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ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE
U.S. Office of Public Policy of the
Association for Computing Machinery
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March 11, 1998
Volume 2.2
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CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION
ACM POLICY 98 CONFERENCE
USACM ACTIVITIES
USACM Comments On House Database Legislation
USACM Chair Appointed To President's Council
POLICY BRIEFS
Executive Order Issued On Year 2000 Problem
Panel Releases Report on Biodiversity
Survey Reports 30 Million Computers on 'Net
Conference on Public Understanding of Science
The Internet School Filtering Act
USACM Members Serve On Domain Name Panel
Nominations And New Appointments
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INTRODUCTION
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The Association for Computing Machinery is an international professional
society whose 75,000 members (60,000 in the U.S.) represent a critical mass
of computer scientists in education, industry, and government. The USACM
provides a means for promoting dialogue on technology policy issues with
United States policy makers and the general public. The WASHINGTON UPDATE
will report on activities in Washington which may be of interest to those
in the computing and information policy communities and will highlight
USACM's involvement in many of these issues.
To subscribe to the ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE send an e-mail to
listserv@acm.org with "subscribe WASHINGTON-UPDATE" (no quotes) in the body
of the message. Back issues are available at http:// www.acm.org/usacm
For information about joining the Association for Computing, see:
http://www.acm.org/membership/join.html
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ACM 1998 CONFERENCE
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ACM POLICY '98
"Shaping Policy in the Information Age"
May 10-12, 1998
Washington Renaissance Hotel
Washington, DC
The leading professional society in computing will hold its 1998 conference
in Washington, DC and focus on public policy issues affecting future
applications of computing.
Our goal is to promote ongoing engagement between computing professionals
and policy makers to further the productive use of computing and
information processing innovations. Computing professionals can become
more influential if they are more informed about political processes and
issues. Policy makers can be more effective if they have access to
technical experts who can provide thoughtful testimony and offer a wider
range of options.
Attendees at ACM Policy 98 will exchange ideas with prominent leaders from
academia, industry, Congress, and Executive agencies. Join us on May 10,
1998 to explore the ethical and social issues related to computer
technology, participate in the debate between Esther Dyson and Gary
Chapman, and honor computing professionals at the ACM Awards Banquet. Then
on May 11-12, 1998 listen as national leaders present their reports:
Speakers include:
+Representatives Vern Ehlers, House Science Committee (invited)
"Congressional Report: Reformulating US Science Policy"
+Chairman Orrin Hatch, Senate Judiciary Committee
"Intellectual Property in Cyberspace"
+Representative Constance Morella, House Science Committee
"Congressional Report: The Role of the Federal Government in
Computing"
+Esther Dyson and Gary Chapman
"Media Views of the Future of Computing"
+John Gage, Sun Microsystems
"Founder, Netday"
+Juris Hartmanis, National Science Foundation
"Academic Report: The Role of the NSF in Computing Policy
+Larry Irving, National Telecommunications and Information Administration
"Universal Service"
+Ira Magaziner, Special Advisor to the President
"White House Report"
+USACM Members Bob Ellis, Dave Farber, Jim Horning, Pam Samuelson, Ollie
Smoot§
Policy Panels:
+ Electronic Commerce
+ Intellectual Property
+ Learning Online
+ Universal Service
Ethics and Social Impact Sessions:
+Kids Online: Home, School, and the Web
+Privacy: Lost in Cyberspace?
+Point and Counterpoint: Media Views of the Future of Computing
For Conference and Registration information see:
http://www.acm.org/policy98/
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USACM NEWS
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USACM COMMENTS ON HOUSE DATABASE LEGISLATION
On March 5, USACM sent a letter to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on
Courts and Intellectual Property expressing concern about H.R. 2652, the
"Collections of Information Antipiracy Act." The letter stated that, "The
Association for Computing (ACM) recognizes the need to protect investments
made in large data collections. However, the proposed legislation fails to
recognize the legitimate needs of academic, professional, scientific, and
ordinary users of data. Therefore, we believe that the legislation, as
currently drafted, is generally not in the interests of the computing
profession or of the general public."
H.R. 2652 is legislation intended to protect investments made in data
collections. Since "facts" cannot be copyrighted, the legislation adopts a
misappropriations approach that penalizes the extraction of a substantial
unauthorized "use in commerce" of data compilations if it would "harm" the
original compiler's market.
USACM noted a number of problems with this legislation. First, proponents
of the bill have not demonstrated that the legislation is necessary.
Second, the fair use provisions in the Bill "fall far short of the
exemptions necessary to permit researchers to verify others' results,
educators to demonstrate models in classrooms, scientists to make use of
government databases, and other traditionally protected uses." The
provisions also are contrary to the traditional scientific model of "Full
and open" exchange of information which is defined in the scientific
community as data and information derived from publicly funded research
which is made available with as few restrictions as possible, on a
nondiscriminatory basis, for no more than the cost of reproduction and
dissemination." Third, under this legislation, "the owner of the data
compilation will have the authority to determine which users may access the
data if more than a "substantial" amount of data from the compilation is
requested." And finally, the legislation also impacts citizens, "who
currently have the right to full and open access to data from databases
created by their government and by organizations funded by the government,
no matter if someone else has also published the data."
USACM encourages other persons and groups to comment on this legislation.
For the USACM letter see
http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright/usacm-letter-hr2652.html
For the legislation see
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2652.IH:
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USACM CHAIR APPOINTED TO PRESIDENTS COUNCIL
USACM Chair Dr. Barbara Simons has been appointed to the President's Export
Council Subcommittee on Encryption. The Subcommittee serves as a senior
level advisory committee to the Department of Commerce, specifically the
Bureau of Export Administration. The inaugural meeting was held Feb. 23 in
Washington.
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POLICY BRIEFS
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EXECUTIVE ORDER ISSUED ON YEAR 2000 PROBLEM
On February 4, 1998, President Clinton signed an Executive Order on the
Year 2000 Conversion which discusses the government's policies for
addressing the problem that some computer systems and other electronic
devices will misinterpret the year "00" as 1900, rather than 2000. Unless
appropriate action is taken, this flaw can cause systems that support those
functions to compute erroneously or simply not run. According to the Order,
"Minimizing the Y2K problem will require a major technological and
managerial effort, and it is critical that the United States Government do
its part in addressing this challenge."
The Order states that it shall be the policy of the executive branch that
agencies shall assure that no critical Federal program experiences
disruption because of the Y2K problem and that they assist and cooperate
with State, local, and tribal governments, the private sector operators of
critical national and local systems and their foreign counterparts in
addressing the problem. The Order also creates a Year 2000 Conversion
Council whose Chair will "oversee the activities of agencies to assure that
their systems operate smoothly through the year 2000." The Chair will act
as chief spokesperson on this issue for the executive branch in national
and international fora, provide policy coordination of executive branch
activities with State, local, and tribal governments on the Y2K problem,
and promote appropriate Federal roles with respect to private sector
activities in this area.
For more information, see
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1998/2/4/
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PANEL RELEASES REPORT ON BIODIVERSITY
An expert panel under the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and
Technology (PCAST) released its Executive Summary in mid-February, entitled
"Teaming with Life: Investing in Science to Understand and Use America's
Living Capital".
The panel, chaired by Dr. Peter Raven, made specific recommendations
regarding the tools needed to enhance biodiversity studies as they relate
to ensuring a sustainable future for the US. "[N]ew technology can provide
us with tools of discovery and techniques of analysis that will catapult us
into position to meet the challenges of 21st century environmental and
economic planning," states the report.
The report recommends that the advances in information technology and
communication be harnessed to develop a national information
infrastructure. Such a development would greatly facilitate communication
both within the environmental sciences, and between scientists, engineers,
politicians, and managers.
For more information, see:
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1998/2/13
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SURVEY REPORTS 30 MILLION COMPUTERS ON 'NET
The latest results for the Internet's most comprehensive survey show 30
million host machines in 240 countries on the net. The survey, whose
results were released January 15th, attempts to discover every host on the
Internet through a new method which uses the domain name system to track
computers on the internet.
The survey's results when compared with previous surveys, revealed that
Internet annual host growth rate is currently between 40 and 50 percent.
Based on current figures, the survey predicted that there will be 90
million hosts on the net by the year 2000.
The survey, whose comprehensive results can be viewed at http://www.nw.com,
also found that .COM hosts far outnumber other domains; .COM constitutes 28
percent of all internet hosts, while .NET, .EDU, .MIL, .ORG, and .GOV
altogether constitute 66 percent.
For more information, see http://www.ngi.org/trends.htm
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CONFERENCE ON PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE
From Feb 25 - March 11, an e-mail based conference will take place to
explore prospects for setting a global agenda for 'the public understanding
of science'.
The conference will begin with short statements from 15 people who
represent a variety of perspectives on the topic worldwide. Subscribers
may post as many messages as they wish during the conference, although
participants are asked to keep posts to 500 words or less. All
contributions will be archived on the World Wide Web.
The conference, sponsored by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council,
will be moderated by Professor Steve Fuller of Durham University, and will
be conducted in English.
For more information, contact steve.fuller@durham.ac.uk.
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THE INTERNET SCHOOL FILTERING ACT
On February 9, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduced "The Internet School
Filtering Act." The proposed legislation would require schools and
libraries receiving federal Internet subsidies to install systems "to
filter or block matter deemed to be inappropriate for minors." The bill
will be marked up by the Senate Commerce Committee this Thursday, March 12
at 9:30.
Libraries would be required to certify that at least one computer uses a
filtering system so that "it will be appropriate for minors' use." A
library would have to inform the Federal Communications Commission within
10 days if it decided to change its filtering system or drop its use
completely.
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) has indicated that on Thursday, March 12 he will
introduce legislative language which would require libraries and schools to
certify that they have local appropriate Internet use policies (AUPs) in
order to receive the e-rate telecommunications discounts. This approach
would allow each cschool and library to determine for itself what is an
appropriate use policy for its community.
A number of surveys have shown that all current filtering and rating
systems block out thousands, if not millions, of web pages that are not
obscene or indecent. A recent study of a popular filtered search engine
conducted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest
group in Washington DC, found that it filtered out 99 percent of material
on non-controversial topics such as the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts,
and pages created by elementary school students.
More information on the McCain bill and filters is available from the
Internet Free Express Alliance web page at: http://www.ifea.net/
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USACM MEMBERS SERVE ON DOMAIN NAME PANEL
USACM members David Farber and Randy Bush will serve on the "IANA
Transition Advisors Group" (ITAG) designed to serve as senior advisors to
the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). In the next few months
the IANA will be transferred from a US Government funded activity to an
openly governed, privately funded not-for-profit activity. The ITAG will
serve as a set of senior advisors to the IANA during this transition to a
new organization with formal status including a board of directors. ITAG
will cease to exist when the board of directors of the new organization has
its first meeting.
None of the ITAG members will serve on the new organization's board. The
other members of the ITAG are Brian Carpenter, Geoff Huston, John Klensin,
and Steve Wolff. According to Jon Postal, IANA's director, the initial task
of the ITAG is to draw up draft statutes "for the new, not-for-profit, IANA
organization, with particular attention to its open, international
governance."
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NOMINATIONS AND NEW APPOINTMENTS
GIBBONS RESIGNS AS ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT
Dr. John H. (Jack) Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and
Technology, announced on February 13th that he will resign from his White
House post, and as Director of the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP). In a letter to President Clinton, Dr. Gibbons
said "I take my leave with a sense of deep humility and immense pride --
humility in being associated with great American scientists who have gone
before me, pride in this nation's unmatched scientific establishment. The
tools of science and technology have provided greater strength, greater
resources, and a greater quality of life for all Americans. In private
life, I will work as hard as I have in the White House to keep us on the
path to scientific preeminence, as well as to ensure that science and
technology nurture the values and ideals that gave us birth as a Nation."
For more information, see:
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1998/2/13
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LANE NOMINATED AS DIRECTOR OF OSTP
On February 13, The President announced his intent to nominate Dr. Neal F.
Lane as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Lane,
of Oklahoma City is currently the
Director of the National Science Foundation, an independent agency of the
Federal Government that provides support for research and education in
science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. Dr. Lane received his
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Oklahoma.
The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy also serves as
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and is responsible
for providing the President with advice in all areas of science and
technology policy and works to coordinate science, space,
and technology policy and programs across the federal government. The
Director also co-chairs the President's Committee of Advisors on Science
and Technology Policy and manages the National Science and Technology
Council.
For more information, see:
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1998/2/13
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COLWELL NOMINATED AS DIRECTOR OF NSF
On February 13th, The President also announced his intent to nominate Dr.
Rita R. Colwell as Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr.
Colwell is currently the President of the University of Maryland
Biotechnology Institute and a Professor of Microbiology at the University
of Maryland. She is active in national and international research and
teaching in the areas of marine biotechnology and the molecular genetics of
marine and estuarine bacteria, and on the microbiology of the Chesapeake
Bay. She is the author or co-author of 16 books and more than 450
scientific publications. Dr. Colwell has been a member of the National
Science
Board and is the past President of the American Society for Microbiology,
the International Union of Microbiological Societies, and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Colwell holds a B.S. in
bacteriology and an M.S. in genetics from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in
marine microbiology from the University of Washington.
The National Science Foundation initiates and supports fundamental,
long-term, merit-selected research in all the scientific and engineering
disciplines. NSF support is made through grants, contracts and other
agreements awarded to universities and non-profit organizations. The
National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency responsible
for fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. The NSF
funds reach all 50 states, through grants to more than 2,000 universities
and institutions nationwide.
For more information, see:
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1998/2/13
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Washington Update is a biweekly publication of the U.S. Public Policy
Office of the Association for Computing http://www.acm.org/usacm 666
Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 302B, Washington, DC 20003. 202/544-4859
(tel), 202/547-5482 (fax).
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