[Ecommerce] US E-Commerce Roundatable

[James Love]

Jeff Chester and were talking about possible next steps on the
e-commerce front, and one idea was to begin a US e-commerce roundtable,
like the old US Telecommunications Policy Roundtable (TPR).  Something
with no real governing body or structure, but that would provide a
monthly forum for a brown bag lunch discussion of various e-commerce
issues, including things like debates or invitations to government
officials.  I would recommend stealing the old TPR meeting time, which
was the first tuesday of every month.  I also like the old TPR system of
rotating chairs for meetings.  

About the only thing we would need to get going on this would be an
initial announcement, and some agreement on who would provide the
secretariat services.  For TPR, CME provided the secretariat, and I
think everyone would agree, did a great job on this.  

CPT has hired Vergil Bushnell to work on ecommerce, and he could provide
the part time secretariat services for an e-commerce roundtable.  But if
any other group has the capacity and interesting in doing this, we would
enjoy using Vergil for other things, so we are flex on this point.  

Regular meetings would help us further articulate key issues and
potential strategies on these evolving issues, including access to
broadband Internet connections (cable and xDSL), jurisdiction of law in
cyberspace, digital signatures, UCTIA, consumer protection, copyright
and other intellectual property disputes and privacy. 

  Jamie


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James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
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