Nick Nicholas

Welcome to my personal home page.

I have been an Internet user since 1992 and active in the Internet community since 1996. This personal history is documented below. In addition, I have included some of the web pages I authored, as well as some of the papers I wrote when I was pursuing an academic career at the University of Washington and the University of California at Berkeley.

When I graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1976, I left Jackson with 3 primary objectives: Go to interesting places, meet interesting people and do interesting things. I think I have done well at at achieving those goals, and now, 25 years later, I have returned home to Mississippi in order to write about the interesting people I've met and the interesting things I've seen and done. For more than 30 years people have been telling me I should write a book and now I am! A recently written chapter is MAPS v. Gordon Fecyk: An Overview. Another chapter is DMA to Internet: SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR SPAM.

Unfortunately, I am not at the point where I can support myself through writing only, so I have returned to a career I abandoned two decades ago by working for the past year as a paralegal at Forman Perry Watkins Krutz & Tardy.

I operate a small technology consulting practice on the side: In the Nick of Time IT Consulting Services.  I provide information technology consulting, implementation and training throughout the state of Mississippi. A recent project involved the web site of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and my work can be reviewed here.

Here is a chronology of where I've lived, worked and studied over the past four decades:

CHRONOLOGY:
 
1958-1959 Starkville, MS
1959-1976 Jackson, MS
1976-1978 Nashville, TN
1978-1979 Leeds, England
1979-1980 Nashville, TN
1980           Philadelphia, PA
1980-1988 New York, NY
1988-1992 Seattle, WA
1992-2002 San Francisco, CA
2002-?       Jackson, MS

This page is not meant to be a comprehensive autobiography, but, rather, an introduction of myself and some of my interests.  Details about my professional life can be found in my resume.

Chief Privacy Officer, ReturnPath Inc.
2000-2002

As Chief Privacy Officer, I was responsible for overseeing corporate-wide compliance with policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of consumer information, as well as reviewing and updating operations and business practices to champion the cause of consumer privacy and fair information practices within the company.  I also ensure that Return Path's privacy policies and practices continue to be fully compliant with all federal and state regulations pertaining to the protection of users' personal information.

Even though I am no longer a CPO, privacy and security remain a strong personal interest.  I encourage the use of encrypted email, and my public PGP key can be found here.

 

 Executive Director, Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC
1999-2000
I joined Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC (MAPS) in February 1999 as its Executive Director. MAPS is the leading provider of education, tools and resources for controlling electronic mail abuse, and was named as one of Ten Web Sites That Will Change the World (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_621000/621850.stm) during my tenure. Prior to joining MAPS, I created and developed the network abuse and security department at Pacific Bell Internet Services in late 1996, and then developed and managed the network abuse department at SBC Internet Services in mid-1997 when the two parent corporations merged. I also developed and managed the company's Safety 'Net program, and have spoken and written on the topics of electronic commerce, network and e-mail abuse, privacy, parenting and the Internet, and consumer fraud and protection on the Internet.

I served as a member of the Advisory Board of SpamCon Foundation, a member of the board of directors of the Forum for Responsible and Ethical E-mail (FREE), and a member of the whitehat.com Citizens Advisory Board.

I have previously held senior management positions at not-for-profit organizations. From 1990 to 1991 I was chief executive officer of the committee charged with administrative and financial oversight of student publications at the University of Washington, which included a daily newspaper, the yearbook, and the annual campus directory. From 1984 to 1987 I was the president of a not-for-profit organization representing the professional interests of paralegals and legal assistants in the New York City metropolitan area.

 

 

 

Regional Policy Manager, SBC Internet Services
(The Men in Black)
1996-1999

The image to the left is a digital composite from three originals, in which the same hat and glasses were passed from one of us to the other. Digital magic courtesy of Mister 3D, Pan Dimensional Telecom God. Don't miss his hilarious story about his adventure with the Men in Black and the Mind's Eye Man..
Second most famous ISP abuse team (following Afterburner and His Evil Minions at RCN). L-R: Jason Barr (now an attorney in private practice), Nick Nicholas (the original Network Fascist Bully Boy), and Dennis Dayman (now Director of Deliverability with StrongMail Systems, Inc.).

 

Technical Analyst, Pacific Bell Internet Services
1996

For nine months prior to being selected to create the Pacific Bell Internet Services Policy Department, I worked in the Technical Support Center.  Due to the high stress that comes with such work, technical support personnel typically burn out after eight months. Listen to this recording of a Customer From Hell and you'll understand what technical support staff must deal with on a daily basis.

News Clips:

Links to my press mentions are below.  I even have a hate page devoted to MAPS in which I am featured:  http://www.dotcomeon.com.  This site is not to be missed.  I never knew I was part of an international conspiracy!  Unfortunately, some of the links below are either no longer valid or have been moved to archives which require a fee for viewing.

Conferences:

Conferences where I have spoken are listed below.  The FTC conference was especially fun because the proceedings were broadcast on C-SPAN.  I have now officially had my fifteen minutes of fame and I am relieved that it was comparatively mundane.  Another highlight was the time I was on a panel moderated by Professor Lawrence Lessig, even though there was one moment during the session when I felt like a hapless student paralyzed by the glare of Professor Kingsfield from The Paper Chase.  This was not Professor Lessig's intent; I simply did not understand a question he posed to me and I froze like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

FTC SpamForum
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/spam/agenda.htm
April 30, 2003
Washington, DC
Panel Session:  Open Relays/Open Proxies/FormMail Scripts
Moderator: Renard Francois. Panelists: Dr. Bill Hancock, Michael Rathbun, Matt Sergeant, Brad Patton, Adam Brower, Nick Nicholas

Fall ISPCON 2001
http://www.ispcon.com
October 10, 2001
Las Vegas, Nevada
Panel Session: Privacy: What ISPs Need to Know
Moderator:  Jason Catlett.  Panelists:  Ray Everett-Church, Nick Nicholas
http://www.ispcon.com/fall2001/attend-sessionlist.asp?CS_ID=193

Third Annual Conference on Nonprofits and Technology:  Succeeding as a Dot Org
http://search.compasspoint.org/conferences/agenda.lasso?conf=TECH01
May 8, 2001
San Jose, California
Panel Session: Privacy at Risk in the Nonprofit Sector
Moderator: Allen Hunt-Badiner. Panelists: Deidre Mulligan, Peter Neumann, Nick Nicholas
http://search.compasspoint.org/wsnew/workshop_detail.lasso?number=3B&program=TECH01&conf=TECH01&conference=yes

CPSR Activists Roundtable
March 4, 2001
Waltham, Massachusetts
Presentation:  Latest Developments in Email Marketing "Self" Regulation
Summary report in CPSR PING! 1:4, p. 12. May, 2001.

Drawing the Blinds:  Reconstructing Privacy in the Information Age
October 12, 2000
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Panel Session:  Constructing Privacy -- From Protocols to Interface
Moderator: Nathan Borenstein. Panelists: Ashok Khosla, David Marvit, Peter Neumann, Nick Nicholas
http://www.cpsr.org/publications/newsletters/issues/2000/Fall2000/panel3.html

Spam Summit 2000
May 4-5, 2000
Washington, DC
Panel Session: Using Technology to Solve the Spam Problem
Moderator: Paul Hoffman. Panelists: Eric Allman, Julian Haight, Tim Pozar, Nick Nicholas
Panel Session: Spam Showdown: East Code versus West Code
Moderator: Lawrence Lessig. Panelists: Rick White, Deidre Mulligan, Ray Everett-Church, Jason Catlett, Nick Nicholas
Presentation: RBL Use and Practices

ISP/F IV
November 13, 1999
New Orleans, Louisiana
Tutorial: Abuse Boot Camp
Instructors: John Levine, JD Falk, Nick Nicholas

Spam Roundtable III
November 11, 1999
Santa Barbara, California
Panel Session: Latest Technology Countermeasures in the Ongoing War
Moderator: John Levine. Panelists: Simson Garfinkel, Afterburner, Nick Nicholas

Fall ISPCON 1999
October 26, 1999
San Jose, California
Panel Session: Three Approaches to the Spam Problem
Moderator: Brad Templeton. Panelists: Ray Everett-Church, Tim Pozar, Nick Nicholas

Email Abuse Roundtable 3
October 6, 1999
Falls Church, Virginia
Presentation: MAPS Update

Email Abuse Roundtable 2
March 13, 1999
San Diego, California
Presentation: Recent Developments at MAPS

 

Publications and Other Writings:

 

Personal Interests:

I have been fascinated with computers since my first encounter with them in 1971. Mississippi College sponsored a program which introduced Jackson junior high and high school students to computer science, and I took full advantage of the opportunities provided through this program. At the same time, however, I also had a very strong interest in creative writing which I pursued with equal zeal.

I managed to merge these interests with my professional life as a paralegal from 1980 to 1988. I recognized very early that computers could be extremely effective as a tool for managing the practice of law more efficiently, and I became one of the earliest evangelists and practitioners of law office automation. I continued working in law firm help desks until I became part of the technical support staff at Pacific Bell Internet Services in 1996.

I now administer a small home network consisting of a Pentium II running OpenBSD which operates as a firewall and router, a Sun Ultra 10 running Solaris 8, a custom-built dual processor Pentium III system on which I run Windows98, Windows 2000 Pro, Solaris 8 and Linux, and a Dell Dimension 2100 running Windows XP.

I especially enjoy traveling and wilderness camping, and I am also an avid photographer. Some time in the near future I hope to make my photography available in online galleries, but these three will have to do for now. The photo on the top left was taken in Death Valley National Park, the photo on the bottom left was taken in the eastern Sierra Mountains, and the photo on the right was taken in Yosemite National Park.

 

Here are two additional photos of me at "work" as a photographer:

 

 

I am also very interested in personal fitness, and I go to the gym at least three days per week.

However, nothing is more important to me than my family and friends, so I spend as much time with them as possible.

 

 

NEVER send spam to this address:  thenick@bellsouth.net