1) Biggest surprise(s) in Chapter 1?
	What did you not know?
	What seems most odd/out of place/silly/wrong?

2) Questions about the history, the process, the outcomes?

3) 	PRIVACY CONCERNS WERE WELL-KNOWN, AND IGNORED, early in the process of 	deploying the commercial Internet.

	Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) 1993-95 concluded that “the 	communications revolution was on a path to undermine individual privacy on a massive 	scale.” (p.19). 

	A parallel study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration 	(NTIA) affirmed the idea that the commercial internet would bring increased privacy 	risks and again pointed to consumer profiling as an area of particular concern. (p. 20). 

	Based on the FIPs, they proposed “NOTICE and CHOICE.”

	In actual use, this turns into “Our lawyers will write Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, 	and End User License Agreements (NOTICE) that consumers/users will not read, could 	not understand, but will be bound by such that they can abide by our terms or chose to 	leave (CHOICE).

4) The MARKET will solve these problems for consumers.
	
	Markets are proposed as the best mechanism to distribute the social benefits of a 	powerful new information technology—(p. 23). 

	Neo-liberalism  joined with conservative anti-government orientations  (esp. 	deregulation to “get the government off the backs of the people”) to form 	the “politics of economic growth.” 

	Atari Democrats with in-roads to the high tech donor class “the domain of scrappy 	entrepreneurs and meritocratic markets.”(p. 25). “

	The high-tech donor class became the poster children for cleansing the Democrats of 	opposition to the business class. Women, people of color and blue-color workers (the 	middle and lower classes) need not apply. 

	Privatization and commercialization of the internet resulted (in an environment of 	deregulation, industry consolidation, and without taxation on most internet sales. 

5) GOVERNMENT’S ROLE: to support private industry:

	The Telecommunications Act of 1996: “The broad change was that the public interest 	[would] be secured not by regulation but by competition.”Letting the private sector lead 	meant not only deregulation but also an abdication by the government of nearly all 	operational responsibility to see to it that communications systems served a public 	good. “The point of government regulation, pure and simple, became to help firms 	maximize their profits,” writes Robert McChesney. “That was the new public 	interest.” (p. 28). 

	Ties between the Clinton/Gore White House and the tech firms deepened after re-	election.
	
	Even though the Feds funded the R&D that started the Internet, telcom & new tech 	leaders insisted that the private sector be in charge of the build out. 

6) LET’S MAKE THE INTERNET “INTERACTIVE.” (Post 1992)

	Traditional marketing and advertising starts taking note, and worrying.
	“Interactivity” was thought to “put the consumer in charge.” At first, the advert industry 	opposed. But eventually, they came around.

	“Consensus quickly formed around the notion that marketers, ad agencies, and 	publishers needed to work together to ensure that advertising would be the economic 	engine of the new media,” (p. 38) arguing that “that without advertising support, the 	Clinton administration would be unable to achieve its goal of universal internet access.

I’m not going to lecture, Thursday, about Chapter 2: A FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL ELECTRONIC COMMERCE. The chapter provides details about how the agreements between the Feds/Clinton Admin. and industry were arranged. We’ve sketched out the broad approach:

1. The private sector should lead.
2. Governments should avoid undue restrictions on electronic commerce.
3. Where governmental involvement is needed, its aim should be to support and enforce a predictable, minimalist, consistent, and simple legal environment for commerce.
4. Governments should recognize the unique qualities of the internet.
5. Electronic commerce over the internet should be facilitated on a global basis.

 I’ll use Thursday to catch up with all previous reading material and continue Concept work.