[liberationtech] The Future of CPSR

[Douglas Schuler]

The issue of computers in weapons was indeed CPSR's first issue
and it's still an important issue whether it's perceived that way or  
not.
(It's what got me interested in CPSR also.) One could argue that
*militarization* is at the heart of many of our current problems.

In my view, if CPSR version 2.0 does get off the ground somehow,
the focus on computers in war should be prominent. On the other
hand, I still believe (as I have over my 20+ years of work with CPSR)
that CPSR should be a "big tent" organization. I also think there is a
place for an organization in which its *members* play strong role.

This is where I'd like to go -- but of course there are other
possibilities!!!

In general, I'm very excited this discussion is happening.

-- Doug


On Jan 25, 2011, at 7:26 PM, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:

> On 01/25/2011 06:44 PM, Chris Palmer wrote:
>> I am a big CPSR fan --- I moderated a panel (poorly!) at the
>> Technology In Wartime conference, which was a great conference.
>>
>> One thing I'd love to see CPSR do is to take up its original mission
>> once again: establish a professional ethic against the development of
>> weapons. In the 1980s it was nuclear weapons and other physical
>> weapons controlled by software; nowadays, the weapons themselves take
>> the form of software: censorship systems, surveillance systems, and
>> software to break into other people's computers to censor, surveil,
>> and destroy them. (For a good set of sales demos by a prominent
>> weapons dealer, see http://www.immunityinc.com/webex.shtml.) We've
>> seen these weapons in action in Tunisia, China, Iran, the United
>> Kingdom, and the United States --- and that's just recently.
>>
>
> I'm entirely behind Chris on this one. I was a member of CPSR long ago
> and I'd be a member again if this was the focus.
>
> All the best,
> Jacob
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Douglas Schuler
douglas at publicsphereproject.org

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