Following a career in government, academia, and industry associations, Brian Kahin is writing a
book on digital economics and policy, explaining how cascading effects of digitization shape
economic activity at multiple levels and lead to boundary blurring and policy conflicts. He
stresses the role of alphanumeric text, multidimensional complementarity, political economy,
and product-level and demand-side economies of scope. He also addresses problems of
definition, measurement, and policy modeling in an expanding, increasingly complex
environment that faces diverse interests and disciplinary perspectives. This environment has
been further complicated by the emergence of “industrial strategy” as an umbrella term for
rethinking policies in light of the climate crisis, the rise of China, the covid pandemic, and the
invasion of Ukraine.
Brian was founding director of the Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard’s Kennedy
School of Government from 1989 to 1997. The first academic program to address the policy
implications of the Internet, the Project addressed frontier issues around the rapid
commercialization and expansion of the Internet, convening experts from government,
industry, civil society, and academic institutions. In collaboration with Harvard Business School
faculty, Brian developed a popular course on information technology, business strategy, and
public policy.
During this period, Brian continued as part-time general counsel for the Interactive Multimedia
Association, a trade association that he helped found in 1986. He also served as an active
member of the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy of
the U.S. State Department, chairing the Working Group on Intellectual Property,
Interoperability and Standards.
In 1997, Brian was recruited to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
as Senior Policy Analyst. He was a principal member of the Clinton administration’s Task Force
on Global Electronic Commerce, chairing the Interagency Working Group that oversaw the
transition of Internet away from DARPA and NSF subsidies toward a unique form of global
governance under ICANN. He later chaired the Interagency Working Group on the Digital
Economy on behalf of the National Economic Council. He commissioned two studies by the
Science and Technology Policy Institute – one on patent quality and business effect and one on
web standards.
Concerned by the radical expansion of the patent system to embrace abstract methods, the
emergence of patent trolls, evidence of regulatory capture, and inattention to patent reform
within the administration, Brian returned to academia, as a professor at the University of
Maryland and then at the University of Michigan. During this period, he participated on five
panels before the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice as the competition
agencies investigated the patent system and patent practice. He was an active participant in
the European Union debate over a proposed directive on “computer-implemented inventions”
and a founding director of European Policy for Intellectual Property, a Fifth Framework research
project that became an academic society. Offered an opportunity to address patent policy full-
time as a senior fellow for the Computer & Communications Industry Association, he spent the
following years addressing systemic problems involving patents, standards, and the need for
patent reform. Brian then returned to his earlier interest in digital economics and policy,
including contract work for the OECD, which is now embodied in his work in progress.
In addition to his early teaching, he has taught courses on the business, law and policy of
standards (University of Colorado), innovation policy (Harvard Kennedy School), and
digitization, globalization and public policy (University of Washington, Evans School). He has
been Innovation Policy Fellow in residence at OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and
Innovation; a fellow at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy; and a visiting scholar at the
University of Washington School of Law. He retained affiliations with OECD/STI (Digital
Economy Fellow); CCIA (Senior Fellow), and the Technology and Policy Research Initiative at
Boston University (Associate Fellow).
Brian has edited ten books on the Internet and the digital economy, including Standards Policy
for Information Infrastructure (1994, with Janet Abate), Borders in Cyberspace (1996, with
Charles Nesson), Coordinating the Internet (1997, with James Keller), Understanding the Digital
Economy (2000, with Erik Brynjolfsson), and Advancing Knowledge and the Knowledge Economy
(2006, with Dominique Foray), all published by MIT Press. Brian is a graduate of Harvard
College (1969) and Harvard Law School (1976).
