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[RRE]ACM Washington Update v. 3.6

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Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 11:44:52 -0400 From: Lauren Gelman Subject: ACM Washington Update v. 3.6

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ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE

U.S. Office of Public Policy of the Association for Computing Machinery

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July 9, 1999 Volume 3.6

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INTRODUCTION

POLICY BRIEFS

Using FOIA to Access Scientific Data Clinton Eases Export Controls on Computers CRA Report on the Supply Of IT Workers in the US FCC Establishes Year 2 Funding Levels for Universal Service Administration Seeks to Strengthen Government-University Partnership AAAS Publishes Results of Project on Anonymity Articles in the Communications of the ACM

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The Association for Computing Machinery is an international professional society whose 75,000 members (60,000 in the U.S.) represent a critical mass of computer scientists in education, industry, and government. The USACM provides a means for promoting dialogue on technology policy issues with United States policy makers and the general public. The WASHINGTON UPDATE will report on activities in Washington which may be of interest to those in the computing and information policy communities and will highlight USACM's involvement in many of these issues.

To subscribe to the ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE send an e-mail to listserv@acm.org with "subscribe WASHINGTON-UPDATE" (no quotes) in the body of the message. Back issues are available at http://www.acm.org/usacm

For information about joining the Association for Computing, see: http://www.acm.org/membership/join.html

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USING FOIA TO ACCESS SCIENTIFIC DATA

New attention is being directed at controversial legislation passed last year requiring the Office of Management and Budget to write regulations allowing the use of the Freedom of Information Act to access scientific data collected through federal grants.

The Office of Management and Budget will soon issue revised regulations, following its proposed revisions that were first published on February 4. OMB received 9,200 comments on the proposed regulations with approximately 55% of the comments favoring the proposed revision, while 45% opposed it. OMB has completed its analysis of these comments, and is scheduled to send its revised proposals to federal agencies this week. The revision should be published in the Federal Register by the middle of the month.

Concurrently, Rep. James T. Walsh (R-NY) and Rep. David E. Price (D-NC) have a six- line amendment that they intend to offer to the House Treasury and General Government Appropriations Bill for FY 2000. This amendment would prohibit the use of funds under this act to implement, administer, or enforce the data provision. What would be a one-year delay would be used to study how to best approach this issue.

Opponents of these proposed regulations have long argued that the proposal was never reviewed by any committee. That situation should change next week, when the House Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee holds a hearing on the implications of this proposal. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Steve Horn (R-CA), has tentatively planned a hearing on this matter at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 15.

For more information see: FYI #107 - Update on Data Regulations: http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/

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CLINTON EASES EXPORT CONTROLS ON COMPUTERS

On July 1, President Clinton announced an update of U.S. export controls on computers that will "promote our national security, enhance the effectiveness of our export control system, and ease unnecessary regulatory burdens on both government and industry". According to the White House, "Today's announcement reflects this Administration's efforts to ensure effective controls on militarily sensitive technology while taking into account the increased availability of commodity products, such as servers and workstations, of which millions are manufactured and sold worldwide every year".

During the past year, the Administration has conducted a review of US computer export controls taking into account (1) the rapid advance of computing technology since 1995, (2) US security, nonproliferation and other national security interests, and (3) the need for a policy that would remain effective for at least six months. The review found that advances in the power and capabilities of widely available computing systems have more than exceeded our 1995 control. Analysts estimate that systems designated as "high performance computers" in 1995 (2,000 MTOPS (Millions of Theoretical Operation per Second, a computer performance metric for export control purposes)) will be available in the tens of thousands. This reflects the exponential growth in individual microprocessor speeds that has occurred since 1995. The Administration has determined that widespread commercial availability makes computers with a performance of 6,500 MTOPS or less uncontrollable. The revised controls announced by the President maintain the four country groups announced in 1995, but amends the countries in, and control levels for, those groups.

In addition to revising computer export controls, controls on general-purpose microprocessors will be revised immediately, from the current control level of 1200 MTOPS to 1900 MTOPS. Export control agencies are in agreement that general purpose or so-called "mass market" microprocessors are not controllable because they are used in virtually all consumer and business personal computers, are highly portable, and are sold in very large quantities through multiple distribution channels worldwide. Given the continuing increases in microprocessor technology, the Administration likely will adjust microprocessor control levels again in the fall, 1999.

For more information see: http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/7/2/ 8.text.1

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CRA REPORT ON THE SUPPLY OF IT WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

CRA releases a new study, The Supply of Information Technology Workers in the United States, to improve the understanding of the supply of and demand for information technology (IT) workers in the United States, and the surrounding contextual issues. The report is available in PDF format on the CRA website at http://www.cra.org/wits/cra.wits.html.

Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy, former CRA Board of Directors member and the newest Assistant Director for the Directorate for Computer and information Science and Engineering (CISE) released a press statement on CRA's recently released report, "The Supply of Information Technology Workers in the United States".

Bajcsy notes that this "study is one of the first to focus on the human resources aspect of one of the nation's most vibrant industries". Quoting Arhur C. Clarke, 'advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,' she stresses that this industry so permeates our daily lives that "we forget that the only magic in computer science is the magic of human thought-the human imagination-at work".

Source: CRA-Bulletin Volume 2, Number 1, June 25, 1999: http://www.cra.org/cr-bulletin/

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FCC ESTABLISHES YEAR 2 FUNDING LEVELS FOR UNIVERSAL SERVICE

On May 27, the Federal Communications Commission took steps to ensure that additional universal service support will be available to eligible schools and libraries, particularly those in rural America, during the second funding year of the support mechanism. According to the FCC, "The Commission's decision will ensure that the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is able to allocate support to eligible schools, libraries, and rural health care providers at a level that is equal to or greater than the level of support that was allocated in the first funding year".

USAC estimated that demand for discounts in the second funding year of the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism will be $2.435 billion, up from $2.02 billion for the first funding year. Based on USAC's demand estimates, the Commission set the funding amount at the $2.25 billion cap adopted in the Commission's 1997 Universal Service Order. The Commission directed USAC to collect only as much as required by demand, but in no event more than $562.5 million per quarter for the third and fourth quarters of 1999 and the first and second quarters of 2000 to support the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism.

The Commission recognized that, even by setting the funding level at $2.25 billion for the schools and libraries federal universal service support mechanism, some applicants' needs will not be met in full. Funding at the $2.25 billion cap, however, will be sufficient to fund fully all requests for telecommunications services an Internet access, and to fund fully requests by the neediest schools and libraries for internal connections to at least the same level of discount that was supported during the first funding year.

Consistent with demand projections submitted by USAC, the Commission also established a maximum funding amount of $12 million for the second year of the federal rural health care support mechanism. The Commission directed USAC to collect no more than $3 million per quarter for the third and fourth quarters of 1999 and the first and second quarters of 2000 for the rural health care universal service support mechanism.

For more information contact: Emily Hoffnar 202/418-0253

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ADMINISTRATION SEEKS TO STRENGTHEN GOVERNMENT-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP

The Administration, through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), seeking input from the academic community, has set about trying to improve and clarify federal policies in order to strengthen and enhance the government-university partnership. (The NSTC comprises cabinet-level officials of the science and technology agencies, while PCAST is a group of private-sector leaders in the field.)

Concerns within the university community about increasingly inconsistent and complex federal policies led President Clinton in 1996 to call on his NSTC to conduct an across-the-board review of how the federal government sponsors research at universities. Last month, the NSTC released its report, "Renewing the Federal Government- University Research Partnership for the 21st Century". The study proposes a set of overarching principles to guide federal science agencies in their interactions with universities, and identifies, for further action, areas where improvements need to be made.

The 21-page report sets out four proposed Guiding Principles to govern interactions between federal agencies and universities: (1) Research is an Investment in the Future, (2) The Linkage Between Research and Education is Vital, (3) Excellence is promoted when Investments are guided by Merit Review, and (4) Research Must Be Conducted with Integrity. The NSTC then lays out a series of operating principles, and identifies a number of specific problems it intends to examine further and make recommendations on. These specific issues include: ensuring that agency policies treat students "in a manner consistent with their dual roles as researchers and students;" developing "a government-wide definition of research misconduct;" examining ways to expand the use of merit review; assessing the impacts of agency accounting practices and limitations on cost reimbursement; identifying "best practices" for conforming to environmental, health and safety responsibilities; reducing differences in grant administration across agencies; and establishing working groups "dedicated to continuing review and assessment of the government-university partnership".

The NSTC will allow 12 months for additional dialogue with stakeholders before finalizing the principles put forth in its report. It is encouraging feedback from the academic community. The report is available on the OSTP web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/rand/index.htm and it is possible to submit comments electronically via that site.

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AAAS PUBLISHES RESULTS OF PROJECT ON ANONYMITY

The results of the AAAS project on anonymous communications on the Internet have been published as a special issue of THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 15(2), April-June 1999. You can find the Table of Contents for the issue along with abstracts for the articles on the Web at

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ARTICLES IN THE COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM

The April issue of Communications of the ACM focuses on "Emerging Internet Infrastructures Worldwide" and is guest edited by Milton Mueller.

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[RRE]ACM Washington Update v. 3.6