Doug Sicker's University of Colorado website reveals he has taken money from IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Sun and a dozen other companies. He shared several $million in government  grants. Is he seriously biased by that? I'd guess not, but that's because I know him and his work. Because he reveals his conflicts so openly, you can make your own judgment.
Which is how it should be. I'm sick and tired of Verizon and AT&T paid advocates who claim to be "non-profits" and unbiased and refuse to reveal how much they collect from companies with interest in the issues. Folks like Bob Crandall prominently put "supported by Verizon" on their research, so that a reporter knows to review the work closely. But far too many other D.C. folks refuse to let you know their funding while they write material that reads like a lobbyist statement. No honest academic would do that, and U.S. Public Radio fired one of their most popular hosts for similar transgressions.
Evidence-based medicine has introduced the important concept of "publication bias." No reputable journal would accept an article without disclosure of industry ties. There are seveal major studies comparing the results of industry-supported research and that without industry funding. The results are just what you'd expect, and very clear.
"We support our friends," Verizon tells me, with the result that Verizon friends are able to get research funding and to promote their work. Doing decent econometric work takes time and staff; many basic studies require $50K to $500K to perform. Even distinguished University researchers generally don't have the time/money to do labor intensive studies, nor do I. AT&T has a similar band of "friends," including one "non-profit thinktank" whose main emphasis for two years was spreading the AT&T gospel of imminent Internet disaster if net neutrality were endorsed. One of the partners in that "thinktank" registered $200,000 of AT&T lobbying money; the other refused to provide the information of who paid him how much money.
I am now making a practice of asking policy advocates how much funding they get from which interested parties. Here's Doug's exemplary web page.
FUNDING
AWARDS, GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
AWARDS
Outstanding Junior Faculty, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 2008. $5,000
IBM
IBM Faculty Partnership Award: for research in the area of applied security. $10,000 (2005)
IBM Faculty Partnership Award (2008) $10,000
GRANTS
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Tim Brown (PI) and Douglas C. Sicker (co-PI), The Role of Cognitive Radio in Remote Operation of UAS, Federal Aviation Administration Cooperative Agreement 08-G-004
$189,620, July 2008 - July 2010.
National Science Foundation
Douglas C. Sicker (PI), NSF “Student Grant for DySPAN Conference”, $32,000, (9/06-9/07)
Grunwald (PI), Sicker, Brown, Mathias, NSF NETS-FIND, "Wireless Wormholes", $600,000 (9/06-9/09)
Douglas C. Sicker (PI) and Phil Weiser, NSF “Student Grant for DySPAN Conference”, $20,000, (9/05-9/06)
Dirk Grunwald (PI), Tim Brown, Tom Lookabaugh, Olgica Milenkovic, Douglas C. Sicker; NSF CRI “Wireless Building Blocks”, $720,000 (8/05-8/09)
Dirk Grunwald (PI), John Black, Douglas C. Sicker; NSF NETS “Adaptive Routing with SDR”, $500,000 (6/05-6/08)
Tim Brown (PI), Dirk Grunwald, Dale Hatfield, Douglas C. Sicker, Phil Weiser; NSF ITR “Spectrum Plenty”, $300,000 (11/04-11/07)
DARPA Contract
Douglas C. Sicker (PI), Tim Brown, Dale Hatfield, Tom Lookabaugh, Phil Weiser; DARPA XG Phase III subcontract, $580,000 (9/05-9/08)
Cisco Systems
Douglas C. Sicker (PI), Tom Lookabaugh, Scott Savage; Broadband Access Study, $90,000 (9/02-9/03)
Microsoft
Patrick Ryan (PI), John Bennett, Tom Lookabaugh, Douglas C. Sicker, Phil Weiser; Trusted Computing, $50,000 (12/04-12/05)
Internet2
Douglas C. Sicker (PI); SIP Client development, $6,000 (9/02-9/03)
NET Institute
Douglas C. Sicker (PI); “The Feasibility of a Certification Process for VoIP Emergency Services”, $15,000 (6/04 - 9/04)
Colorado Institute of Technology (CIT)
Douglas C. Sicker (PI); "Remote Learning Laboratory" $49,600 (2004)
Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE)
Douglas C. Sicker; SIP security lab, $65,000 (2003)
Agilent
Optical Polarizers, $5,000 (2004)
Wireless test and measurement equipment $58,000 (2004)
Avaya
VoIP Softswitch and clients, $60,000 (2004)
Finistar
Traffic sniffer and generator, $20,000, (2003)
Intel
XML accelerator and director equipment, $90,000 (2002)
SIPCOM
SIP proxy software, $40,000 (2002)
StillSecure
IDS security software, $100,000 (2004)
SUN
Middleware group for a SUN Server/Monitor valued at $3,000 (2002)
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