[Ecommerce] US E-Commerce Roundatable

[Torres, Frank]

Jamie,  What a great idea for getting together on these important issues.
Is it too early to call for the first one in March?  That would be Tuesday
March 7.  I could volunteer the use of our conference room. I think we can
hold about twenty seated around the table and more around the perimeter.  

Also, do we need to include Internet governance to the list of issues.  Who
occupies the field?  Congress is acting on some issues, the President talks
about self-regulation, then we've got the likes of ICANN.  Many consumers
aren't aware of not only the issues that affect how the Internet runs, but
who sets the basic rules of the road.

Frank.
 

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	James Love [mailto:love@cptech.org]
		Sent:	Friday, February 18, 2000 8:20 AM
		To:	ecommerce
		Subject:	[Ecommerce] US E-Commerce Roundatable

		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


		-- 
		=======================================================
		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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