CFP: Technology Policy '08: Clay Shirky to Deliver Closing Plenary

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Clay Shirky to Deliver Closing Plenary

We are pleased to announce that Clay Shirky will deliver the closing plenary keynote at CFP Technology Policy '08.

Since the 1990s, Shirky has written, taught, and consulted on the social, cultural, and economic effects of Internet technologies and social media. His most recent book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, evaluates the significant role being played by technological advances on the formation and experience of modern group dynamics, citing such examples as Wikipedia and MySpace to demonstrate the Internet's power in bridging geographical and cultural gaps.

Shirky is an adjunct professor in NYU's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where he teaches courses on the interrelated effects of social and technological network topology -- how our networks shape culture and vice-versa.

See more about Shirky at Wikipedia, BoingBoing, and on the Colbert Report.

4 comments:

Seth Finkelstein said...: Tom Slee had a great review:

http://whimsley.typepad.com/whimsley/2008/04/here-comes-ever.html

"The questions then become ones of what kind of structures will form and persist in the online world, and if you are going to talk about these questions then you have to address the economics of the problem."; May 8, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Seth Finkelstein said...: Let's see if this link works:

http://whimsley.typepad.com/whimsley/2008/04/here-comes-ever.html; May 8, 2008 at 8:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks Seth. That link worked for me -- and it is a good review.

Shirky's recent Gin, Television, and Social Surplus talk at O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 conference is good reading too.; May 8, 2008 at 9:51 AM
Tim Bauer said...: I have been tracking Clay Shirky myself and recently did a cliff notes writeup of his presentation @ TechExpo 2.0 around the topic here:

http://timbauer.bauerfive.com/2008/05/07/clay-shirky-author-the-world-is-drunk-on-tv/

So if you want one man's opinion on what he emphasized (like how Gin drove the Industrial revolution and how TV is our Gin today) might be worth a gander. Either way ... good stuff.

Would be curious on your thoughts on his specific points @ the Expo and my take.; May 10, 2008 at 3:13 AM

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From the web site for the 18th ACM conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, CFP: Technology Policy '08:

This election year will be the first to address US technology policy in the information age as part of our national debate. Candidates have put forth positions about technology policy and have recognized that it has its own set of economic, political, and social concerns. In the areas of privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and freedom of speech, an increasing number of issues once confined to experts now penetrate public conversation. Our decisions about technology policy are being made at a time when the architectures of our information and communication technologies are still being built. Debate about these issues needs to be better-informed in order for us to make policy choices in the public interest.

This year, the 18th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference will focus on what constitutes technology policy. CFP: Technology Policy '08 is an opportunity to help shape public debate on those issues being made into laws and regulations and those technological infrastructures being developed. The direction of our technology policy impacts the choices we make about our national defense, our civil liberties during wartime, the future of American education, our national healthcare systems, and many other realms of policy discussed more prominently on the election trail. Policies ranging from data mining and wiretapping, to file-sharing and open access, and e-voting to electronic medical records will be addressed by expert panels of technologists, policymakers, business leaders, and advocates.

CFP2008 is being held in New Haven, Connecticut, on May 20-23. Back in 2000 Elizabeth Weise called it "the most important computer conference you've never heard of"; Lorrie Faith Cranor's Ten Years of Computers, Freedom and Privacy gives the early history, where hackers, lawyers, law enforcement, and goverment representatives fought out "crypto wars" and internet censorship battles (ending with a defiant "we'll be back" from the Clinton adminstration as the Clipper Chip went to its well-deserved fate). Since then the conference has taken a progressively broader and more inclusive focus while moving in a more activist direction. This year's chair, with perfect timing during an U.S. election year, the focus will be on the role of technology in society.

The call for presentations, tutorials, and workshops asks for proposals on panels, tutorials, speaker suggestions, and birds of a feather sessions through the CFP: Technology Policy '08 submission page. The deadline for panels tutorials, and speakers is March 21, 2008, and the birds-of-a-feather deadline is April 21. The submission process can seem a bit intimidating (this is an ACM conference and so it has some academic overtones) but the guidelines are helpful and have links to some examples.

We'll use this blog to give updates, discuss ideas for potential sessions, delve into particular topics, and introduce some of the people involved in CFP. One of the things we're really trying to do this year is to broaden participation, and that includes the people who aren't at the conference in person -- sure, there's nothing like being there, but between the blog, the wiki, and presence on various social network sites, hopefully it can be interesting and entertaining for people joining virtually as well.
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CFP: Technology Policy '08

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Clay Shirky to Deliver Closing Plenary

4 comments:

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