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The CPSR Compiler - May 2005 - 3.10 < <
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COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS for SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Turning Thoughts to Actions

******
* BOARD OF DIRECTOR ELECTIONS
* ONLINE DELIBERATION / DIAC 2005 - MAY 20-22
* CPSR OFFICE CLOSED MAY 27-JUNE 9
* 2004-05 ESSAY CONTEST DEADLINE JUNE 1, 2005
* CPSR SEEKS WEBMASTER
* WOULD YOU LIKE TO PUBLISH A WORKING PAPER?
* OUTSOURCING HIGH-TECH JOBS:
* WEBSITE UPDATE
* GROUPS
* CPSR THANKS AFILIAS
* "FRIEND OF COURT" BRIEF IN FLORIDA VOTING CASE
* INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST MASS SURVEILLANCE
* THE BILL OF MEDIA RIGHTS
* WAR IS NOT A 'TECHNOLOGICAL' ISSUE
* PUBLIC SPHERE PROJECT
* MEMBER NEWS
* RECOMMENDATIONS FROM MEMBERS

******

BOARD OF DIRECTOR ELECTIONS

Remember to vote !
The three candidates are David Casacuberta, Todd Davies, and
Joichi Ito.
Members can have access to the candidates to discuss issues with
them by joining the Elections list via http://lists.cpsr.org/elections

Ballots must be postmarked back to the CPSR office no later than
Monday, May 23, 2005.  Ballots will be counted June 23, 2005.

****

ONLINE DELIBERATION:
DESIGN, RESEARCH, AND PRACTICE / DIAC 2005
Stanford University, May 20-22, 2005

http://www.online-deliberation.net/conf2005/

Deliberation is a form of communication that is essential to
democratic societies. The main focus of communication on the
Internet thus far, however, has been chat and other
non-deliberative forms. This conference will help focus on
the act (and art) of online deliberation and will help
build an ongoing community interested in this form.

The Internet opens up vast new opportunities for civil society and
international collaborations. Come to DIAC 2005 and help explore
these opportunities!

The conference will bring together software developers, social
science researchers, activists, and practitioners of online
deliberation for three days of presentations and workshops. In
addition, we plan to discuss the possibility of a new society for
online deliberation with an international membership, to support
cross-disciplinary scholarship, principled design, and informed
practice in the use of online environments for group deliberation
and democratic participation.

This conference is the latest in a series of conferences on
Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC),
presented in association with the Public Sphere Project (a CPSR
Initiative). First launched by CPSR/Seattle in 1987, the DIAC
symposia is one of the oldest conference series devoted to the
social implications of computer technology. DIAC 2006 is
tentatively scheduled for Brighton, England in the fall of next year.

Online Registration closes on May 18, 2005. Registration is
limited to 300 people.
http://www.online-deliberation.net/conf2005/registration.php

Registration includes one or two lunches, two continental
breakfasts, and a dinner/reception.

Through May 18, online registration is available at the following
rates (USD):

Regular: $130
Low Income (less $35K/year): $78
Stanford students with student ID: $39

Online registration closes on May 18, 2005, after which on-site
registration fees (if space is available) are as follows:

On-site, Regular: $150 On-site
Low Income (<$35K/year): $90
On-site, Stanford student with student ID: $45

A limited number of work exchange positions will be available:
approximately three hours of work to support the conference (e.g.
set up, clean up, staffing tables, running errands) in exchange for
free registration. Preference will be given to people who have a
strong desire to participate, but could not afford to attend the
conference otherwise. Email Todd (tdavies at csli dot stanford dot
edu) as soon as possible if you are interested in such an arrangement.

******

The CPSR Office will be closed from May 27-June 9.

*****

CPSR'S 2004-05 ESSAY CONTEST

http://www.cpsr.org/act/contest/2004-5rules
Students can be published and win awards in CPSR's Essay
Contest !

CPSR is looking for papers that will advance its work within its
Working Groups and interests:

Participating students and faculty may join or renew their
memberships in CPSR for one year for $15 and $25,
respectively.

Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2005.

The Essay Contest guidelines are at
http://www.cpsr.org/act/contest/2004-5rules

Last year's Essay Contest Winners are posted via
http://www.cpsr.org/act/contest/2003-4winners

Who would like to help review papers in June ? If you are
interested, please write to cpsr@cpsr.org with the subject "Essay
Reviewer", and let us know your expertise or interest.

*****

CPSR SEEKS WEBMASTER

CPSR is looking for a person to serve as our webmaster and work
for an average 10 hours a week, administering the cpsr.org web
site. We need someone who:

* Is available immediately or in the very near future;

* Has worked with the Plone Content Management System (or the
Zope application server platform upon which it is based), or has
enough knowledge of similar mid-sized CMS platforms to learn it
very quickly.

* Is committed to CPSR's goals and mission. Membership and/or
previous work with progressive groups like CPSR is desirable;

* Has the people/organizational skills needed to organize and
support member participation and work with the CPSR Board, staff
and vendors;

* Has a basic knowledge of (and experience with) HTML, web
design, css style sheets and site architecture, and can oversee
completion of the site development process. Knowledge of
usability and accessibility best practices are important.

We're open to discussing a fairly flexible scheduling of hours.
Although we can't afford to pay as much as we'd like to, it should
be a rewarding job for the right person. Since our office is in Palo
Alto, California, being on the west coast is an added plus, but not
necessary. However, the ability to be in phone contact with our
office, especially in the morning hours Pacific time, is important.

Please send inquiries and/or applications to  cpsr@cpsr.org.
Please include references and pointers to web sites you've worked
on, with all applications.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The CPSR Executive Committee

******

WOULD YOU LIKE TO PUBLISH A WORKING PAPER?

CPSR Working Papers is a new project to publish a series of
provocative, in-depth contributions to public thinking around
computer-related issues, and to continue CPSR's historic role as a
vibrant source of progressive thinking. The first contribution to
this series is now available in final draft form on the CPSR web
site (see next item). While submissions should fall within CPSR's
progressive approach to its mission, CPSR Working Papers will
reflect the views of individual members and are intended to
stimulate discussion and provoke new thinking, rather than
represent fully developed CPSR positions. It's fine if they are
also published in other media, so long as there are no copyright
restrictions that limit their appearance on the CPSR site.

Each newly published Working Paper will be featured on the
CPSR home page, either as a feature (in the top box) or as Recent
News, and will also be highlighted as appropriate on a relevant
Issues page.

All suitable working papers published on the CPSR web site will
fall under Creative Commons licensing. Under Creative Commons
licensing submissions are free for noncommerical use with
attribution. For any other uses, people must contact cpsr (a) cpsr.org
for permission. See http://www.creativecommons.org for more
information. Each paper's author will, of course, have control
over those "other uses," and will be responsible for other
intellectual property matters and clearances.

We will be working with the Publications Committee and other
volunteers to oversee this new feature, and to further develop
standards, refine the mission, and publicize the submissions.

If you're interested in publishing your paper on the CPSR web
site or in helping to launch and develop this series and/or vet
papers in your area of expertise, please send a message to
cpsr@cpsr.org with "Working Papers" in the subject area.

*****

OUTSOURCING HIGH-TECH JOBS:
WHY BENIGN NEGLECT ISN'T WORKING, AND WHY IT MATTERS.
By Nancy Brigham. May, 2005
http://www.cpsr.org/issues/industry/IToutsourcing_Brigham

The first contribution to the Working Papers series is now published
in final draft form in the "Computer Work and the Workplace"
section of the CPSR web site. There it can be viewed and downloaded
in both web page and pdf format. It will be published in final form
as a Working Paper in the near future. All comments and input are
welcome. This paper builds on the major points Nancy Brigham
presented at the CPSR conference in Washington last October.
It grew in part out of earlier discussions on outsourcing within
CPSR and other forums. All comments and input are welcome.

*****

WEBSITE UPDATE

CPSR members also have an opportunity to contribute articles
and information on key issues you're involved with or concerned
about, using the web site's Content Management System.

If you look within cpsr.org for your favorite issue (Issues are
linked from the home page), you'll see that we've now moved
over more content from the past CPSR site and linked to the rest
of the archives from each Issues section. (We're still working on
the Voting Technology section, will be spiffed up this week.)
But to do these issues justice, we need members to contribute
content, and help us highlight previous content.

Lisa Smith is doing a great job managing the Privacy and
Civil Liberties section of the web site in lieu of a revived
Privacy Working Group. The CPSR Privacy Working Group
email list is available to members via
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/cpsr-privacy
Some members are discussing forming an Internet Governance
Working Group. The Ethics Working Group is reviving with a
new Yahoo email list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpsr_ethics/
Now we're looking for volunteers and working groups to
contribute, or to manage other sections.

Every CPSR member can potentially submit content for
consideration for publication onto the CPSR web site. Until we
have a full site registration system set up, we will individually
register those who want to contribute as quickly as we are able,
with priority given to people who are potential issues managers
or working group members.

Website-registered members have space for their own personal
pages on the CPSR site, and can submit pages to the rest of the
site for review.  (We ask you to respect the Electronic
Communicatons Policy at
http://www.cpsr.org/membership/policies/ecpolicy.)
The content management system that facilitates uploads of information
takes some getting used to, but it's designed to encourage broad
participation and discussion of issues. Whether or not you do any
html coding is your choice.

Before we can publish content into other issues sections (beyond
"Privacy and Civil Liberties" and "Computer Work and the
Workplace", we need people knowledgeable in each particular
issue to review relevant submissions and help develop the issue
and the perspective the site and CPSR take. This shouldn't take a
lot of time, once you've gotten used to the CMS, and it should be
fun and interesting. If you're interested, please send an email to
webmaster@cpsr.org and explain what issue you're interested in
working on, with a brief summary of your experience in that issue.
We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!
CPSR Board

*****

GROUPS

COMPUTERS & ENVIRONMENT WORKING GROUP
by Chris Johnson

I want to draw your attention to a current campaign
going on to get Apple to develop a strategy for e-waste. The efforts
by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Computer TakeBack
Campaign have helped drive change at Dell and HP in the past.
Unfortunately Apple has been recalcitrant to do anything about
toxics in production or emitted to the environment from disposal
of their products.

I am including the URL for an article on the campaign that we are
circulating on our site
(http://www.ifpeople.net/community/news/20050419_apple )
and which you are welcome to circulate. The campaign has also
produced an alternative annual report (unApple) ahead of the
shareholders meeting on April 21 (see http://www.computertakeback.org).

The campaign would appreciate any support - emailing, faxing
(see the free service on the web site).

*****

CPSR JAPAN met for their monthly casual meeting on May 14

Yamane and Hamada-san talked about the civil society meeting during
WSIS Tokyo meeting. Fujimoto-san delivered his recent paper.
They also talked about the schedule of the local chapter board election
and confirming annual fees of members in Japan.

*****

The CPSR- EUROPE Chapter has a new email list. Members can
subscribe by sending a blank email to
cpsr-europe-subscribe@listhost.privaterra.org
or using  https://secure.privaterra.org/wws/info/cpsr-europe

*****

CPSR thanks Afilias Global Registry Services,
(http://www.afilias.info), for their kind contribution of $3,000
(towards travel funds) that would enable CPSR to continue its
participation in the work of non-commercial constituency,
(http://gnso.icann.org/non-commercial/), of ICANN's Generic
Names Supporting Organization.

*****

"FRIEND OF COURT" BRIEF IN FLORIDA VOTING CASE

In an effort led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, CPSR and
several other organizations submitted a Friend of the Court brief in
the "Wexler" case. Florida Congressman Robert Wexler and others
sued the Florida Secretary of State and the Palm Beach and Indian
River County Supervisors of Elections in Federal Court. Wexler
alleged that electronic voting machines used in Florida violate the
Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution, because the machines do not
permit a meaningful recount for close elections. (These machines
are also known as Direct Recording Electronic or "DRE" voting
machines.) Voters who are forced to use electronic voting
machines have less care taken in the integrity of their vote in close
elections, thus raising a constitutional issue.

When this case was heard last fall, CPSR participated in a Friend
of the Court Brief. Unfortunately, the court found for the
defendants, and against Wexler and the other plaintiffs. The
plaintiffs appealed, so CPSR recently participated in a second
Friend of the Court brief. The final words of the brief are: "...
advancing technology creates no waiver to Constitutional and
statutory safeguards. The Florida Election Code requires that
manual recounts be performed in close elections, a capacity that is
lacking from the first generation of DREs but existing in both
current versions of DREs and in various other modern voting
technologies currently available. Amici respectfully request that
this honorable Court reverse the decision of the trial court."

*****

CPSR ENDORSES THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST MASS SURVEILLANCE

ICAMS was founded by concerns that global security and the 'war
on terror' have led nations around the world to adopt measures
that roll back freedom and increase police powers to control
individuals and populations. It calls on governments around
the world to "abandon the intrusive and discriminatory measures
inherent in the practice of mass registration and surveillance,
and put the genuine protection and development of citizens ?
in the fullest sense, including the protection of our rights ?
at the centre of any approach to 'security'," and makes five
recommendations to protect citizens.
See http://www.cpsr.org/issues/privacy/icams

*****

THE BILL OF MEDIA RIGHTS

"The Bill represents a milestone in the media reform movement
that presents a positive and unified vision for a competitive,
diverse, and independent media to better serve our nation's
democracy and culture, today and in the future. Over 116 groups
representing 20 million Americans have already signed on,"
including CPSR.
See http://www.citizensmediarights.org.

*****

WAR IS NOT A 'TECHNOLOGICAL' ISSUE

Doug Schuler is working on a draft Op-Ed for possible CPSR use,
titled "War is Not a 'Technological' Issue."  To help with the
editing, see the May 10th posting of the draft in the cpsr-activists or
cpsr-computers-peace archives.  To view the archives, one must be
a member/subscriber.  To subscribe to either, use
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/cpsr-activists  or
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/cpsr-computers-peace

*****

NEWS FROM THE PUBLIC SPHERE PROJECT

Doug Schuler and several Evergreen students are developing
a series of online forms that will support "Organizational Analysis
Using Civic Intelligence Theory." Civic intelligence is a concept
that Doug and others are developing to help people better
understand -- and take advantage of -- the historical opportunities
and challenges now facing us. In collaboration with Michael
Maranda of the Association for Community Networking (AFCN)
and with extensive time and effort by Charles McCann the first
version of this online approach, to help analyze community
networks, is nearly ready (grace.evergreen.edu/~mcccha26/Civic).

The main page of the "Liberating Voices!" pattern language
(http://trout.cpsr.org/program/sphere/patterns/) has been updated
and it is much clearer.   Also, with the assistance of several
students at The Evergreen State College, enhancements are
being made to the pattern language software.  Soon, thanks to
Allen Williams, we will be able to establish links between our
"phase 2" patterns.  A new status page for editors is being
developed to help ensure that make a lot of progress over the
next few months.  As always, we welcome your thoughts and
participation in our discussion and activities.

In April, Doug attended a two-day workshop entitled in Urbana,
Illinois, "Community Informatics:   Local, National and
International Opportunities for the University of Illinois."  He gave
a presentation on "Community Networks and the Evolution of
Civic  Intelligence"and later participated on a panel discussion
with Mike Gurstein and Joan Durrance. In the panel Doug stated
that it's possible to create a discipline that is intellectually honest
and fruitful ? and societally engaged -- and that our job as
researchers and activists is to concentrate on civil society.  It's not
our job to carry the water --or the slogans -- for business or
government.

Doug will be presenting on the e-Liberate system for online
deliberation (using Roberts Rules of Order) this month at
DIAC-05 at Stanford and this June in Milan, Italy and Graz,
Austria.Greg Feigenson has begun "language pack" work with
e-Liberate internationalizing it so it can be used in non-English
speaking groups.  We are now working with Antonio Marco on an
Italian version. and we are now scheduling online meetings with
organizations who are interested in providing feedback.  On May
14, Chapter  72 of the American  Institute of Parliamentarians
(http://www.e-aip.org/) will be working with the system.

Stay tuned for news of the first DIAC symposium to be held
Outside of the US.  If all goes according to plans, Peter Day will be
organizing DIAC 2006 which will be held in Brighton, England.
We're hoping that this can be a catalyst for CPSR chapters and
members in Europe and elsewhere.

Finally,  Doug has been invited to chair the "Online Communities
And Social Computing" portion of the 2007 HCI International
Conference which will be held in Beijing, July 22 - 27, 2007.

*****

CPSR MEMBER NEWS

Bill Drake gave a presentation on "Internet Governance and the
Developing Countries," at the OECD Forum 2005---Fuelling the
Future: Security, Stability, Development, Paris; April 2 & 3, 2005.

*****

EXPERTS BEGIN VOTER-REGISTRATION DATABASE STUDY
Excerpted from http://www.acm.org/usacm/weblog/index.php?p=249#more-249

Barbara Simons, Harry Hochheiser, and Lillie Coney are among
experts "looking into the design issues for state-wide voter
registration databases. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA),
passed in 2002, mandates that by 2006 all states must have
centralized databases of registered voters. However, large
centralized databases, especially those not implemented with
adequate security and privacy protections, can introduce new
risks into the voter registration process and may provide yet
another tempting target for identity thieves."

"The group expects to produce two reports: the first, a timely
checklist for states to consider when purchasing new voting
systems, will come fairly quickly, while the second, a longer
examination including more detailed scrutiny of related security
and privacy issues, should be available later this year."

*****

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM MEMBERS

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH ON
VOTING EQUIPMENT

"In accordance with the provisions of the Help America Vote Act
(HAVA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) will be conducting research on voting equipment used in
the 2004 elections. The NIST research is designed to:
(1) Determine the realistic usability benchmarks for current voting
system technology to support usability performance standards in
next generation voluntary voting systems standards, and
(2) develop usability test protocols for conformance testing of such
standards. NIST may also examine relevant instructions,
documentation and error messages, without doing any direct
usability studies thereon."
Contact: Allan C. Eustis at (301) 975-5099, or
e-mail: allan.eustis (a) nist.gov.

*****

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY POLICY GRANTS

The Community Technology Foundation of California announces
a Request for Proposals focused on information and communications
technology policy grants. Government policies have a significant
impact on the ability of underserved communities to access and
benefit from information and communications technology such as
telephones, the internet, computers, wireless technology and
digital media. CTFC's new policy grants program seeks to
amplify the voice of underserved communities in public policy
debates to assure that they reap the full economic and social
benefits of these technologies.

Only California based organizations may apply.
Proposal Deadline for both Program and Policy Grants is
Friday, May 27, 2005
For more information go to:  http://zerodivide.org/grants/policy

*****

CONSUMER PRIVACY RIGHTS FUND - ROSE FOUNDATION

Request for Proposals to support projects that relate to the
preservation of consumer privacy rights. Deadline for proposals:
May 31, 2005.  See http://www.rosefdn.org

*****

TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL ACTION: DESIGNING A FUTURE
Sheffield, UK, June 20-21.

They "wish to bring together people involved in social action, as
individuals or as members of groups, to explore the potential of
technology to assist their actions, and the design challenge of
finding effective ways toutilise technology.
See http://www.technologyandsocialaction.org.

------------------

My apologies if I overlooked any entries for this Compiler issue,
and/or if any of your questions/requests to me have not been
answered.Please feel free to send me reminders, maybe with
the Subject beginning - "NUDGE". Thanks, Susan evoy (a)cpsr.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@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.

When in doubt about how to get more out of your CPSR membership,
contact cpsr@cpsr.org or refer to the Activists Handbook at
http://www.cpsr.org/membership/activistshandbook to get help
in getting the most out of your membership.

To get involved in policy work through CPSR, consider joining one of
CPSR's Working Groups http://www.cpsr.org/about/projects
or contact cpsr@cpsr.org about starting a new one.

CPSR-Activists is the main members forum of CPSR, where the
board and members discuss current policy and organizational
issues. Only subscribed members can post to this list:
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/cpsr-activists

(c) Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility 2005.
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/membershipForm

Find out about email discussion lists and Working Groups hosted
by CPSR at http://lists.cpsr.org/lists

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

********************************************
Online Dues and Donation Form: http://www.cpsr.org/membershipForm
--
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)