Letter from the Special Section Editors, Ten Years of Computers, Freedom and Privacy

Ten Years of Computers, Freedom, and Privacy " Four hundred people from every conceivable corner of America's electronic community. As a science ction writer, I have been to some weird gigs in my day, but this thing is truly beyond the pale, " wrote Bruce Sterling about the rst Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference, held in San Francisco in 1991. Jim Warren organized the rst CFP conference in an effort to bring together the law enforcement and hacker communities to debate and explain each other's worlds, and to reduce the paranoia level in each community. Ten years later, CFP2000 was held 4–7 April 2000 in Toronto, Canada. For the tenth time, this eclectic event attracted attendees from a wide variety of disciplines — students, professors, lawyers, policymakers, computer professionals, law enforcement of cers, librarians, journalists , hackers, and many others who share a common interest in impacting computer and Internet-related policy debates. Indeed, over the years, many of the discussion s begun at CFP conferences have had an impact on policy decisions. A late-night session sponsored by the National Research Council cryptography committee at CFP95 is often noted as a classic CFP event. Dozens of CFP at-tendees stayed up well past midnight to give their views to a National Research Council committee. The committee members were impressed with the response, and this event is said to have played an in uential role in shaping the report that the committee eventually issued. And the fact that each year an increasing number of government of cials from around the world submit session proposals and requests to participate suggests that policymakers take CFP very seriously. At the time of the rst CFP conference, the Internet was a subject discussed for the most part only at technical conferences. And while freedom, privacy, and policy issues were the subject of many conferences, these topics were rarely discussed side by side with computers. Now online issues are central to privacy conferences, policy issues have become an important part of many technical conferences (especially those dealing with the Internet and encryption), and cyberspace policy conferences are proliferating. But the CFP conference remains a unique event due to its diverse participants, intense schedule, and a certain edginess that is hard to nd at more academic-oriented conferences. Over the years, the CFP conferences have typically included a half day or full day of tutorials, followed by 2 to 3 …