COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS for SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Turning Thoughts to Actions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Consultant/Project Director Position
• Opportunities
• CPSR Activities
• Recommendations
• How to Make the Most of Your CPSR Membership

Position Available: Consultant/Proyect Director

CPSR seeks a Consultant/Project Director to develop its organizational capacity. Employment will be part-time over 18 months.

The position is funded by a grant from the Media, Arts and Culture Unit of The Ford Foundation's Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom Program to increase CPSR's capacity to serve as the voice of civil society in media policy and technology issues, at the local, national, and global levels. Work is structured around capacity-building in various areas:

· Governance

· Press Relations

· Publications

· Chapter Development

· International Administration

· Event Organizing

· Facilitating Policy Expertise

To receive an edited copy of the capacity grant proposal as a Word attachment, potential applicants should write to cpsr(a)cpsr.org Deadline for applications is May 20, 2003.

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Opportunities

To support of the California Financial Privacy Information Act (SB 1-Speier) use the ACLU/SC e-mail/web based action alert and letter campaign at http://ga1.org/campaign/sb1

Clean Water Action in Boston is looking for CPSR members to work with them to require producers to take back computers as a means of reducing pollution from e-waste and to create incentves for better design. Contact: mcnabbj(a)mindspring.com

Graham Peace is editing a new book on information ethics. He is looking for contributions for chapters. The Call for Chapters can be found at http://www.drpeace.com/infoethics/

The Stockholm Challenge Award 2003/2004 is open for project submissions. The aim is to identify and reward innovative use of IT within areas such as citizen empowerment, education, health care, economic development and environment.

See http://www.challenge.stockholm.se

Nominate an organization for the Technology Policy Group's (TPG) HP Privacy Innovation Awards in commercial and government/not-for-profit categories for integration of privacy protection throughout their organization's business process.

See http://www.privacyinnovation.org/nomination/index.php

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CPSR Activities

Hans Klein testified in Atlanta at legislative hearings on the Georgia baby DCMA. He testified that the bill would shift the long-established balance between private and public interest in intellectual property law. And noted that this effort is part of a larger global project of trying to strengthen intellectual property law at the global (WTO), national (DMCA), and state levels. He urged Georgia legislators to not legislate on this issue, as existing state and federal legislation seems adequate to the issues.

The CPSR Research Triangle Park, NC Chapter's April 25th forum on on "Post-9/11 Surveillance and Profiling Systems Operated by the U.S. Government" was a great success. The speakers were prestigious and well informed. The subject matter was provocative and timely. The event was: reported on in "Watching the Watcher: Computer professionals weigh the risks of information-age government snooping at http://indyweek.com/durham/current/triangles.html and streamed live over World Wide Web, as well as recorded for later playback via http://www.rtp.nc.us/events.htm

CPSR signed on to an Amazon complaint, which argues why Amazon is violating privacy by not complying with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires Web sites to get parental consent before allowing children under the age of 13 to post date.

See http://www.epic.org/privacy/amazon/coppacomplaint.html

The Digital Futures Coalition, of which CPSR is a member, submitted an amicus brief in the Verizon/RIAA litigation. The case concerns whether a "mere conduit" under Section 512(a) of the DMCA needs to comply with a subpoena issued under Section 512(h).

Robert Guerra organized and moderated a panel about the World Summit on the Information Society at the 13th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy http://www.cfp2003.org; that was held in New York City, April 1 - 3, 2003. The panelists were Peter Harter, Veni Markovski, William McIver, and Heather I. Shaw. Bill McIver's slides are available at:

http://mboom.draper.albany.edu/~mciver/WSIS/

Bill McIver and Hans Klein participated in the University of Padua's (Italy) colloquium on the World Summit on the Information Society held on May 5-7.

Our thanks to O'Reilly for a free exhibitor table at their Emerging Technology Conference in Santa Clara. David Steier, Jonathan Irving, and Lisa Koonts helped spread the word about CPSR. It was a wonderful opportunity for CPSR members to see and be seen.

See http://conferences.oreilly.com/etcon

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Recommendations

"Baby DMCAs Punish Copy Crimes" by Joanna Glasner. A number of states are proposing or enacting laws after the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Opponents say the bills could outlaw useful electronic devices simply on the grounds that they might be used illicitly.

See http://go.hotwired.com/news/business/0,1367,58572,00.html/wn_ascii

The Physicist Gunning for Star Wars

MIT's Theodore Postol shot down the Patriot's overhyped success in Gulf War I. Now, he's targeting missile defense -- and MIT itself

See http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2003/tc20030425_6210_tc119.htm

Missile Defense System Forum http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=us&cat=missile_defense_system

The ITU is publishing a working paper on network security written by Sy Goodman, the lead author who presented it at the February WSIS meeting. Hans Klein was a co-author.

See http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/visions/networksecurity/paper3.html

"Public Policy Forum: Addressing the Digital Divide" outlines David Hakken's contribution to the discussion in the April (44(4)) issue of Anthropology News.

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How to make more of your CPSR Membership

Given CPSR's virtual nature, we hope the following might help you find your way around the various possible points of contact. There are many ways available for members to work together. Here's a refresher about some of them.

Email discussion lists hosted by CPSR provide a direct and interactive forum for some of CPSR's interests and groups. They are listed and described at: http://lists.cpsr.org/lists

CPSR's Electronic Communications Policy, which every member should be familiar with and abide by, is at

http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/ecpolicy.html

For substantive discussions that could lead to sharing information with a wider audience through CPSR web pages, reading suggestions, policy statements, press releases, OpEds, white papers, testimony, legislative analysis, grant proposals, projects, action, etc. we suggest members work with a targettted and focused group.

Working Group and Interest lists can be an excellent forum for turning an idea or discussion into something tangible that can be shared with a wider audience, and advance CPSR's mission of educating fellow members and the public. Participation in most Working Groups is a benefit of membership for those who support CPSR. Posting privileges and archives on these members' lists are available for members/subscribers only. Information about Working Group activities can be found via http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/workgrps.html

Some CPSR Interest and Working Group lists

• cpsr-broadband --- Broadband Access
• cpsr-cn --- Community Networks
• cpsr-computers-peace --- Weapons & Peace
• cpsr-cyber-rights --- Cyber-Rights
• cpsr-education --- IT in Education
• cpsr-environment --- Computers and the Environment
• intellectual-property --- Intellectual-Property
• cpsr-law --- Computers and the Law
• cpsr-pd-workplace --- Participatory Design/Workplace Issues
• cpsr-privacy --- Privacy
• vote-wg --- E-Voting
• thegraces ---Women in Computing

CPSR Committee lists are an excellent way to work with board members and staff on administrative CPSR issues (Annual Meeting, Fundraising, International Chapters, Membership, Publications, and Technology).

Members can send messages to the CPSR Board via cpsr-board(a)lists.cpsr.org

The few current Chapter lists provide a forum for interacting with some chapter members. Subscription to these lists is not inclusive or up-to-date. To reach all current chapter members, it is best to send a message to cpsr(a)cpsr.org to be considered for forwarding, using up-to-the-minute membership contact information. Information about Chapter activities can be found via http://www.cpsr.org/chapters/chapters.html

All CPSR lists are listed at http://lists.cpsr.org/lists

Be aware that for messages to lists that you are subscribed to, to be posted automatically to lists, messages must come "From" the email address of your subscription, and in turn, for membership lists, should match the email address you report to CPSR.

To suggest the creation of a new list, CPSR members should contact cpsr(a)cpsr.org to answer questions about the intended need and use.

We hope this refresher has been helpful.

The CPSR Compiler is a monthly notice with short updates on recent activities of our members and opportunities to engage in the development of the public voice through CPSR projects.

To report news for future issues, send a sentence or two (and URL if available) to cpsr(a)cpsr.org

CPSR provides a discussion and project space where individuals can contribute to the public debate and design of our global digital future. Through CPSR's chapters and working groups, members focus on regional and civic issues developing the public voice. To insure a democratic future in a time of intense globalization, the voice of the public must command a prominent position on the world stage. CPSR frames and channels the public voice.

(c) Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility 2003.

Redistribution of this email publication - both internally and externally - is encouraged if it includes this paragraph.

CPSR is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Donations are tax deductible.

Pay Dues, Buy Tshirts, or Make Donations via

http://cpsr.org/membership

The CPSR Compiler is emailed to CPSR members in good standing,who have provided CPSR with their email address.

If you do not want to receive these monthly messages reply with Subject "do not send compiler"

Susan Evoy * Managing Director

http://www.cpsr.org/

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

P.O. Box 717 * Palo Alto * CA * 94302

Phone: (650) 322-3778 * (650) 322-4748 (fax)

Email: evoy(a)cpsr.org FONT

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