The New York Times reports on a "red team" style vulnerability test that revealed some weaknesses in the Diebold voting machines Maryland will use in the upcoming 2004 election. Security Poor in Electronic Voting Machines, Study Warns
The National Academies' IP Website and Quarterly Newsletter
For a round-up of the intellectual property issue-related current
projects at the National Academies, visit http://ip.nas.edu/. The site
publishes a quarterly e-newsletter which is archived at
http://ip.nas.edu/special_5.html. The current newsletter is at
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/STEP/IPR-NEWS_Vol1_No3.pdf
"Software, Growth, and the Future of the U.S. Economy"
A symposium in the series "Measuring and Sustaining the New Economy,"
February 20, 2004, The National Academies, Keck Center, 500 5th Street,
NW, Room 100, Washington, DC. Industry representatives from leading
companies such as Google, Apple, General Motors, and Jet Blue, and
academic experts will participate in a high-level discussion of the role
of software and its importance to U.S. productivity growth; how software
is made and why it is unique; the measurement of software in national
and business accounts; the implications of the movement of software
industry jobs offshore; and related policy issues. Contact David
Dierksheide at ddierksheide@nas.edu for information.
New procedures on Social Security Numbers for foreign students and visitors announced by Department of Homeland Security: In late December, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a memo and fact sheet advising colleges and universities how to ensure foreign students and visitors obtain a Social Security number. As the AAU summarizes, the policy requires that foreign students and visitors first report to the school, where institute officials will register the students with the Student Exchange Visitors Information System (SEVIS). After a student has been active in the SEVIS system for 48 hours, the individual may apply for a Social Security number. The Department of Homeland Security has made an agreement with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to have DHS verify the SEVIS information on behalf of SSA. This new procedure aims to speed the process of obtaining a Social Security number by foreign students.
(taken from Georgia Tech Office of Federal Relations)
Science News has more detail on the rumors surrounding Rita Colwell's imminent departure as director of NSF. Maybe most interestingly, they suggest Arden Bement, currently head of NIST, would take over NSF as interim director. Here's a bit of the scoop:
Rumors were circulating in Washington, D.C., last week that Colwell planned to announce her departure as early as this week, shortly before the president's 2005 budget is unveiled, and that it was tied to her frustration with a succession of stingy White House budget requests for the agency. Arden Bement, the current director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was said to have accepted the job as interim NSF director and was preparing to testify in that capacity at an 11 February hearing of the House Science Committee.But those rumors appear to have been wrong. Science Committee staff say Colwell accepted their invitation in late December and hasn't notified them of any change of plans. NIST spokesperson Matthew Heyman says that Bement "doesn't have 11 February on his calendar." And NSF's William Noxon says that Colwell plans to both unveil the president's 2005 budget for NSF on 2 February and represent NSF at the committee hearing. Last week Colwell told Science that she was not leaving anytime soon.
Wired has an article in this month's issue about the outsourcing of IT-related jobs that's worth reading: The New Face of the Silicon Age.
From the New York Times -- Bush Is Said to Seek More Money for Arts.
Bush is apparently poised to request $20 million for the NEA for FY 2005, an increase of $15 million over FY 2004. Interesting move for a GOP Administration in a very tight budget year....
I believe we should devote some thought to the impact the draconian (and often useless and xenophobic) restrictions on foreign visitors and students is going to have on our profession. I keep seeing articles such as this one and it concerns me that nationally we may be hurting our research enterprise and alienating our friends. The Computing community is certainly not immune to this!
Tech Daily (subscription required) reports from a Information Technology Industry council (ITI) luncheon that outsourcing of IT jobs will be a hot topic for lawmakers in the coming session.
ITI's Ralph Hellmann said congressional staffers told him that populist lawmakers from both parties plan to use the issue to "take a whack" at the technology industry this election year.
"We acknowledge that, and we want to work with the folks in this room and others to understand how other tech issues affect offshore outsourcing," Hellmann said. "If we want to be most innovative, all the other issues impact on that."
Legislation on stock options, class-action suits and patents all influence the competitiveness of the U.S. technology industry, Hellmann said, and thus impact the outsourcing issue.
As a result, ITI will working with broad industry and business associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers. A more specific agenda will be outlined in February.
Meanwhile, the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Information Technology Association of America plan to meet soon to finalize plans for a new coalition on outsourcing, according to sources. The working title for the group is the Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs, according to sources.
The National Science Board has released a new report on the science and engineering workforce. From their release:
This important NSB policy report offers the Board's findings and recommendations on long-term strategies for the workforce in five areas: undergraduate and advanced education in science and engineering; the knowledge base on the science and engineering workforce; the precollege teaching workforce for mathematics, science and technology; and US engagement in the international science and engineering workforce.
Link to the report.
Slightly old news, but NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate head Peter Freeman has posted a message on the CISE website in an effort to clear up any confusion within the community about the reorganization of the the directorate.
Freeman has also posted a "programmatic crosswalk" that maps former CISE programs and program solicitations to the newly organized structure.
Elaine McCusker of the CNSR and Toby Smith of AAU passed on this interesting slide presentation detailing basic research funding at the Department of Defense by Bob Trew at NC State.
In it, Trew highlights concerns (concerns CRA shares) about "6.1" funding at DOD, primarily:
Received the attached "R&D Fact Sheet" from Connie Correll Partoyan, Counselor & Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Technology, Department of Commerce.
Federal R&D Budget Facts
• With the completion of the FY 2004 budget process this week, total
federal R&D investment over the last three years has increased by 38%, to
$126 billion in 2004, compared to $91 billion in 2001. That's the
equivalent of increases of 11.3% each year.
• Last February, President Bush's 2004 budget request committed 13.7
percent of total discretionary outlays to R&D - the highest level in 36
years. Not since 1968 and the Apollo program have we seen an investment in
science of this magnitude.
• Of this, the Bush budget committed 6% of total discretionary outlays
to non-defense R&D. This is the highest level in 31 years (since 1973).
• Funding for basic research, the fuel for future technology
development, is at an all-time high of $26.7 billion in 2004, compared to
$21.3 billion just three years ago. That's a 25% increase or the
equivalent of increases of 7.7% each year. 95 percent of this basic
research spending occurs outside the Defense Department.
• Funding for NIH has increased 37% over the previous Administration to
almost $28 billion.
• Funding for NSF has increased 26% over the previous Administration to
$5.6 billion.
• Since 2001, nanotechnology R&D is up 86% percent, to $864 million,
and information technology R&D is up 14%, to $2.0 billion.
• And hydrogen energy research, now embodied in the President's 2003
Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, is more than double what it was in 2001 at $160
million.
The New York Times has an interesting article laying out some of the issues surrounding intellectual property and the public domain. Many quotes from the "CopyLeft" crowd (Lessig, Zittrain, and Fisher) and a few from the other side of the argument as well.
Ed Lazowska adds: Among my friends and collaborators who build and distribute research software, essentially all have adopted some variation of the BSD model rather than the GNU model. The need to incorporate software from disparate sources makes the GNU model too restrictive, IMHO.
After much delay, the Senate yesterday passed the FY 2004 Omnibus appropriations bill, clearing the way for the bill to head to the White House nearly 4 months after the start of the 2004 fiscal year. By passing the gargantuan 700-plus page bill, Congress approved a modest increase in funding for information technology research and development and the National Science Foundation for FY 2004.
Under the agreement, NSF’s budget will grow to $5.57 billion in FY 2004, an increase of $268 million over FY 2003, or 5 percent. The appropriation, the largest NSF budget in history, still falls well short of the 15 percent increase approved by Congress and the President last year in the NSF authorization bill, a rate of increase that would double the agency’s budget in five years.
Also slated for increase is NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate, which will grow to $606 million for FY 2004, an increase of $24 million over FY 2003, or just over 4 percent. The increase includes $225 million for NSF’s Information Technology Research program (ITR) and "not less than $20 million" for the agency’s cyberinfrastructure initiatives in FY 2004.
Details on the FY 2004 appropriations process (and its effect on IT R&D funding) are available CRN Online.
President Bush will apparently ask for an increase of just 1 percent overall in non-defense, non-homeland security related discretionary spending for FY 2005. The Washington Times has the details.
Because some programs, like the Administration's education initiatives, will be slated for increases over 1 percent, other programs will likely receive cuts. Whispers around DC suggest that NSF might suffer significantly under the request, receiving an increase of just 1 percent for FY 2005 -- well under the 15 percent authorized by Congress and the President in December 2002. The full details should be known when the President releases his budget request on February 2, 2004.
The Washington Post reports that Northwest Airlines provided millions of customer records to NASA shortly after 9/11 to "assist the government's search for technology to improve aviation security." The record transfer was revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from EPIC relating to the government's CAPPS II development efforts.
A similar revelation last year by jetBlue airline helped convince Congress that TIA-related research at DARPA posed too big a threat to American civil liberties to be allowed to continue. (CRN coverage.)
IBM to add 15,000 new jobs 4,500 in the US. But the company also plans to move 3,000 jobs from the US to developing nations in 2004. -- From CNET News
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist warned today that failure to pass the long-delayed $328 billion omnibus FY 2004 appropriations bill will cut off millions in funding for new projects. Here's coverage in the Washington Post. Failure to pass the legislation would force Congress to pass a "continuing resolution," Frist says, which would freeze funding for government activities at last year's spending level.
The bill, already passed in the House, faces opposition from Democrats in the Senate over controversial provisions including overtime pay, country-of-origin labeling for beef, and media consolidation rules.
Tied up in the bill is a $268 million funding increase for the National Science Foundation (5 percent over FY 2003), including a $24 million increase to NSF's CISE division.
The Senate will return from recess next week.
CRA has more detail on the omnibus in the January 2004 edition of Computing Research News, which can now be found online!
President Bush wants Americans back to the moon "no later than 2020" and to Mars a decade later, and he's going to request an increase of $1 billion (or 5 percent) to the NASA budget to make it so. Here's the official release from the White House.
The total in funding will be $12 billion over five years, with only $1 billion in new funding. In addition, the Space Shuttle fleet will be retired by 2010 and US participation in the International Space Station will be "scaled back."
No other details on how this change in federal R&D priorities will impact computing research at NASA or any other agency. The Administration has already indicated that NIH, which has received large increases in recent years (doubling its budget over the last five years), will likely receive a 3 percent increase or less in the FY 2005 budget, so perhaps that shift in priority will allow for an increase at NASA while remaining within the Administration's spending goals.
We should know all after the Feb 1st FY 2005 budget rollout.