Featured Speakers

A Consumer Perspective on Privacy and Security

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
8:15 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. SESS02

Daniel Caprio, Jr., Special Assistant, Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) works to ensure that the nation’s markets are vigorous, efficient, and free of restrictions that harm consumers. Whether combating telemarketing fraud, Internet scams or price-fixing schemes, the FTC’s primary mission is to protect consumers. Privacy is a central element of the FTC's consumer protection mission. In recent years, advances in computer technology have made it possible for detailed information about people to be compiled and shared more easily and cheaply than ever. The FTC is educating consumers and businesses about computer security and the importance of safeguarding personal information. This keynote address will describe the FTC’s work on privacy and information security and the opportunities and challenges that confront the higher education community.

LeRoy Rooker, Head of the Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
8:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. SESS03

LeRoy Rooker, Head, Family Policy Compliance Office, United States Department of Education

Postconference Resource

Michael Gallagher, Acting Assistant Secretary, NTIA

Thursday, May 20, 2004
8:30 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. SESS10

Michael Gallagher, Acting Assistant Secretary, National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Postconference Resource

The Role of the University in the Intellectual Property Wars

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. SESS08

James Boyle, Professor, Duke University

Recent debates about the proper role and extent of intellectual property in education and in educational materials have been both intense and heated. Faculty members, university administrators, students, and entrepreneurs have disagreed within and across their ranks about ownership, control, incentives, and access. Much of the debate has taken an economic form. How can we best provide the highest quality educational materials at the lowest price? At the same time, universities have been asked to become the private police of their networks, reacting to claims of unauthorized copying whether by faculty members in online course materials or by students over peer-to-peer networks.

In this presentation, James Boyle will argue that we are on the tipping point between two very different economic and technical systems for the delivery of intellectual content, and two very different communications architectures. Each system will come to seem "rational" if we take a few steps toward it, and each has plausible arguments in its favor. In picking between the two, Boyle claims, our choice should be guided by an unlikely set of values for educators: the virtues of ignorance, disorder, and sheer fortuitous chance.