Policy and Law: Federal and Presentations/Speeches

While Washington concentrates on the IT legislative and regulatory issues at hand, the presidential candidates are being queried about their positions and the Democratic and Republican National Committees are focusing on crafting platforms to be adopted during their summer conventions. Policy experts from some of the leading IT policy associations and think tanks will share their insights on how the Democratic and Republican parties and their respective presidential nominees will integrate IT issues into the 2008 presidential campaign.

The United States has fallen behind its international competitors in broadband deployment, price, and openness in part because it has no national broadband policy. In contrast, most other countries adopted proactive programs to address the broadband needs of their citizens at the beginning of the decade that are now proving successful. Several U.S. states are now developing their own broadband plans because of the void at the national level. This session will propose an action plan for the nation based on the lessons learned from Europe, Asia, and some U.S. states and discuss what it will take to get such a plan through Congress.

There has been much improvement in securing cyberspace in the last five years, but much still needs to be done. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has established a Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency, the administration that will take office in January 2009. The goal of the commission is to identify a strategy and set of recommendations for the next administration to move ahead in securing cyberspace. This session will provide a status report on the commission's work to date. It will also provide an opportunity to offer input regarding progress that has been made in the higher education sector, remaining challenges and opportunities, and the role of the federal government to help improve cybersecurity at colleges and universities.

This session will feature some real-world training about how lobbying works and the keys to effective advocacy. In addition, lobbying meetings (both good and bad) will be role-played to give attendees a feel for the sorts of issues that come up and how best to advance the cause. This session seeks to aid IT professionals in understanding how their federal relations officers work and the best ways CIOs can assist in making that advocacy successful.

Peer-to-peer file sharing remains a major headache for campus IT administrators, as the RIAA and MPAA aggressively explore the boundaries of litigation and legislation. This session will feature two panels of experts to discuss where we stand. The first panel will review the best current thinking on campus policy and technology options for coping with P2P issues: How to deal with DMCA notices, prelitigation letters, and John Doe lawsuits, and whether blocking and filtering technologies have matured to the point where they can help. The second panel will look at the current status of federal P2P legislation and also describe recent entertainment industry initiatives to enact such legislation at the state level.

The Federal Trade Commission deals with issues that touch the economic lives of most Americans. The current portfolio includes protecting consumers in the areas of data security and privacy, identity theft, Social Security number misuse, identity management, spam, maintaining the National Do Not Call Registry, and other IT issues of interest to colleges and universities. The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, although a regulator of businesses, is also an educator: it seeks to educate consumers and provide businesses and other organizations with the information they need to comply with the rules of the road and to provide consumers with the necessary tools to engage in commerce intelligently. This session will highlight information policy issues the FTC is addressing and educational resources institutions of higher education can leverage to improve student, faculty, and staff awareness of data security and privacy risks.

The Congressional Internet Caucus is a bipartisan group of over 170 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet. EDUCAUSE is a member of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee, which includes a diverse group of public interest, nonprofit, and industry groups working to educate Congress and the public about important Internet-related policy issues. This session will highlight the priority IT policy issues before the 110th Congress according to the cochairs of the Internet Caucus and provide an overview of the Advisory Committee’s programs and activities.

After the tragic events of April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech, IT professionals and university legal counsel had to quickly address the need to collect and preserve data in the event of future litigation. Performing tasks while dealing with grief and protecting academic freedom and privacy issues has required a delicate approach.

This is a speech given by Michael K. Powell, when he was Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, at the Silicon Flatirons Symposium on "The Digital Broadband Migration: Toward a Regulatory Regime for the Internet Age." University of Colorado School of Law, Boulder, Colorado, February 8, 2004.