@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Fri, 23 Feb 96 From: Douglas Schuler <•••@••.•••> Subject: Crisis in Cyberland Richard, I received your note from CPSR's executive director. I appreciate your concern and I too share the urgency of the cyber-rights crisis. It seems that in only a few short weeks, months, or years, this medium will be lost to controlling agents of all types and many of the opportunities that we see may be lost. I hope that doesn't happen and I hope that this group can be a strong positive force. I'd like to say a few words about CPSR's working groups. The first is that we first conceived of them as a way to grant maximum autonomy to people that were working on CPSR issues. The organization doesn't try to presume to tell people how to run them. Another reason is that we don't know *how* to best utilize this medium for action. Everybody is still learning but we need to learn fast! Although it is up to this group to decide what it wants to do - action or discussion (or both), I have some suggestions that may help. If action is a large component of what you do (and I *hope* it is), then proposing activities is critical: We need ideas and projects! Then we need fairly quick resolution on whether it's a good idea, who will do it, and what the time frame is. Many times these projects will only involve a subset of the group. If they do then I think the subset needs to set up their own lists to move their projects along. I think we also need to keep abreast of the projects of other organizations and think best how to support them. Hope this note was helpful in some way. I'm taking the liberty of appending the first version of the Digital Kazoo, the CPSR Working Group Newsletter. Thanks!!! Good luck to us all! -- Doug ### The Digital Kazoo, Version 0.0 ### ### An Irregular Publication ### ### Can be forwarded to interested people ### Welcome to the first edition of The Digital Kazoo! Those of you that know me won't be surprised to learn that The Digital Kazoo is an irregular publication. The Digital Kazoo is the world's first electronic publication devoted exclusively to the launching and facilitation of CPSR Working Groups. Imagine that! ##### Why Working Groups?? ##### One of the great strengths of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is the creativity and wide diversity of efforts among its members to develop exciting projects. These projects have included the Civil Liberties project, the Participatory Design Conferences, the Computers and Elections project, the DIAC conferences, the Seattle Community Network, the Computers for Social Change Conference in New York City and the Computers and the Environment Conference in Portland, the Workplace project, the CPU newsletter, and many, many, more. The "computer revolution " may be raising more concerns that it's addressing. These include issues related to privacy, freedom of speech and expression, employment, the arts and culture, the media, and the future of democracy. Working groups may prove to be an important vehicle to help come to grips with these issues. CPSR has developed the concept of a working group to further encourage grassroots activism. Working groups consist of at least five CPSR members (and invited non-CPSR members) that are working together to on a common project or issue. Ultimately we can imagine scores of working groups, each devoted to some aspect of CPSR's mission. For more complete information including some suggested topics and an FAQ, please consult the Web site, http://www.cpsr.org/dox/cpsr/working-groups.html ##### Current Groups ##### Two groups have been launched so far and several more are being discussed. The Cyber-Rights group, started in 1995 by Richard Moore "seeks to raise awareness of the forces involved in the commercial development of Cyberspace, and to promote global support for the Declaration of Rights in Cyberspace." Information on the Cyber-Rights group can be obtained through their Web site or by mailing to •••@••.•••. Their URL is http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/ cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html. A second group, Civil Liberties, was just launched in January, 1996. The Civil Liberties WG is an outgrowth of the work begun by several CPSR/Palo Alto members. The WG intends to champion the causes of privacy and civil liberties, as these relate to the use of computers; to study ongoing governmental developments in legislation and the effect of the use of computers and computerized records and to advise legislators, governmental officials, business leaders, and the press. Dave Redell (•••@••.•••) is the chair of the group and Mary Connors is the board liaison. ##### Suggested Working Group Topics ##### The sky is the limit with topics. Some likely possible topics include participatory design, municipal or regional information infrastructure, community networks, computers and jobs, computers and equity, etc. Some recent suggestions include a technology platform group to help define part of the dialogue for the upcoming political season, a group to help draft an ethic code for sysops, and one on ethnographic studies of computer users. A member in Thailand who is thinking about setting up distance education project for foreign prisoners in Thai jails would like to work with people around the world who are doing or contemplating similar projects. Other members have expressed interest in replicating the "Computers and Social Change" work in New York City. There is also a very strong interest in educational topics and one or more WG on educational topics will undoubtedly be starting soon. ##### A Call for Participation ##### To help facilitate the formation of working groups, I've been using the form below. If you are interested on a working group, please fill out this form and return it to me. I am also interested in other ways in which we can help establish working groups. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Working Group Interest Form Name ____________________________________________________________________ E-mail: _________________________________________________________________ Telephone number: _______________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Is it OK to include your name and e-mail on the CPSR web site or in notes to electronic distribution lists? _______ Is it OK to include your name and e-mail to other interested people that have expressed an interest in the same topics? _______ OR, should we not distribute your name and e-mail to anybody without your permission? _______ Please check your interests and your possible roles below. Working Group Your Possible Role When could you start? Subject coordinate? join? now! later Education ______ ______ ______ ______ National security ______ ______ ______ ______ Civic liberties _______ ______ ______ ______ Democratic technology ______ ______ ______ ______ Community networks ______ ______ ______ ______ (list others) ____________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ____________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ____________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ____________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ____________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ Please include any other information that you think would be useful. For example, what sorts of activities do you expect to get involved in? Discussion or action-oriented? The more specific, the better. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ I am not currently a CPSR member. Please send me information on how to join: ________ Thanks! Doug Schuler •••@••.••• CPSR Working Group Facilitator ##### Important Note ##### Please note: Participation in CPSR Working Groups is limited to CPSR members. If you are not currently a member of CPSR and would like to join, contact Susan Evoy in the national office at: •••@••.••• Membership information is also available on our Web page: http://www.cpsr.org/home.html @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore - •••@••.••• - Wexford, Ireland CyberJournal: Cyberlib temporarily unavailable Cyber-Rights: http,ftp://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/Library/ Materials may be reposted in their _entirety_ for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
