On Thursday, December 6, 2007 Executive Director Tim Lordan moderated a panel at the first annual Family Online Safety Institute conference. The roundtable, called “What methods and messages do we need to effectively reach parents, teachers and children?” included Marsali S. Hancock, President, Internet Keep Safe Coalition, John Carosella, VP of Content Control, Blue Coat Systems, Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate, Symantec, and Rudi Vansnick, President & CEO, Internet Society Belgium, & Treasurer ISOC-ECC Barcelona, Spain. The wide ranging discussion included issues related to federal funding of Internet safety education, appropriate messages for parents and children, and the role of schools in teaching Internet safety and media literacy.

Last week the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee partnered with the Oxford Internet Institute to convene a first of its kind international Internet policy dialogue in London. Distinguished policymakers from the U.S., U.K. and E.U. engaged on challenging Internet issues with a crowd of leading tech policy academics, industry executives and NGO representatives. Professor Bill Dutton and colleagues from the University of Oxford moderated dialogue on compelling issues such as telecom regulation, intellectual property protection, privacy/security and Internet governance.  Congressional Internet Caucus Co-Chairs - Congressmen Rick Boucher and Bob Goodlatte - shared their insight on the opportunities and challenges facing global policymakers, industry and consumers.

More information, including bios for principal participants, can be found at www.netcaucus.org/global.

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC) has begun the search for technology demonstrators to present their innovative technologies at the 11th annual Kickoff Reception & Technology Exhibition — scheduled for Wednesday, January 30, 2008 from 5 to 7 PM in the Hart Senate Office Building. This event is the largest technology exhibition on Capitol Hill and kicks off the Congressional session each year. The event exhibits new and emerging technologies that illustrate the latest technology policy issues with interactive hands-on demonstrations.

More information and the event application now available or contact Allison Rodway at 202-638-4370.

CBS News is running a three part series for parents searching for resources to help them protect teens online. The piece takes an in depth look at the benefits and pitfalls of monitoring software: does this it invade teen’s privacy? Do monitoring and blocking technologies work for teens?  The Web version of the article also contains a section of recommended sites, linking concerned parents to GetNetWise.org and GetNetWise’s new Parental Empowerment Tools Training Webinars Series. The new webinars series can be found at kids.getnetwise.org/tools/webinars/.

Tim Lordan, Executive Director of the Internet Education Foundation, spoke at the Federal Trade Commission’s “eHavioral Targeting” Town Hall conference earlier this month. Lordan spoke on the final roundtable on the “Future of Behavioral Advertising.” Lordan spoke about the future of mobile location services and also discussed privacy issues relating to the use of social networking sites. Not incoincidentally, the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee announced yesterday that a panel at the State of the Net Conference 2008 will explore privacy issues related to social networking. The panel is titled, “Social Networking Privacy: An Oxymoron?” Panelists will be announced shortly.

Don’t miss the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee’s State of the Net Conference — now the largest technology policy conference in DC, attracting over 500 attendees in 2007. The only conference with a balanced blend of academics, consumer groups, industry and government (over 50% of 2007 attendees were government policy staff).

Perennially the State of the Net Conference brings technology and the Internet to the forefront of debate on Capitol Hill. Now in its fourth year, this annual full-day conference has become the premier forum to discuss technology trends and the disruptive challenges facing lawmakers, industry leaders, and consumers.

Visit http://www.netcaucus.org/conference/2008/ for more information and registration details.

On Monday October 22 the ICAC hosted a standing room only luncheon Cyber Security Threat Assessment briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building. Brian Krebs of the Washington Post moderated an expert panel that included Gregory Crabb (USPIS), Keith Rhodes (GAO), and Gary Warner (University of Alabama at Birmingham).

The audio of that event is now available for download or podcast (if you’re subscribed). Please visit Threat Assessment Audio.

ICAC members submitted one-pagers on the cyber security threat assessment. You can view those one-pagers at Threat Assessment One-Pagers.