White House Names Dr. Ed Felten as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/11/white-house-names-dr-ed-felten-deputy-us-chief-technology-officer

by JoshTriplett • 11 years ago

124 48 11 years ago

This is a refreshing dose of sanity, considering his technology background and history (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Felten). I look forward to seeing what he can accomplish in this position.

gcb0• 11 years ago

he sued a drm company that played the dmca card on him. will love (not) to see him backing up things like dmca now...

JacobEdelman• 11 years ago

I've met him a few times and I've seen him speak. He definitely seems to be the kind of change we need.

xnull6guest4• 11 years ago

Can you clarify what changes you would expect Felten to bring into the government? I'm a little frustrated by the lack of specifics in both the article, the Wiki page, and these comments. What about his technology background and history make him a particularly viable candidate - and what changes will we expect him to bring to bear from his background?

JoshTriplett3• 11 years ago

He's pro-technology, pro-privacy, anti-DRM, anti-DMCA, etc. I'm hoping that he will use this role to make the government a little less technophobic, a little less inclined to use laws to prop up companies that can't cope with new technologies, and a little less inclined towards mass spying and data collection.

On the other hand, I have no idea how much influence this role actually has; we'll see how it goes over the next few years.

staunch• 11 years ago

I bet he'd make a great president himself.

themeek3• 11 years ago

I am able to access some of his syllabi for his law and policy classes from his homepage (for example, here's a syllabus for Digital Surveillance [1]), but can't find very particularly much on his politics.

Does anyone know where he stands on public policy with regard to IP law, civil law, domestic surveillance and domestic propaganda?

[1] https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall13/cos597G/

dadrian• 11 years ago

Ed largely opposes mass surveillance, etc. See some of his posts on Freedom to Tinker: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/author/felten/

colechristensen• 11 years ago

He was a board member of the EFF, which should tell you enough.

themeek3• 11 years ago

Being a board member of the EFF isn't enough for me - I like to understand specifics and don't trust the EFF sheerly on invocation of their name.

temuze• 11 years ago

Great great great professor.

Very anti-surveillance. Did a lot of work finding vulnerabilities in voting machines!

drzaiusapelord• 11 years ago

I never understood some of these high level appointments when its comes to technology. What does this role really do? It seems borderline ceremonial, like the King's wizard or somesuch.

LordKano2• 11 years ago

It's having someone who is knowledgeable about a subject in place to translate the President's position into one that would make sense to other knowledgeable people.

jkestner• 11 years ago

That wouldn't be terribly useful to us. I'd rather it work in the other direction - translating technical knowledge into something the president can use to shape better policy.

Once our government loses its technical ignorance, we won't have to use Hanlon's Razor to excuse them.

mhurron• 11 years ago

What does this role really do?

Act as a stepping stone to bigger positions in the private sector.

xnull6guest4• 11 years ago

It brings in leadership that aligns with policy objectives.

The appointment of Shaarik Zafar for example - they needed someone who would be on board with mass propaganda of the Middle East:

https://minerva.dtic.mil/doc/samplewp-Lieberman.pdf

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/07/senators-want-...

http://csis.org/multimedia/combating-violent-extremism

http://csis.org/files/publication/131011_Douglas_EngagingMus...

Or take Sunstein's appointment after his work on systems of domestic 'guidance' of public discussion through 'nudging' and 'choice architecture' through the study of behavioral economics.

It's less of a crowning as it is bringing in those who can transform, with leadership, the mechanisms and operating procedures of a department.

jldugger• 11 years ago

What exactly is he he leading? It's not like there's a technology department of the US governement. There's a couple hundred.

MrZongle2• 11 years ago

I find it difficult to not view such appointments with a great deal of cynicism. We are supposedly six years into an administration that promised change from what came before, but seems determined to maintain the status quo on many fronts.

shit_parade24• 11 years ago

I fully agree, if anything it impinges on the reputation of anyone who willing works with the lying murders in the White House.

dude_abides• 11 years ago

time to go long on bitcoin!

drcode• 11 years ago

Given how things have been going lately, I'll just be happy if all the recent good news doesn't lead to another price crash.

jonstokes• 11 years ago

I followed and covered Ed's career over the years at Ars, and he's a great technologist and one of the Good Guys. EFF board member, anti-DRM activist, one of those sounding the alarm on e-voting and mass surveillance. In other words, he's opposed to just about everything that Obama seems to stand for in practice (disregarding the president's rhetoric on these issues). So I have to wonder, is this one of those "keep your enemies closer" things?

Anyway, congrats(?) to Prof. Felten. Here's to hoping he can make a difference.

wsxcde• 11 years ago

Well, he was named CTO of the FTC back in 2010, so it seems he has a good relationship with the Obama administration.

csoghoian• 11 years ago

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency. They don't take orders from the President.

(I know, because I worked there for a year)

dmix• 11 years ago

he's opposed to just about everything that Obama seems to stand for in practice

If the gov had to excluded Tech people who didn't fit this profile they wouldn't be able to find anyone left to recruit.

shit_parade24• 11 years ago

Ridiculous, he isn't a 'good' guy, he works for someone who tortures and murders innocents without qualms or cares.

Down vote the truth.

xnull2guest4• 11 years ago

What I think that the OP meant was that for the purposes of his role, he is an advocate for the types of civil initiatives supported by most of the HN crowd. In some sense every American that has benefited from torture, assassination, coup, neocolonialization, murder, and enslavement by America's administrations and corporations aren't 'good' people.

btilly• 11 years ago

So I have to wonder, is this one of those "keep your enemies closer" things?

My bet is that this is simply Obama showing one of his better strengths. Namely that he is able to assemble a diverse team of people with different perspectives, let them all have their positions heard, and then Obama makes the decisions and is able to control the politics. Obama has never looked for yes men, and his team is unlikely to be prone to groupthink.

The result of this is an effective executive that can get things done. You may not like those things. But he is good on executing on his ideas.

So Ed will get a chance to explain why Hollywood does not need copyright strengthened. However if he fails to change Obama's opinion, he won't be in a position to set policy on that issue. (Given Joe Biden's involvement, I doubt that Obama will budge on that.) But he will be in a position to point out the technical flaws in specific bad proposals and keep Obama from proposing anything which is obviously impossible.

YesThatTom2• 11 years ago

he's opposed to just about everything that Obama seems to stand for in practice (disregarding the president's rhetoric on these issues).

Obama knows his hands are tied by the lobbying efforts of powerful interests that are so strong he can't act as he wishes.

Hiring Felton sounds like he wants someone on his team that can come up with the rhetoric that he'll need to be able to match his actions with his words.

mrb• 11 years ago

FYI this news is creating excitement in the Bitcoin community because Dr. Ed Felten is a notable Bitcoin researcher and advocate: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-researcher-ed-felten-white-h...

White House Names Dr. Ed Felten as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer

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