Ted Halstead served as New America's founding President and CEO from 1999 to 2007.[12]Steve Coll served as New America's second President,[13] before being succeeded by Anne-Marie Slaughter in 2013.[14]
On June 27, 2017,
Barry C. Lynn, the director of the anti-monopoly Open Markets program at New America, issued a statement, criticizing
Google, one of the organization's main sponsors. On August 30, 2017, it became known that Lynn was fired, and the Open Markets program was closed.[15][16] According to The New York Times newspaper, New America did it to please Google.[17][18] In response to the decision to fire Lynn and his team, twenty-five former and current employees of the think tank signed a letter expressing concern about the extent to which sponsors are influencing New America's work.[19]
Reportedly, Google made New America take this action because the researchers, including prominent young competition law scholar
Lina Khan,[20] had lauded the
EU's antitrust ruling against Google.[21] New America's president Anne-Marie Slaughter denied the allegations of improper influence by Google.[17]
The foundation's Economic Growth Program, directed by New America co-founders Sherle Schwenninger and
Michael Lind, aims to take a policy look at America and the world's economic problems. In 2011, the program commissioned a paper "The Way Forward: Moving From the Post-Bubble, Post-Bust Economy to Renewed Growth and Competitiveness"[22] which warned of the severe economic problems America would face if continued on its current path.[citation needed]
Maya MacGuineas, who has worked at the
Brookings Institution as well as on Wall Street, led the committee and now leads Fix the Debt. After advising politicians from both parties, she serves as a trusted mediator on budget talks between Democrats and Republicans.[23] In addition, in April 2010 the committee's policy director, Marc Goldwein, joined President Obama's bipartisan
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.[24]
The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is the technology program of the New America Foundation. OTI formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and
open-source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks.[citation needed]
Commotion is an open source "device-as-infrastructure" communication platform that integrates users' existing cell phones,
Wi-Fi-enabled computers, and other wireless-capable devices to create community- and metro-scale,
peer-to-peer communications networks.[25][third-party source needed] The project builds on existing
mesh wireless technologies and gained widespread attention when, in 2011, the
U.S. State Department announced funding for Commotion to lower barriers for building distributed communications networks. The project has been described as the "Internet in a Suitcase" by The New York Times.[26]
Founded in 2011 through a collaboration with OTI and
Commotion Wireless, Red Hook Wi-Fi is a mesh network which services residents of
Red Hook, Brooklyn, in
New York City. The
Wi-Fi network reached prominence in 2012, when
Hurricane Sandy shut down many internet and communication systems throughout the city, but Red Hook remained connected through its mesh network.[27][28]
Terrorism in America After 9/11—"A comprehensive, up-to-date source of online information about terrorist activity in the United States and by Americans overseas since 9/11" by New America