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The CPSR Compiler - November 2003
COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS for SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Turning Thoughts to Actions
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES FROM CPSR
- RECOMMENDATIONS
- NON-CPSR OPPORTUNITIES
Consider CPSR Gift Memberships
Last year a very wise member gave a student friend a CPSR gift membership. You too can support the continuing education of a friend, family member, colleague, etc. with a CPSR membership. Just fill out the secure online membership form at http://cpsr.org/membership with the recipient's information, and in the comments, include a note that the membershp is a gift, from you, with any message/special instructions.
Consider "Question Technology" tshirts as gifts or wardrobe expanders. http://www.cpsr.org/links/t-shirts/index.html
The CPSR Office will be closed from December 12 to January 5.
If you need assistance while Susan is away, help MAY be available by :
Email cpsr(a)cpsr.org
Phone 650-322-3778
Email an appropriate CPSR list (see http://lists.cpsr.org), as in "vote-wg" - the email list with CPSR's voting technology experts.
and/or
Email cpsr-activists(a)lists.cpsr.org, to solicit help from fellow members with a wide variety of expertise.
Help is usually just an email away.
Call for Editors and Contributors!
The CPSR Journal seeks writers and/or editors interested in doing either of the following:
- Editing one issue of the CPSR Journal, usually focusing on one topic that is a core CPSR issue area or would be of great interest to our membership;
- Writing a killer article for the CPSR Journal that would stand on its own in an issue that doesn't have a single focus.
The CPSR Journal is published on the web in HTML and PDF formats, and generally contains 6-8 articles; usually one issue each year covers the topic area and event of the Annual Conference. Articles can vary in length, but 500-2000 words is typical. Content can express opinions, be fairly technical, or focus solely on policy -- it's up to you.
The editor usually writes a short introduction and recruits authors (with our assistance if necessary), develops article ideas, and edits for content; others can copy-edit and produce the finished product. (Help is always appreciated on the production side as well:)
Please contact us at cpsr(a)cpsr.org if you are interested.
CPSR members who want to attend the World Summit on Information Society, or many of the events happening around it, in Geneva from December 10-12, can register via CPSR, an accredited organization, until November 27th. Contact Sarah Granger, who will be coordinating CPSR's presence there, at sarah(a)cpsr.org
For an idea of some of the events that will take place at WSIS and in Geneva from December 4-12 , Sarah collected CPSR-related event information in a list. Please note that many events will be broadcast in various forms so even if you are not attending WSIS, you can still participate at some level. See http://cpsr.org/wsis/1203events.html
CPSR members interested in WSIS, and/or helping our delegates prepare on the issues, with new CPSR informational materials, updated web pages, and/or connect with the media, are urged to get in the loop, by subscribing to the "infosoc" list via http://lists.cpsr.org
CPSR members interested in attending the December WSIS meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of CPSR's delegation, should write immediately to wsisinfo(a)cpsr.org
If you will be attending WSIS under the auspices of another organization, please contact Sarah and Robert Guerra via wsisinfo(a)privaterra.org to see how we might be able to collaborate. CPSR delegates plan to have a meeting a few days before WSIS in Geneva to introduce each other and plan in more detail and gather every morning to brief/debrief each other on activities.
If time permits, the CPSR delegates will try to post reports to the CPSR WSIS webpages at http://cpsr.org/wsis/.
CPSR will present:
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE OF ICT: PUBLIC INTEREST CONSIDERATIONS,
PalExpo Room P, Dec. 9, 1:30-4:30 pm.
(attendance is limited to those with WSIS credential)
See http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/WSIS/WSIS120903.html
The Seattle Chapter will meet on Nov 20th , 7pm -9pm.
Homemade goodies will be provided. Our agenda is:
Erik Nilsson on E-Voting
Follow up from Broadband Conference - what's next?
20 minutes on what we want to do as a chapter.
Email nancyw(a)fullcirc.com for directions.
Now that we have at least one candidate chair of the CPSR Working Group on Computing and the Environment, it's a good time to hold an election. Ralph Grove, outgoing chair, invites any current member to submit nominations, for self or others, for the Chair position. Candidates must be current members of CPSR. The nomination period will close on November 22nd, and the election will be held shortly thereafter. The new Chair will take office on January 1st. Please send any nominations to Ralph at - groverf(a)jmu.edu.
As many of you know, Doug Schuler and Peter Day have been editing two books based on CPSR's "Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing" symposia. Both books will be out in 2004 and describe what people and civil society organizations all over the world are doing with computer networks to support community work and social change. The tables of contents are at http://cpsr.org/program/sphere/books/shaping-network-society.toc.html and http://cpsr.org/program/sphere/books/community-practice.toc.html. The publishers of each book are looking for people who would like to be reviewers for the book and journals that should receive a copy. Doug's email is douglas(a)scn.org and Peter's is p.day(a)btinternet.com.
"GETTING THE TECHNOLOGY YOU DESERVE"
CPSR hosted the Annual Conference this year in Seattle on October 25, 2003. Our topic was "Getting the Technology You Deserve: Community Participation in Regional Cable Franchising." The conference attracted more than 100 conference attendees from around the Puget Sound region, Canada, and across the US. It was a rousing success. It was a busy day, filled with good ideas and an enthusiastic audience. See http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/annmtg03/index.html
Hear a radio show with Mike Weisman, about the conference at KEXP's web site http://www.kexp.org .
Go to the archives, click on Mind Over Matters show archives, find the Oct 18 show, and fill in the form for the 8:30 AM portion.
To continue the discussion/energy from the Seattle conference, the cpsr-am2003 list is still available.
CPSR members are encouraged to join and participate in the CPSR-broadband list, via http://lists.cpsr.org to work on the issues within a CPSR Working Group.
FORUM ON ELECTRONIC VOTING
Sunday, October 26, 2003
University of California - Santa Cruz
Co-sponsored by CPSR, and the UCSC student chapters of the IEEE and ACM.
It included presentations from:
- Prof. David Dill, Computer Science, Stanford University
- Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer and Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, San Mateo County
- Assemblyman Joe Simitian, 21st Assembly District
- Alan Dechert, Open Voting Consortium
- Marion Taylor, League of Women Voters, (videotaped presentation)
- Robert Kibrick, Presentation of Open Letter to League of Women Voters U.S.
- Ryan Coonerty, National Commission on Federal Election Reform
- Prof. Arthur Keller, ISTM, University of California - Santa Cruz, Host and Moderator
The forum was open to the general public, and about 50 people attended in person. Although the forum was scheduled from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m., due to the high level of audience participation, it lasted until 6:30 p.m. The forum was also carried live over the UCSC campus cable TV system and it was videotaped. The videotape will be broadcast over Santa Cruz County Community Television in December and will also be made available to interested parties. We hope to make a digital version available online once an appropriate server can be found. Further details about these options will be posted to the Forum website: http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~ark/evoting.html
Call For Participation - Please forward or post as appropriate
PDC 2004 - Participatory Design Conference
Artful Integration: Interweaving Media, Materials and Practices
July 27-31, 2004
University of Toronto, Canada
The overall theme of the 2004 conference, "Artful Integration: Interweaving Media, Materials and Practices" describes a central reality of participatory design. It recognizes that an essential ingredient in design practice is the working together of multiple, heterogeneous elements. Whereas conventional design approaches emphasize the role of the designer and the creation of singular "things," artful integration calls attention to the collective interweaving of people, artifacts and processes to achieve practical, aesthetic or emancipatory syntheses. The conference will include the inauguration of the "Artful Integrators Award" for exemplary work in participatory design.
We invite contributions on all aspects of participatory design, especially those that address concerns discussed above. Share your artful integrations with the broader community!
http://cpsr.org/conferences/pdc2004
CPSR endorsed a position statement about radio frequency identification (RFID) issued by a coalition of groups including EFF, EPIC, and the ACLU. The statement describes:
- The technology
- The threats to privacy and civil liberties it poses
- A framework of rights and responsibilities based on fair information practices
- Uses of RFID that should be prohibited
- Some acceptable uses of RFID
- See http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/RFIDposition.htm
CPSR signed onto "WHOIS Letter to ICANN" along with "many consumer and civil liberties organizations from around the world, regarding the significant privacy issues surrounding the WHOIS database and the need to ensure that strong privacy safeguards are established. ICANN has moved aggressively to establish accuracy requirements for domain name registrants, but has failed to establish corresponding protections for personal information that is provided." See http://www.thepublicvoice.org/whoisletter.html
CPSR was credited in OneWorld South Asia with organizing "Catalyzing National Action to Promote Equitable and Inclusive Information Society," a September 17th video conference. See http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/72290/1
Mitch Kapor, CPSR's 2003 Norbert Wiener Award Winner, spoke about "Ubiquitous Open Source: What does it mean for the software industry?" as part of the SDForum Distinguished Speaker Series on October 23rd in Palo Alto.
Former CPSR President Eric Roberts is quoted in "Cyberlibertarianism in the Silicon Valley" in the November 13 Stanford Review. See http://www.stanfordreview.org/Archive/Volume_XXXI/Issue_5/News/news4.shtml
Katitza Rodriguez translated CPSR's benchmark WSIS document from English See http://www.worldsummit2003.de/en/nav/14.htm and into Spanish http://www.peru.cpsr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=75&mode=nocomments&order=0&thold=0
Bill Drake published "Deep but Divisive Integration: The United States and Japanese Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age," Info: The Journal of Policy, Regulation, and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information, and Media 5 (5) 2003, pp. 47-65. See http://www.glocom.ac.jp/odp/library/73_03.pdf
Bill Drake chaired, Globalization and CPSR: Changing Issues, Changing Organization, meeting held during the Annual Conference of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Seattle; October 24, 2003. See http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/annmtg03/global.html
Bill Drake gave a presentation on "ICT Global Governance: Conceptualizing the Terrain," at the Academic Council on the United Nations System's First Annual Workshop on Information Technology and Global Governance, University of Waterloo; October 31-November 2, 2003.
Tadahisa Hamada and Taro Yoshino from CPSR Japan, visited with a colleague, an interpreter, a local non-profit representative who faciliated their trip, Herb Kanner, Sarah Granger, and Susan Evoy in Palo Alto on Nov. 10th.
Tadahisa spoke in an international roundtable discussion - Tapping the Power of IT for Social Change - to further explore the use of technology and its application in countries with established and emerging nonprofit sectors on Nov. 14th in San Francisco.
CPSR Minneapolis met on Nov. 4 and then again on Nov. 11th, for pizza with CPSR's President, Nathaniel Borenstein.
CPSR Spain held the second edition of the Big Brother Awards Spain ceremonty in Pamplona, Spain, on October 25.
Robert Guerra participated in an international symposium on the information society and human dignity in Geneva, Nov. 3-4.
Bill McIver reported, in English, on his travels to Peru in August 2003, sponsored by CPSR. See http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/peru/McIverPeru200308.pdf
Hans Klein gave the luncheon keynote talk at the Mercer Law School symposium, "The Internet: Place, Property, or Thing--All or None of the Above?" held in Macon, Georgia, on October 30.
CPSR members Hans Klein and Doug Jones participated in a public forum on electronic voting sponsored by the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy on October 16. For video of the event, see http://www.IP3.gatech.edu
CPSR members Bill McIver and Hans Klein presented research on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at the annual meeting of the Society for the Social Study of Science (4S), held in Atlanta in October.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Becky Lentz of the Ford Foundation recommends these projects. See http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom and http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&pubID=1273
Values in Technology Design: Democracy, Autonomy, and Justice, a project at New York University supported by the Ford Foundation's Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom Program. Project Director: Helen Nissenbaum
A website for researchers, practitioners, and public interest advocates who understand that information and communications technologies are a crucial medium for asserting social, political, and moral values such as freedom, autonomy, justice, privacy, and democracy. See http://www.nyu.edu/projects/valuesindesign/
The first edition of LST(a)Stanford, the newsletter of the Program in Law, Science & Technology (LST) at Stanford Law School. LST(a)Stanford will provide you with a regular update on the current and future activities of the LST Program and its centers. In addition, the newsletter will cover law, science, and technology related developments from across Stanford University and around the world. See http://lst.stanford.edu/newsletter/01/ and http://www.law.stanford.edu/programs/academic/lst/newsletter/01/print.pdf
NON-CPSR OPPORTUNITIES
Call for Nominations
Youth empowerment: a challenge for a better world
The intention of the award, dedicated to young people and to schools, is to identify and reward best practices on the use of new technologies in education and training of youngsters. On this occasion the award will pay special attention to a new category of projects: "Women & equal opportunities". Projects under this category must be working to realise equal opportunities between men and women in every sphere of professional life, specifically through the innovative use of information and communications technologies(ICTs). The aim is to contribute to the achievement of the goal of gender-balance in decision-making through the use of ICTs. Another important theme will be the fight against the "Digital Divide" and the innovative use of the information technologies to reduce poverty in the world. See http://www.gjc.it/2004/en/submit.asp or e-mail projects(a)gjc.it, or print the form and send it by post or fax to: Consorzio Gioventù Digitale, Via Umbria 7, 00187 Roma Fax +39 06 42000442
The Echoing Green Foundation offers full-time fellowships internationally to emerging social entrepreneurs. The foundation applies a venture capital approach to philanthropy by providing seed money and technical support to individuals creating innovative public service projects that seek to catalyze positive social change. Guidelines available at http://www.echoinggreen.org/
Call for Papers
Designing for Civil Society
A special issue of Interacting with Computers
The issue will examine the challenges of designing systems to support democractic participation in civil society, by exploring how existing knowledge of human computer interaction (HCI) and of the use of information & communication technologies (ICT) can be applied, and what questions are posed for our emerging understanding of HCI and information systems. See : http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cms/teaching/amd/CivilSociety For more information contact: Andy Dearden (a.m.dearden(a)shu.ac.uk)
Members of the League of Women Voters can sign an open letter to President Kay Maxwell, about retracting LWVUS's opposition to a voter verifiable paper audit trail for electronic voting. See http://www.leagueissues.org/ She can also be reached via KMaxwell(a)LWV.Org
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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Susan Evoy * Managing Director
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
Last modified November 11, 2004 01:48 AM
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