Annalee Newitz

Background:

Annalee Newitz is a nationally-known technology and science writer. She is a contributing editor at Wired, and also writes for Popular Science, Alternet.org, Salon.com, New Scientist, and MAKE. Her syndicated column Techsploitation is about the intersection of culture and technology it runs in weekly newspapers throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 2002, she won a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that allowed her to spend a year at MIT doing research. A former policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, she is also a strong supporter of alternative media. For four years she was the culture editor at the San Francisco Bay Guardian, one of the nation's last independent weekly newspapers, and is currently the editor of indie magazine /other/ (www.othermag.org). In 1992 she helped to found Bad Subjects, the first leftist magazine available online. She has published several books, including a forthcoming anthology of essays by women working in science and technology called She is Such a Geek (Seal Press). Annalee has discussed her work on CNN, NPR, CBS, the Discovery Channel, the BBC and the CBC, as well as in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She holds a Ph.D. in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley.

Candidate Statement:

I have been a supporter of CPSR since I was a high school student in the 1980s, when I first heard about the group's efforts to bring scientific reason to debates over SDI. In later years, as I became interested in free speech and privacy on the Internet, I was also pleased to see representatives of CPSR bringing technologically-informed, progressive opinions into national conversations on these topics.

Today, too many political and social debates over technology are steeped in mythology and fear. It's my belief that one of CPSR's most valuable roles is as a source for thoughtful, clear information that the public can use to make responsible choices about what kinds of high tech devices they want to welcome into their daily lives, and how they want those devices regulated. If elected to the board of CPSR, I will strive to continue CPSR's mission by offering the public well-reasoned perspectives on how new technologies have the power to both limit and liberate us. I hope to do this via community organizing at public debates and events both online and off -- as well as through my writing.

There are a few key issues I hope to focus on during my tenure on the CPSR board. I am deeply interested in the rights of scientists to reverse engineer technology, as well as the public's right to use their high tech devices how they wish. As a result, I am critical of digital rights technologies that limit how computers and other devices can be used, especially when DRM overreaches current copyright laws. I am also concerned with policies around the responsible disclosure of security vulnerabilities in software and hardware devices. We need to keep companies honest about the security risks of the technologies they sell, while at the same time generating responsible standards for how researchers release the vulns they discover. Finally, as a feminist, one of my abiding interests is getting more women involved in technical fields. Because computer science and engineering are two fields most likely to change the future, it's crucial that women be represented in equal numbers to men.

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