The roots of our democracy can be traced to England and to its Parliament and so can the roots of this organization. In June of 1982, President Ronald Reagan spoke at Westminster Palace and declared the turning point had arrived in history. He argued that Soviet communism had failed precisely because it did not respect its own people, their creativity, their genius and their rights.

President Reagan said that the day of Soviet tyranny was passing, that freedom had a momentum that would not be halted.

I truly believe that some of the issues most important to America’s future are ones that all of us should be dealing with.

With a strong sense of history, George W. Bush last week made the case for "a forward strategy" of idealism in American foreign policy. He dared to place his Big Idea -- what has become the central theme and purpose of his presidency -- in the direct line of aspirations expressed by three of the past century's most far-seeing and controversial U.S. presidents.

"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year," wrote the chief executive of Diebold, to 100 wealthy and politically inclined friends.

At least 8 percent of voters may cast their ballots using Diebold machines next November, including voters in Georgia and California, among other states.

According to an analysis by SAIC, "the system is at high risk of compromise." A Stanford computer scientist said that "it would be very easy to steal an election [such that it would not] show up ... as an anomaly."

The Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference is headed back to the Bay -- April 20-24 in Berkeley, CA.

We are seeking proposals on all aspects of computers, freedom, and privacy ... We have identified three themes for CFP2004:

* The role of technology in providing national security and preserving individual privacy and freedom in the post-9-11 world: How has it enhanced or undermined public security, increased or decreased public access to information, helped or hindered military and law enforcement readiness and efficacy, and infringed or redefined individual privacy?

* The impact of new legal and technical developments on the Internet's utility as a medium for disseminating and archiving information, interacting with individuals, and culture: From digital rights management and trusted computing architectures to jursidiction, intellectual property and tort law, how are the laws of government and the laws of physics and mathematics altering our ability to access, archive and interact with information?

* The role of computer and telecommunications technologies in the political process: What are their effects on grassroots activism, information dissemination, opportunites for informed participation, organizing, candidate and issue campaigns, citizenship and the voting process itself at the local, national, and global levels?

The rapid growth of the Internet has led to a worldwide crisis of governance.

In the early years of Internet development, the prevailing view was that government should stay out of Internet governance; market forces and self-regulation would suffice to create order and enforce standards of behavior.

But this view has proven inadequate as the Internet has become mainstream. A reliance on markets and self-policing has failed to address adequately the important interests of Internet users such as privacy protection, security, and access to diverse content. And as the number of users has grown worldwide, so have calls for protection of these important public and consumer interests.

Some ["digital champions"] have difficulty realizing that the battle for which they have fought has essentially been won.

Education is being radically and irreversibly transformed with the help of digital technologies. We cannot, nor should we want to go back. The only significant question is how do we go forward.

... We need less cheerleading and more constructive critique.