Greg Miller
From OSDVwiki
As co-Director at OSDV with probably the widest range of roles, I bring a fairly unique swiss-army-knife of experience. My work in technology business has been from a number of different angles, starting with technical (programmer and UNIX sysadmin in the days of the ARPANET and CSNET), then 10 years as a software engineer specializing in human interface design, then legal (IP law, and then tech policy) and eventually a bunch of stuff that might as well be called "technology business development." That includes product marketing management, building startups, working as a strategic marketing director at Netscape Communications, and more recently venture advising to technology start-up clients on a range of start-up functions such as technology marketing, sales, business development strategies, venture financing, brand and product strategy, alliances, online and viral marketing, PR strategy, and the like.
Academically, I have degrees and graduate-level education in computer systems science, business, and my law degree.
Weaving in and out those activities, I’ve been active in the public policy arena, acting in advisory roles to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce, participating in shaping HIPAA regulations, and serving on President Clinton's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Partnership Council.
That variety of work may explain my enthusiasm for OSDV work that’s at the intersection of technology, public policy, and "business strategy" – that is, fostering the adoption and use of OSDV work.
Some ask me to tell a little about what I've done in the past and how it helps me do what I'm doing now for the OSDV. So the balance of this entry hopefully sufficiently details that.
Before co-founding the OSDV Foundation, my venture advising work via Network Tool & Die provided 7 years of analyzing business models, crafting product strategy, and helping ventures raise capital.
Prior to that, employment highlights of relevance include my work at Netscape in strategic marketing where I developed the market for Netscape products in the worldwide property and casualty insurance industry, and later at MedicaLogic/Medscape, again working in strategic business development. I started at the point where MedicaLogic transformed from a venture-backed mature business into a publicly-trade Internet healthcare technology company, and took on a number of roles, including Chief Internet Strategist and also Director of Global Policy/Technology Standards. Between the two roles, I worked in the areas of strategic business planning and relationship development, strategic marketing, M&A activity, and public policy including standards and regulatory compliance relating to privacy and security of online patient records.
Earlier, I had spent a couple of years as an associate lawyer in training at the law firm of Marger-Johnson et al, working in patents, technology licensing, and litigation. Techlaw.Com is a leading technology law boutique providing counsel to clients such as HP, Sun, Intel, (back then) NeXT Computer, and Cisco Systems.
Finally, I accrued another relevant experience after I left Techlaw.com to join Inherent.com -- a venture-funded start-up that I co-founded out of the roots of In Re Technology and Inherent Technologies in 1992. I served as the President & CEO for 5 years, catering to the Internet needs of the legal and insurance markets. We built a business from 0 to $5M a year in the early 90s, which was by definition, the youthful years of the commercial Internet. We ramped with the speed of the Internet's growth thanks in part to the rise of Netscape, where
I eventually left Inherent to join in continuance of developing new ways and means of leveraging the Internet to build efficiencies into the highly inefficient world of insurance and law as explained above.
In all of this experience, I have acquired a good sense of what it take to build and scale businesses. And I've traversed a path from engineer to marketer, to lawyer, to business developer, and acquired technology policy and law experience along the way.
Now, I am integrating this experience portfolio into a new directive to re-invent how to think about and develop a non-profit business. And that last word is the key: "business." Although our efforts are purely for public benefit, nevertheless, we have a business to develop. And to that end, I am bringing start-up mentality and entrepreneurial zeal to the task of growing and scaling the OSDV Foundation, so that it may deliver on its imperative mission to restore trust of voting technology in a digital democracy.
