The Fall 2014 issue of Democracy featured a symposium on “Regulating the Digital Economy,” focused on the question of how progressives should approach regulation in the age of Uber, Airbnb, big data, high-speed broadband, and relentless innovation. How can regulators at an information deficit implement smart rules governing these new technologies? How can they protect the values we hold dear–entrepreneurship, fairness, competition, equality, and privacy, to name a few–in a world moving at gigabit speed?

On Tuesday, September 30, Democracy and the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy hosted a lively discussion on these topics. Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner at the FCC, gave keynote remarks on the importance of “sandbox thinking” by government. Following that, author Larry Downes, Karen Kornbluh of the Council on Foreign Relations, John Mayo of the CBPP, and Ron Klain of Revolution LLC discussed how regulation should adapt to a changing economy.