This means that it can negotiate on more favorable terms with a more powerful competitor, contribute something of value to a joint-development project, increase its role in a standards group, raise capital more easily, etc.

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He has put together a committee of 35 advisors, including John Henry Clippinger, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab Human Dynamics Group, Microsoft researcher Mary Czerwinski, and Jon Hall of the United Nations Development Project.

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Before serving as mayor, Mr. Itta held a variety of project management and development positions for Arctic Slope World Services and the Arctic Slope Consulting Group from 1998 to 2004, where he was involved in the engineering and coordination of the North Slope Village water and sewer construction program.

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These strands came together in 1999 in the Cyberport project, a property development disguised as an information-technology initiative, negotiated with the Pacific Century Group of Li Ka-shing, the most redoubtable of Hong Kong tycoons.

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