PFIR Status Report (fwd)

[Imre Simon <is@ime.usp.br>]

Gostaria de chamar a sua atenção para esta iniciativa.

Um abraço,

Imre Simon

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Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 22:16:37 -0800
From: pfir@pfir.org (PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility)
To: PFIR-List@pfir.org
Subject: PFIR Status Report

                 PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility
                               STATUS REPORT
                             February 1, 2000

                       (http://www.pfir.org/status)

Greetings!  This is the first mailing to the PFIR ("People For Internet
Responsibility") mailing list.  The subscription information for this list
is located at the PFIR home page of http://www.pfir.org.

If you have not yet seen the original PFIR materials describing the purpose
and philosophy of PFIR, please see the same home page address mentioned
above for details.  A more formal digest format will be established for this
list as volume dictates.

It has been a while since the original PFIR announcement, and we (Lauren
Weinstein and Peter Neumann, the two co-founders of PFIR) apologize for the
delay in providing more information.  Frankly, we were both overwhelmed with
the degree of response to the announcement, and have been working out the
best way to move forward without undue administrative hassles, which has
been difficult given the extremely limited resources available.

As we've entered into the year 2000, the speed with which issues relating to
the Internet have been taking center stage has been staggering.  It's
obvious that the net will be impacting virtually all aspects of our lives,
and may be no less important, in the long run, than such utilities as
electricity that most of us take for granted.  But the complexity of issues
surrounding the Internet are vast, and even getting a handle on their scope
is formidable to say the least.

As a starting point, the Web page:

   http://www.pfir.org/issues

is a work in progress outlining the basic issues that we have so far
established as being relevant to PFIR and to those persons concerned about
the Internet's impacts on society, culture, and the world in general.

We need your help in elaborating and fleshing-out more details for this
issues outline, which is likely to become the root document for all specific
PFIR efforts that will be coming forth.  Please check out the document and
send your comments and suggestions to:

   pfir-issues@pfir.org

as soon as possible.  We expect the issues document to expand and change
rapidly as your input is received.

It is very important that all persons who are concerned about PFIR-related
issues consider joining this announcement mailing list and become involved
in these projects.  The whole point of PFIR is to provide some balance in
these matters, where powerful, established forces already have most of the
input.  The views of such entities are very important, but they must not
represent the only significant forces relating to these very important
questions.  So if you know people who might be interested, please direct
them to http://www.pfir.org if you feel it would be worthwhile.

Finally, we've been trying to work out a plan to help offset the expenses
related to PFIR, which are likely to be considerable over time, if we are to
be effective.  The current mechanism (where Lauren is directly providing all
of the PFIR facilities, time, etc.  via his existing extremely limited
Vortex Technology resources) is not viable for long.  PFIR is currently an
ad-hoc network, not a formal organization.  The costs and complexities of
establishing PFIR as a formal non-profit organization at this stage would be
considerable and we frankly do not have the resources nor desire to rush
down that path immediately.

We've worked out a model that we believe might be useful in the short to
medium term.  We'd like establish a set of separate PFIR mailing lists, chat
rooms, and other dedicated discussion points for persons who are concerned
enough about these issues that they are willing to provide some financial
support for these efforts.  For the time being, such support would be
primarily through the purchase of subscriptions to these value-added
facilities via Vortex Technology, probably at a cost of around $60/year for
normal subs and $25/year for students.

We hope that in this way at least some of the expenses that are currently
coming out of pocket can be offset and help ensure the future viability of
these efforts.  Please note that at this time such payments would not be
considered to be charitable contributions and would not be deductible as
charitable contributions.  You would need to consult your tax advisor as to
their possible deductibility in other business expense contexts.  As we
evolve, moving PFIR toward a formal non-profit structure that could alter
these constraints will hopefully be feasible.

While the secure infrastructure to handle such subscriptions as described
above already exists through Vortex, we need your feedback regarding your
interest in supporting such an arrangement.  If enough individuals are not
willing to participate, the effort would be wasted.  We are also willing to
consider some sponsorship opportunities for these materials and related
efforts (since as planned Internet and broadcast radio segments and radio
programs relating to these topics) with commercial firms or organizations
who are interested in helping to support this project through larger support
amounts.  Such entities would need to be fully in tune with the PFIR
philosophy, of course.

If you might potentially be interested in helping with these efforts through
these kinds of support models (either as an individual or an organization)
we'd very much appreciate your sending an e-mail to:

   pfir-support@pfir.org

letting us know your thoughts.  Please do not send any checks, stamps, or
cereal boxtops at this time.  Just please let us know your reaction regarding
this concept, your possible willingness to participate, and any other ideas.
It's crucial that we rapidly get some idea of the number of people or
organizations who might be interested before we can consider moving forward.

We want to thank everyone who has expressed such support for the PFIR
concept and efforts up to this point, and here's hoping we can move forward
in a direction that might yet help the Internet achieve its full potential
in a balanced way that will benefit all of humanity.

Thanks again.  Be seeing you.

- --Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

Peter Neumann
neumann@pfir.org or neumann@csl.sri.com
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Moderator, RISKS Forum - http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks
Chairman, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
http://www.csl.sri.com/neumann/
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