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The CPSR Compiler - August 2003
COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS for SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Turning Thoughts to Actions
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- NEWS FROM CPSR
- Essay Contest
- Annual Conference and Wiener Award Dinner Honoring Mitch Kapor, October 25, 2003
- CPSR's Added "International" Costs
- CPSR's Formative Years
- PDC2004, Toronto, July 27-31, 2004
- World Summit on the Information Society
- Voting Technology
- Privaterra
- Privacy
- Law/ Intellectual Property / Patents
- Chapters - Japan, Peru, Seattle
- Members in Action
- NON-CPSR OPPORTUNITIES
ESSAY CONTEST
Thank you to all who have helped with the Essay Contestby sponsoring, submitting, or reviewing papers. Final judgements of winners of the 2002-03 Essay Contestare expected next week. Watch for results in the SeptemberCompiler.
In the near future, we will be posting the Essay Contestweb page for 2003-04 and sending an announcement by email to students, professors, and staff members (past and current) at schools, and to graduate programs in computer science, library science, communications, law, business, and public policy.
The Goals Of The Essay Contest Are:
- To further the program work of CPSR.
- To instill a sense of social responsibility in the next generation of computer scientists and knowledge workers.
- To raise awareness of CPSR and its mission of furthering the socially responsible use of information technology.
In order to develop focus and facilitate judging, we need members now to discuss topics/titles/subjects for the contest, that we will post when we send the mailing to give guidance and focus to professors and students. The rules and subjects from 2002-2003 are at http://www.cpsr.org/essays/2003/contest.html
Please post your suggestions for topics to the appropriate CPSR Group list*, discuss, decide on one or two, and get back to cpsr(a)cpsr.org by September 7th with the results. You can add or change throughout the year, but we want something to at least start with for an early announcement.
- To check out the Group Lists and/or subscribe to them, to be able to post to them, begain at http://lists.cpsr.org .
CPSR's 2003 ANNUAL CONFERENCE and NORBERT WIENER AWARD RECEPTION FOR MITCH KAPOR
"GETTING THE TECHNOLOGY YOU DESERVE:
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN REGIONAL CABLE FRANCHISE POLICY"
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25 - SEATTLE, WA
Related Recommendation:
Presentations of the recent Pacific Telecommunications Council virtual conference webinar "Global Broadband - Global Challenges" on Telecentres.
Logon at http://www.hcln.net/PTC2003/PTC_logon.htm and click on the "Review"button on the top menu bar in the virtual classroom.
CPSR's President, Nathaniel Borenstein, Reminded Us of the Higher Costs of a More "International" Board in his July Message to Members:
"I would be remiss if I did not point out that the influx of international board members has immensely complicated our budget. While I hope that we can use telecommunication technology to decrease our reliance on in-person meetings, the simple fact is that it will take us a year or two to do so. For now, each time we replace a North American board member with someone from another continent, our annual expenses go up by several thousand dollars with no immediate compensating income. Our budget was already very tightly stretched. If, like me, you see the internationalization of CPSR as a tremendously exciting and necessary step for the organization, won't you consider a special one time donation to help defray the extra costs? Any amount will help, and the CPSR web pages make it easy to make such a donation at: http://cpsr.org/membership
Thanks for whatever help you can give! - Nathaniel"
CPSR thanks the two members who have stepped up with donations, and encourages everyone to consider support as they can.
Join the fundraising list to discuss CPSR's fundraising policies. Use http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/cpsr-fundraising
TECH SOUP SPOTLIGHTS CPSR AS A RESOURCE
Tech Soup is a cool community of technology users working to put tools and processes to work for non profits. They are a great compliment to our community of activists. Hop to the site at http://ga0.org/ct/V7aLypS1oPFS/, register and add your two cents about CPSR. While you are there, check out the resources!
CPSR's FORMATIVE YEARS
For the second time in two years, CPSR is being studied by a researcher on the history of computing. She is interested in the early meetings of pre-CPSR held at Xerox PARC during 1981, 1982, and 1983. We are looking for documents from those years. A handful of CPSR's early members think they may have some leads. If you have any old files, or emails, or memos from those days, or ideas about where they might be, please contact cpsr(a)cpsr.org and chigusa.kita(a)nifty.ne.jp .
PDC 2004 - Participatory Design Conference
"ARTFUL INTEGRATION: INTERWEAVING MEDIA, MATERIALS, AND PRACTICES"
July 27-31, 2004 - Toronto, CANADA
The Participatory Design Conferences, held every two years since 1990, have brought together a multidisciplinary and international group of researchers, designers, practitioners, users, and managers who adopt distinctively participatory approaches in the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Submissions are invited.
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Several CPSR members will be attending the upcoming third WSIS Preparatory meeting in Geneva, Sept 15-26. If you will be attending as a representative from another organization, please check in with Robert Guerra, CPSR' head of delegation. Several get togethers are being planned. For more details https://secure.privaterra.org/privaterra/contact-rg.html To facilitate virtual participation of those interested in WSIS, a IRC chat channel has been created and will be up 24/7 both before, during and after the upcoming PrepCom meeting. To connect, you'll need an IRC client. The server and channel details are as follows:
IRC Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel : #WSIS
CPSR endorsed the Civil Society Priorities Document presented to the Intersessional Meeting, Paris, 15-18 July 2003, WSIS Civil Society Working Group on Content and Themes. http://www.prepcom.net/wsis/1057928288985
CPSR submitted comments on the 21 March 2003 Draft Declaration of Principles and Draft Plan of Action to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing.asp?lang=en&c_event=pci|1&c_type=co|ngo
Related Recommendation:
CPSR is involved in numerous aspects of the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). If you are keen to learn more and participate in the discussion please join us on the Infosoc mailing list via http://lists.cpsr.org/infosoc/
VOTING TECHNOLOGY
Thanks to the valiant and speedy efforts of Erik Nilsson and the Voting Technology Working Group, CPSR provided comments on the July 1, 2003 Report of the Ad Hoc Touch Screen Task Force of California, concerning the security of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines that record votes electronically and the related issue of the value of a paper trail. Our comments will be considered in combination with the Report when the California Secretary of State issues directions to the Voting Systems Panel on how California will address these issues. http://www.cpsr.org/issues/vote-catouchscreen.html
Related Recommendations:
Join the CPSR Working Group via http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/vote-wg Rush Holt's on-line petition in support of his legislation "The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003" (HR 2239) requiring a voter-verified paper trail for the 2004 elections. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/348035553or http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction.
Sarah Granger, one of CPSR's new Project Directors for the Ford Foundation Capacity Building Grant, has "The Trouble with E-Voting" featured in Mindjack. http://www.mindjack.com/feature/evoting.html
PRIVATERRA
With the support of the Open Society Institute (OSI), Privaterra recently completed several field missions in South America.
Privaterra will soon be changing their content management system from Postnuke to Plone. If you have experience with Plone and would like to help and/or assist us, please do let us know.
Email us at staff(a)privaterra.org
Privaterra is looking for French volunteer translators. If you've got time and are willing to help, please contact Privaterra at staff(a)privaterra.org
Recommendation:
Support Privaterra with a donation via http://cpsr.org/membership Robert Guerra's recent presentation on communications security and privacy at the "Towards an Open Information Society" conference of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Global Meeting on ICT for Development, Ottawa, 9-11 July 2003 is available online at http://ictd.undp.org/it4dev/gpm
http://ictd.undp.org/it4dev/gpm/presentations/day2/july10_panel5_roberto.ppt
PRIVACY
CPSR signed onto a letter to the Commerce Committee, headed by Senator McCain, expressing concern about 512(h) subpoenas and supporting Senator Brownback's consumer privacy protection amendment to some other legislation that would have required a lawsuit to be filed before a 512(h) subpoena could issue. "The amendment reflects a growing concern about the need to ensure that basic due process protections are followed, and a respect for privacy ensured, in the digital age."
"The amendment arises out of a broad interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by a Federal District Court that allows any copyrightholder or delegate of a copyrightholder to demand from any ISP the name, address, telephone number and all other identifying information about a customer based on an uncorroborated allegation that the customer had infringed a copyright."
Recommendations:
Join the CPSR Group via http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/cpsr-privacy Identity Crisis, article by Robert O'Harrow Jr.
*The Washington Post Magazine* Cover Story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25358-2003Aug6.html Peter Neumann says: "This is an extraordinary article. MUST READING for all of us victims-in-waiting. PLEASE dig it out while it is still on-line."
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
CPSR joined an international coalition of civil liberties groups and consumer rights campaigns to oppose the proposed EU Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement by signing on to a letter urging rejection of its provisions: See http://www.ipjustice.org/Organizational_Letter.html For a link to a draft of a White Paper that is being prepared see http://www.ipjustice.org/ipenforcewhitepaper.shtml
CPSR member Jim Youll and others recently created the copywrongs.org site, which "is a clearinghouse and connection point for individuals who are subjects of P2P-related copyright enforcement actions." Subjects of these actions can post blogs or to contact one another, anonymously if desired; the site will also include news, information and other resources that will help other voices be heard in this debate. The copywrongs.org team is actively seeking input from those who have been subpoenaed, even if those individuals are not interested in creating a blog for the site. They are also seeking additional volunteers to assist with editorial and programming projects for the site. http://copywrongs.org
Several sites sponsored entirely or in part by the Electronic Frontier Foundation also try to help people who may receive subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA):
EFF offers a page on which to search whether your username has been listed in a subpoena. http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/riaasubpoenas Subpoena Defense offers a guide for individuals seeking to defend themselves. http://www.subpoenadefense.org Chilling Effects provides a place to report subpoena abuse. http://www.chillingeffects.org
LAW
The government of Canada , Department of Justice has finally released the summary on the lawful access consultation which took place last fall. Privaterra / CPSR is sited as one of the Civil Society Organizations which were involved in the consultation process.
The DOJ has decided not to make available the original submissions in response to the consultation document, although many of those (or a representative sample of most of the substantive submissions) can be found here http://www.lexinformatica.org/cybercrime/#consultation
The report, news release and backgrounder can be found http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/cons/la_al/index.html . A PDF of the report only is available http://www.lexinformatica.org/cybercrime/pub/la_summary.pdf
PATENTS
The European Parliament has scheduled the decision on the software patent directive for September 1st in Strasburg. An introduction and all the latest news are found at http://swpat.ffii.org Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) plans to support a meeting in Brussels in the last week of August where you can see your representative. http://offen.ffii.org/bxl/FrontPage FFII asks people to please consider one or several of the following:
- reporting cases where software patents in action have visibly harmed your or others business (this can help FFII as raw material for media contact) to media(a)ffii.org,
- activating your media contacts and telling FFII about them (media(a)ffii.org),
- writing and talking to your MEP and telling FFII about this and his/her reactions (europarl(a)ffii.org),
- joining the meeting in Brussels last week of August to see your representative (FFII tries to coordinate eg with hotel/hostel booking (other people who have been to Brussels before). An open and archived general mailing list is swpat(a)aful.org
CHAPTERS
CPSR Japan will be having their Annual Meeting soon.
Wake Up and Shake Up, Seattle!
From Nancy White
The Seattle Chapter of CPSR will hold an informal gathering the evening of September 23rd. Our exact time and date are not yet confirmed, but put it on the calendar. For more details, email nancyw(a)fulcirc.com - Doug Schuler and I will be there and want to hear what YOU want out of the Seattle chapter. We'll want to know what you want to put in - forewarned! Chocolate WILL be present!
CPSR-Peru.
1. CPSR-Peru organized a small meeting of 40 high level public officials from the Peruvian Goverment to discuss the importance of Free Software in the Public Administration. Richard Stallman spoke.
2. Richard and Katitza Rodriguez met with Villanueva Congressman in the Parliament who wrote the project of law to migrate to Free Software in the Public Administration. Richard introduced Katitza to the key players in the goverment.
3. Richard had an interview in one of the best political programs in the country. He promoted The Free Software, the Free Society conference that CPSR-Peru organized http://www.peru.cpsr.org/rms
4. Pedro Mendizabal, Bill McIver andKatitza met with Claudio Meneses, Regional Counselour from the Information and Communication Sector of UNESCO.
5. The Free Software, Free Society conference with Bill Mc Iver, Richard Stallman, and Claudio Meneses speaking, and approximately 400 attenders
6. Pedro and Katitza, and Bill had papers approved for the Latin American Free Software conference.
7. CPSR-Peru has been busy with press releases, videos, photographs, and a new CPSR-Peru banner for their conference.
8. Bill will send a report to the Board about his trip, which was partially funded by CPSR.
Chapters and Working Groups, which do not have a CPSR email hosted list, can apply to get one by writing to evoy(a)cpsr.org for the guidelines and application form.
INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS' NEWS
Veni Markovski, one of CPSR's new board members, was recently elected to the board of directors of ICANN. Congratulations on the appointment Veni! http://www.icann.org/general/abouticann.htm Veni Markovski is on the ICANN Board
by Veni My nomination to the ICANN board came out as a surprise, but only to a certain degree. Since I am notorious pain in the butt, I was thinking in the beginning "Hey, do they know what they are doing:-)?", but then I came to the understanding - ICANN wants to change. There is no better way to do that than to try to get as many people on board that can help this happens. Besides, I've been following IANA and then ICANN's activities from way beyond 2003. Because of certain problems with the Bulgarian Country Code Top Level Domain Administration (ccTLDA), I've been in touch way back - to Jon Postel in mid 90's. Well, now that I am on the board, I am trying to catch up with the information that a director needs to know in order to do their duties. I was elected as a chairman of the Meetings Committee, and I want to take ICANN's annual meetings to some developing countries in 2005 and 2006 (all slots for 2004 are already filled-in). I hope that CPSR could actually help me in my work, regardless of past history, and I hope I will not lose my spirit in the bureaucracy. So, if any CPSR member has something to say, please, do so and let me know what I can do for the Internet community! http://www.icann.org/biog/markovski.htm
On July 29 Hans Klein attended a Ford Foundation seminar in New York, where he presented comments on Milton Mueller's draft study on "Reinventing Media Activism."
Robert Guerra recently travelled with the University of Toronto's CitizenLab to Guatemala and Mexico to film a documentary on the use of technology by different Human Rights and activist organizations. The documentary is tentatively scheduled to be shown on public television in Canada around December. If you'd like to learn more, visit the citizenlab at http://www.citizenlab.org
Bill Drake, another new CPSR Board Member, has been busy . . .
He received a grant from the Open Society Institute to direct the Project on the Information Revolution and Global Governance in Geneva. He is teaching sessions on "ICT Global Governance" in the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research's 2003 ICT Policy Training Programme for civil society activists; Budapest, August 27, 2003. He was appointed to the Social Science Research Council's new Research Network on ICT Governance and Transnational Civil Society. He organized a three hour side event on Global Governance of ICT: Public Interest Considerations, to be held during the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in December. And he presented a paper on "The Global Digital Divide: Implications for Corruption and Transparency," at the Third Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity: Ongoing Challenges, Shared Responsibilities, Seoul; May 29-31, 2003.
Rick Barry, past CPSR Board Member, gave a keynote presentation, "Ethics and Social Issues for Creators, Managers and Users of Records," at the University of Liverpool conference on Political Pressure and the Archival Record, July 22-25. http://www.liv.ac.uk/lucas/Political_pressure_files/polpressurehome.htm
Doug Schuler, as part of his trip to Milan for DIAC '03, made a presentation about CPSR to people interested in forming a CPSR chapter in Italy.
NON-CPSR OPPORTUNITIES
Funding Exchange Launches Media Justice Fund to support work to shift the focus of media and telecommunications policies to reflect social justice values. Supported by a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation, the Fund will support local and national organizing efforts aimed at media-reform policies, open access to technology, and accountability by media corporations. The Fund will promote projects that manifest strong collaborations between media and social-justice activists and agendas. Apply for Immediate Response Grants. Deadline: Open http://www.fex.org/home.html
Fellowships are available (funded by the Ford Foundation's Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom Program) for U.S.-based applicants for Strategy Workshop on Political Tools for the Web in Media Reform, Media Justice, and Communications Rights http://www.issuenetwork.org
Apply for a research student bursary for three years full time study for a PhD. Fees (at UK/Europe rate currently 2940GBP) plus a subsistence grant (7500GBP) are included in the bursary. The student will be located at The Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility in Leicester UK
Research at CCSR has been particularly strong in technological assessment from an ethical and social perspective. Indicative of this is the work commissioned by the UK Government to investigate the efficacy of Electronic Voting. The successful applicant might conduct research into a specific application of this type of technological assessment. This application would either be electronic commerce or workplace monitoring. http:/www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk for more details of the work of CCSR An electronic application form can be accessed at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/Images/2_4418.doc and a referees form at www.dmu.ac.uk/Images/2_4419.doc Applications to be submitted by email to Dr Berndt Stahl (bstahl(a)dmu.ac.uk) by 25 August 2003
The Open Society Institute's Information Program requests project proposals for its ICT Toolsets initiative. This initiative seeks to advance and support open society principles and practices by funding the development of software tools designed to meet the mission objectives of civil society organizations and actors. September 30 application deadline. See http://collab.blueoxen.net/forums/tools-yak/2003-07/msg00047.html
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.
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Last modified June 09, 2006 02:16 PM
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