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EFFector Online Volume 6 No. 8 12/28/1993 editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In This Issue:
Gore Endorses EFF's Open Platform Approach
EFF Announces Call for Nominations, 3rd Annual Pioneer Awards
NCO High Performance Computing & Communications NII Gopher/Web Server
Smart Valley CommerceNet Consortium Wins Superhighway Grant
What You Can Do
--==--==--==-<>-==--==--==--
Subject: Gore Endorses EFF's Open Platform Approach
12/21/93
Washington -- Vice President Al Gore announced at the National Press Club
today a long-term White House telecommunications policy initiative that
incorporates the major elements of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's
Open Platform policy recommendations.
The Vice President's speech, which credited EFF co-founder Mitchell
Kapor for articulating the need for an "open platform" information
infrastructure, outlined five policy principles for the National
Information Infrastructure (NII).
Kapor said that he is "honored" by the reference in Gore's speech.
"I'm awfully happy that the Open Platform is right in the middle of the
Administration's infrastructure strategy, and that they see Open
Platform and open access as just as important as competition.
"President Clinton and Vice President Gore deserve great credit for being
the first Administration in over a decade to offer a comprehensive approach
to telecommunications policy," Kapor said. "I am looking forward to
working with the White House and the Congress to help see this thing
through."
EFF executive director Jerry Berman said Tuesday his organization is
"extremely pleased that the Administration has affirmed that neither all-
out competition, nor stifling regulation, will bring the promise of
information access to all Americans." In the three years since EFF's
founding, Berman said, the organization has labored to raise these issues
in the public-policy arena and to promote the Open Platform approach.
EFF's Open Platform policy to support universal access to the digital
information infrastructure is included in the telecommunications bill
recently introduced by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Jack Fields (R-TX), and
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA).
The first principle, Gore said, is to "encourage private investment." The
Vice President said this principle involves "steering a course between a
kind of computer-age Scylla and Charybdis -- between the shoals of
suffocating regulation on one side, and the rocks of unfettered monopolies
on the other.
"Both stifle competition and innovation," Gore said.
The second principle, he said is to "promote and protect competition." The
vice President said the government "should prevent unfair cross-subsidies
and act to avoid information bottlenecks that would limit consumer choice,
or limit the ability of new informaiotn providers to reach their
customers."
The third principle, Gore said, is to "provide open access to the network."
Gore defined this principle in terms very similar to those of EFF's own
policy statements on Open Platform services.
"Suppose I want to set up a service that provides 24 hours a day of David
Letterman reruns," he said. "I don't own my own netowrk, so I need to buy
access to someone else's. I should be able to do so by paying the same
rates as my neighbor, who wants to broadcast kick-boxing matches."
EFF's Open Platform Proposal, released in November of this year, all
recognizes the importance of access to a diversity of information sources.
The proposal states: "If new network services are deployed with adequate
up-stream capacity, and allow peer-to-peer communication, then each user
of the network can be both an information consumer and publisher. Network
architecture which is truly peer-to-peer can help produce in digital media
the kind of information diversity that only exists today only in the print
media."
Said Gore: "Without provisions for open access, the companies that own the
networks could use their control of the networks to ensure that their
customers only have access to their programming. We've already seen cases
where cable company owners have used their monopoly control of their
networks to exclude programming that competes with their own."
Gore also cited with approval EFF co-founder Mitchell Kapor's analogy of
an "open platform" infrastructure to the open architecture of the IBM PC.
"We need to ensure the NII, just like the PC is open and accessible to
everyone with a good idea who has a product they want to sell," he said.
The fourth principle, said the Vice President, is "to avoid creating a
society of information 'haves' and 'have nots.'" Gore said the United
States will "still need a regulatory safety net to make sure almost
everyone can benefit."
The fifth and final principle, he said, is that "we want to encourage
flexibility." Gore said the legislative package to be offered by the White
House must have the kind of flexibility that the Communications Act of
1934 had, in order to deal with technological changes that no one can yet
anticipate.
Berman said Gore's speech also helps define how the Administration plans to
handle the transition, following the breakup of the Bell System, between a
world of telecommunications monopolies and a world in which there is
meaningful competition among content and communications providers. "This
speech shows that part of the White House's definition of 'managed
transition' is that all citizens will have access to digital-network open
platform."
---------
Contacts:
Jerry Berman, Executive Director, Internet:
Daniel J. Weitzner, Senior Staff Counsel, Internet:
v: 202-347-5400
f: 202-393-5509
--==--==--==-<>-==--==--==--
Subject: EFF Announces Call for Nominations, 3rd Annual Pioneer Awards
THE THIRD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EFF PIONEER AWARDS:
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
Deadline: January 20, 1994
In every field of human endeavor, there are those dedicated to expanding
knowledge, freedom, efficiency and utility. Along the electronic frontier,
this is especially true. To recognize this, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation has established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals
and organizations.
The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations are open to all.
In March of 1992, the first EFF Pioneer Awards were given in Washington
D.C. The winners were: Douglas C. Engelbart, Robert Kahn, Jim Warren, Tom
Jennings, and Andrzej Smereczynski. The second Pioneer Awards, which were
given in San Francisco at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference
in 1993, were awarded to Paul Baran, Vinton Cerf, Ward Christensen, Dave
Hughes and the USENET software developers, represented by the
software's originators Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis.
The Third Annual Pioneer Awards will be given in Chicago, Illinois
at the 4th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
in March of 1994.
All valid nominations will be reviewed by a panel of impartial judges
chosen for their knowledge of computer-based communications and the
technical, legal, and social issues involved in networking.
There are no specific categories for the Pioneer Awards, but the
following guidelines apply:
1) The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the
health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based
communications.
2) The contribution may be technical, social, economic or cultural.
3) Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in
the private or public sectors.
4) Nominations are open to all, and you may nominate more than one
recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization.
5) All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however
brief, on why you are nominating the individual or organization,
along with a means of contacting the nominee, and your own contact
number. No anonymous nominations will be allowed.
6) Every person or organization, with the single exception of EFF
staff members, are eligible for Pioneer Awards.
7) Persons or representatives of organizations receiving a Pioneer
Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the Foundation's
expense.
You may nominate as many as you wish, but please use one form per
nomination. You may return the forms to us via email, postal mail, or fax at
the appropriate address or number listed on the form below
Just tell us the name of the nominee, the phone number or email address
at which the nominee can be reached, and, most important, why you feel
the nominee deserves the award. You may attach supporting
documentation. Please include your own name, address, and phone number.
We're looking for the Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier that have made
and are making a difference. Thanks for helping us find them,
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
-------EFF Pioneer Awards Nomination Form------
Please return to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
via email to: pioneer@eff.org
via surface mail to:
EFF, Attn: Pioneer Awards
1001 G St. NW
Suite 950 East
Washington, DC 20001
via FAX to +1 202 393 5509
Nominee:
Title:
Company/Organization:
Contact number or email address:
Reason for nomination:
Your name and contact information:
Extra documentation attached:
DEADLINE: ALL NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER
FOUNDATION BY MIDNIGHT, EASTERN STANDARD TIME U.S., JANUARY 20, 1994.
--==--==--==-<>-==--==--==--
Subject: NCO High Performance Computing & Communications NII Gopher/Web Server
The National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and
Communications (HPCC) is pleased to announce World Wide Web and Gopher
servers. These servers contain a variety of HPCC-related information
including the FY 1994 "Blue Book" entitled: "High Performance Computing and
Communications: Toward a National Information Infrastructure".
HPCC-related reports, information about grants and research contracts, and
legislative material are also included. Links have been made to additional
HPCC-related information sources including servers at other government
agencies with HPCC activities.
The URL's to the Web and Gopher servers are:
http://www.hpcc.gov
gopher://gopher.hpcc.gov
For Gopher clients, the link to the Gopher server is as follows:
Name=National Coordination Office for HPCC (NCO/HPCC) Gopher
Type=1
Port=70
Path=
Host=gopher.hpcc.gov
Please direct questions/comments to wwwadmin@hpcc.gov or gopheradmin@hpcc.gov
--==--==--==-<>-==--==--==--
Subject: Smart Valley CommerceNet Consortium Wins Superhighway Grant
MENLO PARK, Calif., November 24, 1993 -- Smart Valley, Inc.
(SVI) and Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT) today announced
their receipt of a Federal Government grant for CommerceNet, an $8
million project designed to help Silicon Valley businesses make
commercial use of the coming "Information Superhighway."
Half of the funds for CommerceNet will be provided by the
Federal grant made under the government's "Technology Reinvestment
Program" (TRP) which is sponsored by the Defense Department's Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other
government agencies. Matching funds will be provided by the State of
California and participating companies.
CommerceNet's goal is to make public computer networks, such as
the Internet, "industrial strength" for business use. CommerceNet will
address issues including low-cost, high-speed Internet access using
newly deployed technology such as Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) services and multimedia software. CommerceNet will support a
range of commercial network applications such as on-line catalogs,
product data exchange and engineering collaboration. It will also
offer outreach services such as technical assistance to small- and
medium-size businesses that want to access public networks.
The CommerceNet consortium is sponsored by Smart Valley, Inc.
and the State of California's Trade and Commerce Agency. Enterprise
Integration Technologies, a local high-tech company specializing in
electronic commerce, will lead the effort. Joining forces on the
project are two organizations associated with Stanford University:
WestREN, the operator of the Bay Area Regional Research Network
(BARRNet), and Stanford's new Center for Information Technology (CIT).
There are more than 20 industrial participants including Apple
Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed, National Semiconductor, Pacific
Bell, and Sun Microsystems.
"The funding of CommerceNet is the first major success for
Smart Valley," said Dr. Harry Saal, president of Smart Valley.
"Putting our business community on-line will be a great competitive
edge for our region and the national economy."
"CommerceNet will enable local companies to take advantage of a
revolutionary new medium. Awareness of the Internet's potential is
growing among the business community, but there are still many
obstacles to its use -- we're going to work with local users and with
network and information providers to eliminate the barriers," said
Allan Schiffman, EIT's chief technical officer.
Smart Valley, Inc. is a nonprofit organization chartered to
create a regional electronic community by developing an advanced
information infrastructure and the collective ability to use it. Smart
Valley's mission is to facilitate the construction of a pervasive,
high-speed communications system and information services that will
benefit all sectors of the community: education, healthcare, local
government, business and the home. Smart Valley, Inc. is affiliated
with Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, a broad based grass roots
coalition of initiatives begun in 1992.
Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT) is a three-year old,
Palo Alto-based R&D and consulting company specializing in information
technology for electronic commerce, collaborative engineering and agile
manufacturing. EIT is a recognized leader in software and services
that promote commercial use of the Internet. EIT's clients include
government agencies, aerospace and electronics companies and publishing
firms.
Contacts:
Allan Schiffman
Enterprise Integration Technologies
Phone: (415) 617-8000
Fax: (415) 617-1516
Internet: ams@eit.com
Geoff Kerr
Cunningham Communication, Inc.
Phone: (408) 764-0746
Fax: (408) 982-0403
MCI Mail: 621-8412
--==--==--==-<>-==--==--==--
Subject: What You Can Do
"Society has recognized over time that certain kinds of scientific inquiry
can endanger society as a whole and has applied either directly, or through
scientific/ethical constraints, restrictions on the kind and amount of
research that can be done in those areas."
-- Adm. Bobby R. Inman (then CIA Dep. Dir.) in a February, 1982 article for
_Aviation_Week_and_Space_Technology_ on why cryptographic research should
be limited to government scientists. Full text of this article is
available for anonymous ftp from ftp.eff.org as
pub/EFF/Policy/Crypto/inman.article.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that individuals have the right
to protect their private communications by any method they choose - without
government interference.
The Administration is currently making decisions that will affect your
ability to communicate in the future? Who's protecting your interests?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is working with legislators to
make sure that principles guaranteeing free speech, privacy and affordable
service to consumers are written into new communications legislation. Rep.
Edward Markey (D-MA) has already incorporated much of EFF's Open Platform
vision into his NII proposal (H.R. 3626). But the fight is not yet won.
The only way to make sure that future networks will serve *you* is to
become involved. Join EFF and receive regular updates on what's happening
and action alerts when immediate action becomes critical.
Blind trust in the system won't help you. Take control of your future.
EFF is a respected voice for the rights of users of online technologies.
We feel that the best way to protect your online rights is to be fully
informed and to make your opinions heard. EFF members are informed, and
are making a difference. Join EFF today!
-------- 8< ------- cut here ------- 8< --------
This form came from from EFFector Online
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