CPSR's 2002 Norbert Wiener Award

CPSR Honors Karl Auerbach: A Pioneer of Democratic Internet Governance

Over the past half decade Karl Auerbach has both fought for and demonstrated the importance of openness in Internet governance. Even before the Domain Name System was put under the control of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), Karl pointed out the dangers of an unaccountable organization controlling such a chokepoint in cyberspace. He helped craft ICANN's original by-laws to balance the interests of users and industry experts, and in 2000 he was elected as ICANN's North American user representative. In a time when corporate governance scandals have become a daily event, Karl is the only director of ICANN who has insisted on exercising his full legal right of access to ICANN documents -- a right upheld in July by a California court. In his person and his actions, Karl demonstrates the importance of user representation in governance.

In honoring Karl Auerbach CPSR celebrates 21 years of advocacy by its members to address social issues in computing. CPSR's mission is to share the knowledge of the computer profession by assisting society in understanding the power, promise, and limitation of computer technology.

The award is named for Norbert Wiener (1894-1964). Dr. Wiener had a long and active scientific career that brought the word "cybernetics" into the language and laid the foundation for many aspects of modern computing. He was also a leader in assessing the social implications of that new and emerging technology.

The Norbert Wiener Award will be presented in conjunction with CPSR's 2002 annual conference "Shrinking World, Expanding Net" at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA on Saturday, October 5.

The conference will provide an overview of the emerging role of global civil society in shaping the impacts of information and communication technologies. Topics will include: technology and human rights, ICANN and accountability, participatory design, and economic development. The conference keynote speaker will be Patrick Ball of the Science and Human Rights Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Speakers will address how actions of computer professionals can combine the ethical and practical, given the expansion of the net, and the shrinkage of the world.