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CPSR/Boston Newsletter (Feb, 92)
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Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 12:30 EDT
From: [email protected]
Subject: CPSR/Boston newsletter (February)
Sender: [email protected]
FEBRUARY 1991
from Coralee Whitcomb
You may have been wondering what CPSR/Boston has been up to lately. Actually,
we took the holidays off with the rest of the world but the fall and this
year promise to be pretty busy.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Wednesday, February 12 - 6:30 - my place, Somerville: We always
address such serious matters when we're together, I thought it would be fun
to just mingle a bit. So, to that end, I'm inviting everyone to my fairly
small apartment for spaghetti dinner. It could be chaos but my dad always
said "a good party requires that everyone's shoulders touch". Parking,
fortunately, is not impossible in my neighborhood. I will send the
directions under seperate cover.
Wednesday, February 26 - 6:30/7:30 - Open Systems Foundation, Cambridge
The Working Group on Technology Policy will hold its fourth meeting at 7:30.
The speakers will be Elaine Bernard, Executive Director of the Trade Union
Program at Harvard and Charley Richardson, Director of the Technology and
Work Program, U. Mass, Lowell. The address of the OSF is 11 Cambridge Center,
Cambridge. The official meeting will begin at 7:30 but I would like to have
a discussion about various CPSR projects during the hour preceding the Working
Group.
March 12 - Tecschange - U.Mass, Downtown Campus (Stuart & Arlington),
7:30. Professor Teresa Ortega Guido, Universidad Naional de Ingenieria,
Managua. She will speak on the issues of integrating communications technology
in a third world country. Due to the fact that the reliability of the
link to Nicaragua is not what we've become accustomed to, this is somewhat
tentative.
April 24/25 - Computers and Social Change Conference, Northeastern U.:
Though primarily sponsored by the Boston Computer Society, I am chairing this
year's conference with my CPSR hat on. It is to be a day and 1/2 filled with
workshops on a wide variety of topics as well a several speakers. The purpose
behind the conference is to provide a gathering place for people from the world
of non-profits and community activists (or anyone else who is interested) and
those from the technical community in order to exchange ideas, expertise,
and hopefully create mutually beneficial and ongoing relationships. Anyone
interested in helping out is welcome. It's a lot to coordinate (probably 30-
odd workshops) and we could use help with publicity, fundraising, budgeting,
you name it. Give me a call if you're interested.
November 6/7 - Participatory Design Conference, Boston: The second
PDC is to be held here. Its purpose is to bring together computer specialists
with the labor and business communities to discuss new system design
methodologies that heavily rely on user expertise. There is an urgent call
for volunteers as many of the preliminary steps must begin to get under way.
If you are interested contact Michael J. Muller, Bellcore RRC-1H229,
444 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, 908-699-4892, michael@bellcore.com.
RECENT PAST EVENTS:
*****BIG NEWS***** You may have seen in the national newsletter the
fact that Gary Chapman was awarded $100,000 for the 21st Century Project from
the Rockefeller Foundation. That makes the project a certain "GO". He's been
very busy ever since. The Working Group series is one of the 21st CP projects.
There have been three other meetings in September, October, and January. The
purpose is to help educate the public on some of the R&D issues with regard
to the end of the Cold War.
Today Show Appearance: Gary Chapman appeared on the Sunday, January 25
edition of the NBC Today Show. He was there to speak on the privacy issues
related to interactive TV.
Booth at the Northeast Computer Show: This was the first attempt
that the chapter has made to participate at a trade show. It was very
successful. We were busy every minute of three days. In fact, we grew
a little sorry for the salespeople around us. Literally hundreds of people
stopped to find out about CPSR. We collected over 100 names interested in
joining. The scary thing was how few of the people had heard of us - although,
without exception, they were happy to know we exist. This is an effort that
is well worth doing again.
October Annual Meeting: This year's national Annual Meeting was
held in Cambridge at MIT. It was a drizzly, October weekend but the turnout
was very respectable. I won't go in to detail as it was covered in the
national newsletter.
CPSR BUSINESS:
FINANCES: As you've probably gathered from the various reports from the
national office, CPSR, as are most non-profits, is having some fairly serious
financial difficulties. It has resulted in the national office shrinking to
one part-timer from 3 1/2 fulltimers. That means that much of the
administrative work must be downsized to the chapters. If you're at all
interested in getting involved in an adminstrative capacity, let me know -
*****PLEASE******
NEWSLETTER: I propose that the newsletter take this, more informal, form
for the time being. It is difficult for one person to keep on top of the
various news events and to then find the time to put it all together in a
nice looking format and, as you've experienced in the last couple of years,
that leads to very few newsletters. In the interest of better communications,
I would be happy to try and get a CPSR/Boston update out bimonthly, but it
will cover chapter news only. This would cut down on printing costs and,
hopefully, keep you better informed. One thing I really would like to include
is letters or anonymous input from local members. Please send me your
thoughts if you'd like them presented to the membership.
INPUT: We are always on the lookout for interesting meeting ideas, places,
events, whatever, so please contact us with any ideas you might have.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++CHAPTER INFORMATION++++++++++++++++++++++++
CPSR/Boston - P.O. Box 962, Cambridge, MA 02142
Coralee Whitcomb, chair 617-891-3103 (w) 617-625-7691 (h)
[email protected]
[email protected] A members' only mailing list to be used for
announcements and news items, not discussion
[email protected] For additions and deletions of names on
cpsr-members
[email protected] A general audience mailing list for announcements
only, not discussion
[email protected] For addition and deletion of names to
cpsr-announce
CPSR/National - P.O. Box 717, Palo Alto, CA 94302 415-322-3778
[email protected]
[email protected] address changes only
CPSR/Cambridge - 21st Century Project
19 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-497-7440
Gary Chapman, director [email protected]
CPSR/Washington - Computing and Civil Liberties Program
666 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Suite 303, Washington, D.C. 20003
202-544-9240
Marc Rotenberg, director [email protected]
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