MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Public Policy Challenges and Opportunities in Computing and

Marjory Blumenthal
National Research Council; Visiting MIT and LCS

Monday, March 16, 1998
4:00 PM (refreshments 3:45)
Edgerton Hall, Room 34-101
EECS Colloquium

Abstract

Computing is everywhere and nowhere in public policy. Long emphasized in U.S. federal R&D programs and military planning, computing is becoming commonplace in everyday life. Hence most of today's controversies revolve around what happens when we use computing: is the Internet bad for children? Will new computing and communications capabilities encourage us to spy on each other? Will the government spy on us if we facilitate law enforcement access to systems? Will different access to systems aggravate social divisions? Can we rely on the systems that the information economy entices us to use?

This talk will examine how computing and communications technology programs are changing in response to a widening circle of issues and players. Examples will be drawn from recent analyses of technology and policy for crisis management, usability, and critical infrastructure to illustrate how technical expertise can be leveraged to meet broad policy goals-and how such goals are changing the challenges researchers are being asked to meet.

Computer scientists and engineers have many opportunities to help solve national problems, but many other voices are already at work to shape that opportunity set. Who's in charge? Should anyone be in charge? Why should the research community care? This talk is intended to foster greater awareness and interest in public policy relating to computing, especially by computing and communications researchers.