Winter 1999
Vol. 17, No. 1

Contents:

Marsha Woodbury
Y2K: The Broad View

From Netiva Caftori, Midwestern Regional Director:

This is certainly a cold, wet winter for a lot of us; perhaps we rejoiced too long this past long summer. Since it is a bit too cold to get out to a meeting, much more is happening in our working groups online. Make sure you join one.

However, in my Midwest region where we are used to the cold, the Chicago chapter met in December for a very educational evening. David Loundy talked about Internet Law; Don Goldhamer reported on his panel appearance at the Madison chapter's joint conference with the ACLU, Data Protection in the Global Economy: Is Privacy Passe?; Ron Quizior talked about the upcoming 4th Annual Ethics & Technology Conference in Boston, June 4-5 1999, and the past Information Systems Education Conference (ISECON). Finally Art Stawinski and I reported on the Boston symposium on Internet Governance, October 9-10, 1998.

The Michigan chapter's annual physical meeting in Ann Arbor on February 3 featured Dr. Jessica Litman, professor of law at Wayne State University. Her talk was entitled "The 105th Congress and the Internet."

Minnesota's members are working hard on providing email for all Minnesotans by July 2000.

I haven't heard much from our other chapters. Lines of communication may be frozen, I suspect. Let's hope spring arrives soon--I can sense the buds ready to bloom . . . Until then, keep warm and high on life!

STUDENT CHAPTERS

The CPSR board has recently voted to recognize student chapters. Since many of you are working on universities campuses I think you may find founding a new student chapter a nice and rewarding activity.

I used to be a student advisor for DPMA and found it exciting to challenge students to improve their leadership skills and get them involved in their new computing profession. It also looks good on their resume. The fee ($20) will remain the same for each student, but since universities support student activities you may get some funding thru them if you can find a few motivated students who are willing to run for the usual posts of chair/treasurer etc. If you need a leaflet to distribute to students, please email Susan (above) and she will be happy to send you a copy. ...Please ask me questions if you are interested in pursuing the idea... Thanks again for supporting CPSR!... Netiva

From Coralee Whitcomb, Northeastern Regional Director:

CPSR/Boston continues to host the TV show "Everybody's Internet" on Boston's public access channel.  Our 1/2 hour talk show gives us the opportunity to discuss many of issues CPSR deals with and to invite local luminaries as guests. We have had guests from government, education, small business, corporations, you name it.  It gives us a great opportunity to spread the word about CPSR!

Our Boston based Andy Oram writes a wonderful weekly editorial for the online "American Reporter" magazine.  He has a wonderful take on many of today's pertinent issues.  An archive of his pieces can be found at http://www.oreilly.com/people/staff/andyo/ar/.

With the start of the new semester, Bentley College will take its first steps to organize a student chapter.  The initial energy will come from students earning extra credit through Bentley's Service Learning program and academic support will come from the Computer Information Systems and the Government departments.

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You can send comments or questions to newsletter@cpsr.org.
Last modified: Sunday, 14 March 1999.