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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

CPSR Board Elections, Candidates, 2002

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• Nathaniel S. Borenstein
  
• Paul Hyland
  
• Herb Kanner
  
• Katitza Rodriguez
  
• Stuart S. Shapiro
  
• Ignacio Vera
  
• Jim Youll

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Nathaniel S. Borenstein

Background

I have been a member of CPSR since the early 1980's, becoming more active in the 1990's, when I served three years on the board and worked on the "One Planet, One Net" campaign. Last year I was program chair for the CPSR Annual Meeting in Ann Arbor. I have also served on the boards of the Institute for Global Communications (http://www.igc.org) and Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org).

Professionally, I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and have been a researcher and faculty member at Carnegie Mellon, Grinnell College, the University of Michigan, and Bell Communications Research. As an entrepreneur, I founded First Virtual Holdings (later MessageMedia, now part of DoubleClick), and NetPOS.com. I've written three books, several widely-used software packages (metamail, safe-tcl, and the Andrew Message System), and am the author of the MIME standard for multimedia data on the Internet.

Statement

The unspeakable, barbarous violence of September 11 killed thousands of innocent human beings, but its most damaging effects are only now taking place. Unscrupulous and wrong-headed politicians are exploiting the public's fear and anger in service of a long-standing agenda of increased state control and eroding civil liberties. The Internet is the front line of the battle to protect our freedom, and CPSR has an important role to play.

CPSR must remain a voice that speaks out against routine monitoring of Internet traffic. We must continue to speak out against the use of computer technology to erode personal privacy in the name of ill-considered security concerns. Most important, we must continue to champion the idea of an Internet that is not dominated by either governmental or commercial interests, an Internet that will work to bring the people of the world increasingly closer to each other in an environment of free speech and respectful tolerance.

The pace of change in today's world is an incredible challenge for an organization like CPSR's. Just 18 months ago the US Presidential election provoked calls for using computer technology in elections, regardless of the demonstrated merit of such schemes. Six months ago, terrorist attacks provoked widespread actions to change the nature of liberty and privacy in cyberspace. For CPSR to be effective, it needs to support ongoing program work in many, many areas at once, and to be prepared to shift gears quickly as new issues come to dominate the national and global agenda. As a board member, I would focus on improving CPSR's rapid response capability, through more coordinated planning and greater efforts to enlist the rank-and-file membership to take an active role in support of campaigns on specific issues.

Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Ph.D., Chairman & CEO, NetPOS.com
http://guppylake.com/~nsb
http://www.netpos.com

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Paul Hyland

Background

Paul Hyland is currently a User Interface Developer with the Adrenaline Group, a software development and consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He has worked as a web developer for five years, a content producer for America Online, a systems programmer for IBM, and done policy work for Taxpayer Assets Project and Greenpeace among other organizations. He has played conga in the DC rock band the Oxymorons since 1989. He has an M.A. in Science, Technology and Public Policy from The George Washington University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Yale University.

Paul has been a member of CPSR since 1985, helped found the DC chapter, and served as its chair in the late 1980s. From 1990-93, he served on the CPSR Board of Directors, chaired the publications committee, helped to author the "Serving the Community" white paper, and broadened CPSR's use of the internet as an outreach tool. Since then, he has helped maintain CPSR's web site and helped organize the 1996 Annual Meeting.

Recently, Paul has started to develop a program initiative on intellectual property issues; he is presenting a paper at DIAC-2002, and organizing panels for two other conferences; he is working with other members to author a CPSR policy statement on digital copyright; he represents CPSR on the Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and its Intellectual Property Task Force; he is forging alliances on this issue with other organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Future of Music Coalition, the Association of Computing Machinery, and the Creative Commons project.

Statement

I agree with just about everything in the CPSR program. When I graduated from college with an engineering degree in the mid-1980s, I was distressed that the most interesting opportunities facing engineering graduates involved military technology. I gravitated naturally toward CPSR and it's opposition to Star Wars and the militarization of computer technology. As the organization expanded its focus to address privacy, education, gender equity, freedom of expression, access, and other issues, I was in total agreement with the new program directions.

CPSR sometimes has difficulty organizing and disseminating the great ideas of its members. With a small budget and staff, this will be a constant struggle. On the other hand, we've maintained our reputation as technical experts with very well-reasoned opinions about the issues we care about. Our current projects in community networks, internet governance, and international human rights support are growing in stature; ongoing working groups and newer initiatives in national ID cards and intellectual property demonstrate our ability to remain relevant.

Since I live and work in Washington, DC, I am perfectly positioned to represent our message in national fora, be it in front of the news media or before congress. I will work to leverage our quick analyses of current issues by mobilizing our membership to spread the word via letter-writing campaigns, op-ed pieces and media appearances. Finally, I will continue to forge ties with like-minded organizations so that we can share ideas, pool efforts, and foster a better world.

Paul Hyland
CPSR-DC/Oxymorons
http://home.exit1.com/~paul/

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Herb Kanner

I announce my candidacy for re-election to the CPSR Board. For the past three years, I have held the position of CPSR Secretary, and if re-elected will offer my services in that post. Prior to Board membership, I was a member of the CPSR Executive Committee.

I have a strong interest in our organizational structure, a subject which increases in importance as we become more of an international organization. Some of my accomplishments during my term of office have been the initiation of bylaw changes covering the way we elect the Board and the officers, and the way we fill Board vacancies caused by resignations. Perhaps the single most important thing I have done for CPSR has been to establish a workable procedure under which the Board can initiate and vote on motions by email; this had not been practical previously. In the past, decision making could take place only at scheduled face-to-face Board meetings or by expensive conference calls.

I believe that CPSR should primarily exploit its credibility as an organization of computer professionals. When taking a position in the name of CPSR on computer-related social or political matters, we should base our arguments on the technical capabilities--or incapabilities, as the case may be--of computer systems. However, my feeling is that this requirement should be relaxed when it comes to cpsr putting its signature to position statements initiated by other organizations. For example, I might approve of our signing a protest, initiated by another organization, against some form of Internet censorship. However, were the protest to be initiated by CPSR, I would prefer that it be based on some technical argument with respect to feasibility, cost, or harm to the computer profession or field.

My educational and employment qualifications include:

Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago and employment in the computer field since 1958. I was Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Institute for Computer Research of the University of Chicago for six years. Other major employers were Control Data, RCA, International Computers Ltd. in England (8 years), NCR, and Apple Computer, where I spent eleven years before retiring in 1997.

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Katitza Rodriguez

I graduated from the Faculty of Law at Lima University (Peru) and received a specialization in E- Bussiness in the school Esan, where I graduated top of my class. I currently teach courses related to e-commerce and Information technology law at the Universities of Inca Gracilaso de la Vega (Lima (Perz) and Antenor Orrego (Trujillo, Perz).I am a seasonal lecturer in e-commerce and information technology law at the Corporacisn Ecuatoriana de Comercio Electrsnico (CORPECE). My main research aims are Human Rights and Internet and the ethics around E-Bussiness

I am currently am product manager for Voxiva Inc, http://www.voxiva.net an American company based in New York and Peru where I help them involved in the development of the business strategy and the launch of a virtual office, that brings the small and medium enterprises a full range of easy-to-use business solutions over the Internet, before that I worked as Country Manager at Vlex.com a Law portal in seven Latin American countries and I was also the Content and Institutional relationship director of Derecho.org in Perz since 1997 (now as vlex.com). I am a member (representing the private sector) in the "Comisisn Multisectorial de Nombres de Dominio Perz" (The Peruvian Multisectorial Comission for Domain Name) I am also the executive director of IDERTEL (National Institute of Law and Information technology) in Perz.

Since graduating with a degree in law I have organized several national and international conferences related to the development of law and Information Technology in Argentina, Venezuela, Perz, and in other countries in Latin Amirica, and also an educational labor for small companies about the use of IT in my country. I am a member of the Spanish chapter of CPSR since inception. There I have worked closely with David Casacuberta and cpsr spain group to develop a meeting point where people with similar culture and aims can discuss key cyber rights issues in the Spanish language. The exchange of ideas and information has attracted a great of interest in the Spanish speaking Internet community. There is great interest in CPSR and I look forward to helping the organization grow in Latin America.

I am also a founding member of the recently established CPSR Privaterra project which is involved in helping Human Rights NGOs with security and privacy issues <http://privaterra.cpsr.org>.

One of the main areas I would like to help CPSR with is to extend its international reach and increase the collaboration with international civil society organizations. I am particularly interested in contributing my skills and experience to help the organization develop a strategy to increase our member base, particularly in the region of Latin America. The Internet is global; consequently it is key that we move towards being more involved in issues outside the United States.

To this aim, if elected I would promoting the participation of CPSR in International cooperation forums, organized by governments and/or international organizations, in the different fields of activities such as digital divide, Civil rights and freedom, among other working groups.

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Stuart S. Shapiro

Background

Stuart S. Shapiro is a Senior Information Security Scientist at the MITRE Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts, where his work focuses on information privacy and critical infrastructure protection. Prior to joining MITRE he was Director of Privacy at CareInsite, an e-health company, where his responsibilities included both policy and technical issues revolving around privacy and security. He has also held academic positions at several institutions including the Centre for Research into Innovation, Culture, and Technology at Brunel University in the UK and the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US. He has also served as a consultant to, among others, British Telecom and the BBC. In addition to over a decade of membership and participation in CPSR, his professional affiliations include the Association for Computing Machinery and its public policy group, USACM. He has also been involved for many years with Student Pugwash, an international student organization concerned with the interaction of science, technology, and society. Shapiro holds a BS in Computer Science from Northwestern University and a PhD in Applied History and Social Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University.

Statement

As a result of the events of September 11th, the substantial progress made by CPSR and like-minded organizations on issues such as missile defense and privacy has been significantly eroded. CPSR needs to strongly re-engage on these issues. At the same time, CPSR is also confronted with newer and equally important issues, such as intellectual property rights and computerized voting. We should continue to pursue these vigorously and attempt when possible to draw connections between them (e.g., the privacy implications of digital rights management and auditable computerized voting schemes), thereby leveraging our efforts.

CPSR could more effectively contribute to the debate over some of these issues at all levels through closer cooperationabove and beyond joining coalitions with other groups working some of the same territory. One of CPSRs most important roles is as a source of technically knowledgeable and experienced people who are willing to take ethical stands on public policy issues. CPSR could offer needed technical expertise to more politically influential groups while at the same time providing CPSR members with greater opportunities to help directly shape policy debates.

As CPSR becomes a more diverse and distributed global organization, it needs to rethink how it can best serve its members and the issues they care about. This may translate into CPSR strengthening its capabilities as an enabler. We need more and better mechanisms for bringing members together with each other in a more dynamic and less formal fashion based on varying foci (location, issue, activity, etc.), and with other NGOs with which we have shared concerns.

Our greatest strength is not our technical expertise per se, but our willingness to stake out and defend ethical ground in technological contexts. This is, to my mind, the essential societal service that CPSR performs, and as a Board member I will do everything I can in its support.

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Ignacio Vera

I've always had an earnest if paradoxical interest towards technology and the humanities. I pondered thoroughly whether undertaking major studies on Electro-mechanics or rather on Philosophy. I resolved studying Law in view of both its powerful humanities-oriented syllabus (pursuant the neo-Latin juridical education), and the pragmatical/social vein pervading the legal profession. I've been tumbling among both Tech and Law worlds ever since.

Interestingly, my further legal specialization on Intellectual Property & Information Technologies fueled my original technological fondness. Additional graduate studies on Economic Integration Law provided extra understanding on international diversity. Now I carry out major studies in Philosophy to better assess the impact upon Man and societies the new technology-based scenarios have, and the way we should regulate them-if any.

An IP specialist, I feel particularly summoned up in the face of the New Economy. IP is called to protect the new wealth paradigm-information: be it a piece of private data or a long software. A series of particular-interest bargains, world Intellectual Property laws are ill-suited to unravel this tech-law impasse. Instead, they will likely lead us to an ever deeper Digital divide by dint of preventing some from accessing, and getting their share of, information. Sadly, globalization processes along with IT could render the rich richer and poor/illiterate even more so. These beliefs have drawn me the burdensome IP Iconoclast label.

Yet, in the digital realm, Law (and the legal paraphernalia altogether) has been outdone by more effective means of regulation; namely, Custom-opinio iuris seu necessitais, Market, and Structure. The latter being my first point of convergence with CPRS interests.

As society becomes ever more informatized and computer-networked, Structure-the enormous regulation power it bears within-amounts to sheer software code. Computer scientists and code programmers have thus a big deal of direct, stretch control upon man. Whoever controls Code-either directly or not-will have significant influence as to IP, Privacy, Universal Access, and so forth. The importance of promoting sound ethic criteria-along with factual social responsibility-among Computer professionals is obvious and critical. Otherwise, we are to attest shortly the advent of a Code tyranny-if we haven't somehow had.

I do believe CPSR is a voice in the international fora. In order to address these problems, and advance its goals, it is paramount to extend its prestige. Alongside working closely with the USA (CPSR's cradle), Mexico is its natural, big entrance to Latin America and the Hispanic world as a whole. Being Mexican, my two-fold scope of action could help to spread the word thereabout, when acting as either an international law firm counselor, or a networked university teacher-researcher-speaker. I am therefore bound to make several different acquaintances, domestic and international, on a nearly daily basis. This I have evidenced by rapidly rallying up a group of committed Mexican people, from a variety of backgrounds. They are to form the soon to be Mexican chapter. I'm sure I can help replicating the phenomenon all along the Americas-to start with...

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Jim Youll

As a college student and chapter-less member in the 1980s, my CPSR "education" came from the newsletters and research papers written by members. CPSR's founders seized authority over urgent topics in technology and society with their hard work. And in writing, they taught the rest of us what they had learned.

As I finished my bachelor's degree in computer science and photojournalism, and later while running a technology company for 10 years, those lessons were integral to my work.

I recently returned to school, completing a Master's at the MIT Media Laboratory last August. And I rejoined CPSR, finding a changed organization that had branched in many directions, whose place in an ecology that now included EFF, EPIC, CDT and grassroots groups was not perfectly clear.

I seek a position on the board now because I believe CPSR's role in the midst of many symbiotic organizations must be reassessed. CPSR is small, but its membership is expert over a wide range of technological and social topics. CPSR must strengthen its position as a thought and practice leader, becoming to technology policy what SourceForge and GNU have been to open source software.

As we discuss a better world, we must not only propose, but must create, solutions that drive change from the inside out. Directly or indirectly, we must secure the trust of policymakers, and the attention of a consumer public that tolerates unthinkably bad engineering and policy. The CPSR mission must be made clear to professionals, the public, and members.

Finally, I believe the dual "project" and "regional chapter" hierarchy should be flattened, and that a topical focus, as ACM has, would better serve the global CPSR in a connected world. I also believe CPSR must aggressively use electronic resources, such as interactive webcasts and online forums, to overcome distance, to reduce costs for members and the organization itself, and to facilitate participation in CPSR projects for dedicated, smart people everywhere.

My research interests and expertise include privacy, cryptography, technology law and IP rights, and economics-driven self-regulation of peer systems. I have worked on the spam problem, and assisted the FBI and Scotland Yard with an investigation of Internet attacks. Some of my projects include a proposed consumer-managed credit reporting agency, a peer-run market system for software agents, and a protocol for transparent key exchange that could make PGP-encrypted e-mail ubiquitous.

I have volunteered as a founding board member of a successful nonprofit community Internet service provider; as board member, technology advisor and support person for an AIDS/HIV service agency; and as president of an active downtown business association, overseeing its nonprofit incorporation and hiring its first full-time staff. As publisher of freesklyarov.org and through other activities, I have built far-flung teams, deciphered technology issues for the press and public, and managed the rapid organization and dissemination of time-critical information.

If you believe I can serve CPSR well, I would appreciate your vote.

A longer statement and public discussion board are on the web at http://www.agentzero.com/~jim/cpsr/