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Friday, April 25, 2008
Yale Information Society Project's 9.5 Theses for Technology Policy in the Next AdministrationThe theme of the 18th Annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference is "Technology Policy '08." To help shape public debate in this election year, the Information Society Project at Yale Law School recommends the following policy principles -
The 9.5 Theses for Technology Policy in the Next Administration:
1. Privacy. Protect human dignity, autonomy, and privacy by providing individuals with control over the collection, use, and distribution of their personal information and medical information.
2. Access. Promote high-speed Internet access and increased connectivity for all, through both government and private initiatives, to reduce the digital divide.
3. Network Neutrality. Legislate against unreasonable discrimination by network providers against particular applications or content to maintain the Internet’s role in fostering innovation, economic growth, and democratic communication.
4. Transparency. Preserve accountability and oversight of government functions by strengthening freedom of information and improving electronic access to government deliberations and materials.
5. Innovation. Restore balance to intellectual property rules and explore alternative incentives to better promote innovation, freedom, access to knowledge, and human development.
6. Democracy. Empower individuals to fully participate in government and politics by making electronic voting consistent, reliable, and secure with voter-verifiable paper trails.
7. Education. Expand effective exceptions and limitations to intellectual property for education to ensure that teachers and students have access to innovative digital teaching techniques and educational resources.
8. Culture. Ensure that law and technology promote a free, vibrant and democratic culture, fair exchanges between different cultures, and individual rights to create and participate in culture.
9. Diversity. Limit media concentration and expand media ownership to ensure a diverse marketplace of ideas.
9.5 Openness. Support innovation and fair competition by stimulating openness in software, technological standards, Internet governance, and content licensing.
Posted by Laura DeNardis at 5:53 AM
Labels: 9.5theses, cfp08
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jon said...
Thanks for posting, Laura, and thanks to the Yale ISP folks for putting together the list -- it's an excellent basis for discussion, and should help get us all in the CFP frame of mind!
There's a lot of good stuff here. However, several of the theses seem overly-narrowly focused to me. In the spirit of sparking off conversation, those are naturally what I'll concentrate on :-)
For example:
* why does the privacy thesis leave out several of the important fair information principles: notice, access, security, redress?
* why is access narrowly phrased in terms of high-speed Internet access and connectivity, rather than more general access to technology -- which would including coinsiderations such as accessibility and training?
* why does diversity mention only on media concentration, and ignore the general dynamic in which marginalized groups (women, persons of color, those on the wrong side of the digital divide ... the list goes on) have excluded from discussions like these?
I'd be interested in hearing abot the discussions that led to these theses. Were the broader views proposed and specifically rejected? Or did they simply not get discussed?
jon
April 25, 2008 8:46 AM
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Anonymous said...
Sorry, but this list is useless. First: Why "9.5 Theses"? Is openness only half as important as the other one? No, the unusual number is a cheap shot for attention.
This is a list of banalities, pure buzzword bingo. Even the Chinese government could agree to it. They restrict the internet in a "reasonable way", the Great Firewall is only for the protection of human dignity...
May 15, 2008 1:50 AM
From: "Yale Information Society Project's 9.5 Theses for Technology Policy in the Next Administration " Posted by Laura DeNardis at 5:53 AM - Labels: 9.5theses, cfp08 (Friday, April 25, 2008)