked 32 years in Vancouver's planning department, the last 12 running the show.
His 2011 moment: Abu Dhabi planners will design three new cities, each with a projected population of 50,000 to 150,000. As well, the CityDesign Studio he established in Dallas in 2009 is presenting for local approval a plan for a new inner-city community of 30,000.
– James Adams
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Kunal Gupta, 25
Chief executive officer, Polar Mobile
Success comes calling: While a software engineering student at the University of Waterloo, Mr. Gupta co-founded Polar Mobile in late 2007. The Toronto-based company is now one of the top developers of applications for smartphones, with 40 employees, 200 clients in 10 countries and seven million consumers using its products. Polar Mobile has created more than 400 apps for the likes of Time, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Sports Illustrated.
Globally inspired: Born in Montreal and raised in Ottawa, Mr. Gupta graduated from Waterloo in 2008. His drive to develop content for smartphones was inspired by travelling to Britain, India and Hong Kong, where he saw how advanced mobile technology had become. “Five years ago, we were barely texting here,” he says, “and people were watching TV on their phone on the subway in Hong Kong.”
His 2011 moment: A cagey competitor, Mr. Gupta is tight-lipped about Polar Mobile's plans. It's aiming at the tablet market and preparing to unveil its “post-app” strategy: Interpret that as you will, but he says the company will look very different by spring.
– Carly Weeks
Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar Mobile
Five years ago, we were barely texting here, and people were watching TV on their phone on the subway in Hong Kong — Kunal Gupta
For more on Kunal Gupta:
