Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 22:58:49 -0500
From:         Joan Boorstein <jboor@MOTE.CS.UMB.EDU>
Subject:      Enclosed on call for comments on computing and public policy
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

This is a message I received recently -- thought some of you might be
interested.

Joan
> ----- Begin Included Message ----------------------------------------
>
>
> Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 12:42:25 -0500
> From: Gary Chapman <chapman@silver.lcs.mit.edu>
> Subject: Call for Comments About Computing and the Future
> To: Multiple recipients of list CPSR <CPSR@GWUVM.BITNET>
>
>        PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS WHEREVER YOU FEEL IT IS APPROPRIATE
>               BUT ONLY WHERE YOU FEEL IT IS APPROPRIATE
>
>       AN OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE YOUR SAY ABOUT COMPUTING IN THE FUTURE
>
> This is Gary Chapman, director of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, office
> of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.  I edit The CPSR
> Newsletter, a quarterly publication that goes to all CPSR members and
> about 400 other people, including a lot of policymakers, members of
> Congress, administration officials, etc.
>
> We're going to try something unusual for the next CPSR Newsletter, and
> I'm putting out a call for help.  We're going to publish a special issue
>  on "What the Clinton Administration Can Do For The Computing Profession
>  and the Public."  I'm sending out this message to ask people to send me
>  SHORT contributions to this issue, just brief comments about what the
> new administration can do to help support computing in the United
> States, or perhaps the world.
>
> Here are a few basic guidelines for these submissions:
>
> 1.  SHORT MEANS SHORT -- In order to publish as many of these as we can,
>  we need to keep each contribution to about 100-150 words, max, one or
> two paragraphs.  In fact, anything longer will probably be eliminated
> out of fairness to others.
>
> 2.  YOU MUST IDENTIFY YOURSELF -- Again, briefly, with just your name
> and one line that says something about you, such as Joe Blow or Sally
> Smith, Programmer, BillyBob Corporation, or Centerville, Ohio, or
> something like that, whatever you prefer.
>
> 3.  ADDRESS ISSUES OF PUBLIC POLICY -- In order to make these
> contributions relevant to the Clinton administration, they should
> concern issues about which government can or should do something, or
> stop doing, whatever.  These include major issues such as privacy,
> access to information, computer networks like the Internet or NREN, R&D
> priorities, equitable access to computers, intellectual property,
> defense policy, risks to the public, etc.  We're not really interested
> in contributions that are self-serving, parochial, excessively arcane or
>  trivial, belligerently and unconstructively critical, and so on.  We
> will favor messages that discuss the intersection of computing and major
>  issues of concern to the public at large.
>
> 4.  PLEASE INCLUDE A WORKABLE E-MAIL ADDRESS -- In case I have to get
> back to you about the text.  We won't publish e-mail addresses, I
> promise.
>
> 5.  GET ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO ME BY JANUARY 15, 1993.  My e-mail address
> is chapman@silver.lcs.mit.edu.
>
> This is not limited to people in the United States, although overseas
> contributors will have to make a case for what the Clinton
> administration should do to help international computing -- the focus
> will be on U.S. government  policy.
>
> We're going to try and get this issue into the hands of the key players
> on computing and high tech policy in the new administration.  For the
> most part we already know who those people are, and we're talking to
> them about the issues that CPSR is working on.  This newsletter will
> give them a good impression, we hope, of the concerns of the computing
> profession and people who use computer networks.  Consider this an
> opportunity for a kind of "hard copy" town hall.
>
> Thanks for your help!  Get those messages coming!
>
> Gary Chapman
> Coordinator
> The 21st Century Project
> Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
> Cambridge, MA
> chapman@silver.lcs.mit.edu
>
>
>
> ----- End Included Message ---------------------------------------------
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU