[April 16, 2012]

Former Facebook Policy Head Joins Application Developers Alliance

The Application Developers Alliance announced today that former Facebook (News - Alert) Director of Public Policy and highly regarded privacy expert Tim Sparapani will serve the Alliance as Senior Advisor for Policy and Law. Sparapani, who opened Facebook's Washington D.C. office in 2009 and guided the then-startup through numerous legislative and regulatory battles, will lead policy initiatives on behalf of Alliance members and the app development industry.

The Alliance represents thousands of individual developers across all platforms and more than fifty corporate members, including small developers (e.g., Apkudo and TMSoft) and large platforms (e.g., Google (News - Alert) and RIM). The Alliance, which recently announced its founding Board of Directors, has identified privacy, intellectual property, spectrum allocation, cyber security and mobile payments as its top policy issues.

"There are very few people who have effectively worked on privacy issues from both consumer and innovator perspectives, and in every conceivable venue including Congress, federal agencies, state regulators and Attorneys General," said Alliance President Jon Potter. "Tim is a great addition to our growing team of staff and consultants."

"This is a critical time for app developers and for innovation generally," said Sparapani. "Many questions that policymakers ask about the app industry and app developers were also raised about the web, web 2.0 and social media. It is important that we get the answers right, and that will only happen if developers - and the Alliance - have a key, defining role. I am excited to make sure that happens."

"The Alliance is an industry services organization whose top priority is to help the developer community build better products, more efficiently, and to grow," said Potter. "We don't have an activist policy agenda, but on issues that affect our members we will be very active. Tim understands innovation and the app ecosystem, and the importance of promoting and protecting developers' interests."

The Application Developers Alliance and the Future of Privacy Forum are coproducing a one-day summit on app privacy at Stanford University's Law School Center for Internet and Society April 25^th in Palo Alto, California. The Summit will feature contributions by federal and state regulators, representatives from Mozilla (News - Alert), Microsoft, Facebook, Google and more than 150 developers.

"We believe, and know from experience, that industry-led policy-making is the most effective way forward in the technology industry," Sparapani continued. "On issues like privacy, giving developers the ability to innovate their way toward better tools and the adoption of best practices is the ideal solution."

Prior to joining Facebook, Sparapani served as senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union where he earned the reputation as a tenacious defender of consumer rights and privacy enforcement. In addition to his work with the Application Developers Alliance, Sparapani will continue to provide SPQR Strategies' clients policy and legal counsel.

About Application Developers Alliance

The Application Developers Alliance is newly formed industry association dedicated to meeting the unique needs of application developers. The Apps Alliance supports developers of every type, across all languages and platforms and works to make building, testing and shipping great apps easier for all developers. Alliance members include more than 5000 individual application developers, software entrepreneurs and leaders, and beneficiaries of application innovation. Visit us at appalliance.org.

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