Please note: Additional organizations may be added to the program prior to the application deadline. Please check back for additional updates.
American Library AssociationCanadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
Cato Institute
Center for Democracy and Technology
The Citizen Lab
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Creative Commons
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Future of Music Coalition
Internet Education Foundation
Media Access Project
New America Foundation
Progress and Freedom Foundation
Public Knowledge
Technology Policy Institute
American Library Association
- www.ala.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit educational organization of over 65,000 librarians, library trustees, and other friends of libraries dedicated to improving library services and promoting the public interest in a free and open information society. http://www.ala.org/
The Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) advances ALA's public policy activities by helping secure information technology policies that support and encourage efforts of libraries to ensure access to electronic information resources as a means of upholding the public's right to a free and open information society. It works to ensure a library voice in information policy debates and to promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public by:
- Conducting research and analysis aimed at understanding the implications of information technology and policies for libraries and library users,
- Educating the ALA community about the implications of information policy, law, and regulation for libraries and library users,
- Advocating ALA's information policy interests in non-legislative government policy forums, and
- Engaging in strategic outlook to anticipate technological change, particularly as it presents policy challenges to libraries and library users.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
OITP is organized into three substantive programs, to which the Google Fellow would make contributions:
- Program on Public Access to Information: Includes our diverse portfolio on digital copyright that includes international advocacy, E-government issues, and other topics related to how the public accesses information in a digital society.
- Program on Networks: Two core issues are library connectivity (how to improve broadband access to libraries, especially those in rural or low income areas) and universal service (in particular, the E-rate program that provides significant funding for telecommunications services in libraries). This program covers the large diversity of policy issues related to networks and libraries such as network neutrality, DTV transition, FISA, Internet privacy, Internet filtering, and more.
- Program on the Future of Libraries: Investigates the implications of the increasing influence of digital information, networks, and the Web on the role and functions of libraries of all types.
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
- www.cippic.ca
- Fellowship Location: Ottawa, Canada
Please note that CIPPIC will only be considering applications from students enrolled in a law degree.
The Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is based at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, in Canada's capital city, Ottawa. CIPPIC's mission is to fill voids in public policy debates on technology law issues, ensure balance in policy and law-making processes, and provide legal assistance to under-represented organizations and individuals on matters arising from the use of new technologies; and to provide a high quality and rewarding clinical legal education experience to students of law while accomplishing these goals.
CIPPIC has become a leading voice for under-represented interests in policy debates on internet-related issues such as privacy, copyright law, network neutrality, free speech and online consumer protection in Canada and internationally. Staff and students pursue these issues via legislative advocacy, cooperative policy-making, litigation, research, and public education.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Privacy: developing robust policy and legislative frameworks within which new technologies can develop while respecting privacy rights; holding governments and corporations accountable under privacy laws; educating the public about privacy rights and issues raised by new technologies;
- Copyright: assisting under-represented stakeholders in articulating and communicating their interests and concerns about unbalanced approaches to copyright protection domestically and internationally; lobbying for balanced copyright laws
- Net Neutrality: analysing the issue in the Canadian context; holding internet service providers and network operators accountable under existing net neutrality laws; advocating for legislative change if analysis suggests it is needed in Canada
- Consumer Protection Online: identifying common unfair terms and practices in electronic commerce and advocating specific policy or law reforms designed to eradicate them; working with other stakeholders to develop solutions to online threats such as spam and spyware
- Drafting and updating website FAQs and Resources on such issues as free speech online, intermediary liability, identity theft, and online privacy.
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute has withdrawn its Fellowship position for 2009. Please contact the program administrators at policyfellowship@google.com if you have any questions. Please visit their website if you would like learn about Cato's other summer opportunities: www.cato.org/jobs/intern
Center for Democracy and Technology
- www.cdt.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public policy organization dedicated to promoting the democratic potential of today's open, decentralized global Internet. Our mission is to conceptualize, develop, and implement public policies to preserve and enhance free expression, privacy, open access, and other democratic values in the new and increasingly integrated communications environment.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Free Expression: Protecting free expression from censorship, and championing the right of individuals to communicate, publish and obtain information.
- Consumer Privacy: Developing policy solutions and technology tools so Internet users can take control of their personal information and data online.
- Security & Freedom: Advocating for stronger legal protections from government intrusion and challenging law enforcement demands for network surveillance.
- Digital Copyright: Working to protect the balance between the interests of copyright holders and the public.
- International: Working to promote democratic values and human rights in the global online medium.
- Open Government: Defending the public's right to know about information collected, disseminated and maintained by the government in order to increase accountability and public awareness.
The Citizen Lab
- www.citizenlab.org
- Fellowship Location: Toronto, Canada
The Citizen Lab, founded 2001, is an interdisciplinary research and development lab located at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. Founded and directed by Professor Ron Deibert, the Citizen Lab does research and development at the intersection of technology, global security, and human rights.
Among the Citizen Lab’s main projects are:
- The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) – The ONI is a collaborative project among the Citizen Lab, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University, as well as partner non-governmental organizations worldwide. The ONI’s aim is to document patterns of Internet censorship and surveillance. The ONI employs a unique multi-disciplinary approach that includes advanced technical means and local knowledge expertise through a global network of regionally based researchers and experts. (http://opennet.net/)
- The Information Warfare Monitor (IWM) – the IWM is the “sister” project of the ONI, run as a collaboration of the Citizen Lab, the Ottawa-based SecDev Group, and the Cambridge Security Programme at the University of Cambridge in the UK. The aim of the IWM is to monitor the Internet as a domain for military and intelligence operations in support of political objectives and the exercise of power. As with the ONI, the IWM employs a combination of technical means and in-field research to document state and non-state military and intelligence operations. (http://www.infowarmonitor. net/)
- Psiphon – Psiphon is a censorship circumvention software platform and service, operating as an incorporated entity, Psiphon Inc, based in Ottawa, Canada. Psiphon was developed at the Citizen Lab and released as an open source software tool December 2006. The Citizen Lab provides ongoing research support for Psiphon Inc as well as acting as the key repository for the open source version of the software. (http://psiphon.ca/)
Fellowship Focus Areas:
Google Fellows can focus on two areas related to any of these projects:
- Technical Support: research and development of software tools, including testing, data analysis, and visualization, related to documenting Internet censorship, surveillance, and information warfare.
- Analytical Support: Evaluation of laws, policies, and norms of Internet censorship, surveillance, and information warfare in conjunction with data collected by the Citizen Lab and its associated projects listed above.
Competitive Enterprise Institute
- www.cei.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public interest organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government. We believe that individuals are best helped not by government intervention, but by making their own choices in a free marketplace.
We are nationally recognized as a leading voice on a broad range of regulatory issues-from free market approaches to environmental policy, to antitrust and technology policy, to risk regulation. But CEI is not a traditional "think tank." We frequently produce groundbreaking research on regulatory issues, but our work does not stop there. It is not enough to simply identify and articulate solutions to public policy problems; it is also necessary to defend and promote those solutions at all phases of the public policy debate.
We reach out to the public and the media to ensure that our ideas are heard, work with policymakers to ensure that they are implemented, and, when necessary, take our arguments to court. This "full service approach" to public policy helps make us an effective and powerful force for economic freedom.
The Google Policy Fellow will work closely with CEI policy analysts in researching technology and telecommunications issues and promoting innovative public policy solutions. Fellows will have the opportunity to write position papers, contribute to CEI’s blog, and author opinion essays for placement in newspapers and websites. Fellows will be invited to attend coalition meetings, accompany CEI experts to hearings and depositions, aide in the drafting and submission of commentary to federal agencies, and participate in seminars and roundtable discussions.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Electronic privacy: CEI seeks to reframe the online privacy debate in terms of the potential benefits to consumers of greater information sharing, transparency, and marketing. Fellows will explore competing privacy policies and how they are evolving as the public grows more aware of privacy risks. This research will also encompass privacy-enhancing technologies that empower consumers to safeguard personal data on an individualized basis.
- Content Regulation: Fellows will research free speech as it pertains to digital media, including video games, television shows, and websites. CEI’s work in this area focuses on sound parenting and voluntary ratings systems as alternatives to politically determined ratings.
- Competition Policy: As the digital economy matures, efficient market arrangements are increasingly at risk due to regulatory uncertainty. Ineffective competitors look to Washington to obstruct technological evolution, benefiting their own shareholders at the expense of consumer welfare. In fast-moving, dynamic markets, Fellows will analyze contestable markets and assist CEI in warding off government attempts to hinder the ability of successful companies to deliver innovative products and services to consumers.
- Spectrum Liberalization: CEI aims to bring market ideas to the ongoing debate over the future of the airwaves. Fellows will research policies to replace the existing spectrum allocation system that suffers from what Tim Wu has described as “Soviet-style rules.” Consumers will have access to advanced wireless services only if the airwaves are allocated efficiently, so an ideal regulatory approach toward spectrum liberalization would emphasize genuine property rights and promote infrastructure investment.
Creative Commons
- www.creativecommons.org
- Fellowship Location: San Francisco, CA
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." We're a nonprofit organization and everything we do — including the software we create — is free. Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control — a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which "all rights reserved" (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation — once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally — have become endangered species.
Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare "some rights reserved."
Creative Commons offers six public licenses that help creators achieve these ends. Our Google Policy Fellow will lead research and investigations into high-level policy and community oriented issues relating to the use of our licenses and tools.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Write case studies about projects and creators that have implemented Creative Commons licenses and analyze strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for each; paying particular consideration to cultural and genre differences.
- Synthesize statistics garnered from recent studies focusing on international license adoption. Fellow will be expected to generate and investigate diverse theses relating to license choice, adoption, and use.
- Coordinate with counsel to critically analyze the current state of public domain policy in US and abroad. Develop a framework to help Creative Commons' deploy messaging regarding public domain policy in US and abroad.
- Survey the current legal and non-legal opinions with respect to the 'strong vs. weak' copyleft debate and how it relates to differences between mediums (photography, music, etc.) in order to establish guidelines and uncover precedent for our ShareAlike licenses.
- Research and analysis of how contemporary the discourse of copyright, sharing, reuse, and remix has been shaped over the last six years as a result of the Creative Commons project.
- Investigate new opportunities for Creative Commons implementation in 'uncontacted' communities, institutions, artists, and mediums.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
- www.eff.org
- Fellowship Location: San Francisco, CA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit group of lawyers, policy analysts, technologists, and activists working to protect freedom of expression, civil liberties, digital consumer rights and innovation in the online world.
Since it was founded in 1990, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights and achieved significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public.
EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 50,000 concerned citizens through our Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising U.S. and international policymakers, EFF educates the press and the public.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
Google Policy Fellows will work closely with mentors in the EFF international policy team and depending on expertise, also with attorneys in the legal team, and focus on policy analysis in one or more of the following areas:
- Freedom of Expression: EFF defends the Internet as a platform for free speech and believes that when you go online, your rights should come with you.
- Innovation: New ideas challenge the status quo. That's why people who make cool tools get so much heat from the old guard and their lawyers. Innovation is inextricably tied to freedom of speech, and innovators need to be protected from established businesses that use the law to stifle creativity and block competition.
- Intellectual Property: EFF fights to preserve balance and ensure that the Internet and digital technologies continue to empower you as a consumer, creator, innovator, scholar, and citizen.
- International: The Internet is global and so are threats to online freedom. That's why EFF rights for your digital rights around the world.
- Privacy: New technologies are radically advancing our freedoms, but they are also enabling unparalleled invasions of privacy. EFF fights in the courts and Congress to extend your privacy rights into the digital world, and supports the development of privacy-protecting technologies.
- Transparency: Emerging technologies have the potential to create a more democratic relationship between public institutions and the citizens they serve. New tools allow citizens to know about information collected, disseminated and maintained by the government in order to increase accountability and public awareness. EFF's FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) project uses the Freedom Of Information Act to expose the government's expanding use of new technologies that invade privacy. EFF's Test Your ISP Project allows citizens to hold Internet service providers accountable for covert traffic filtering.
The Google Policy Fellowship program provided a great mix of freedom and structure. I was able to choose the projects I worked on, and I always felt like my organization there to support me." -- Ren Bucholz (EFF)
Future of Music Coalition
- www.futureofmusic.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. The FMC seeks to educate the media, policymakers, and the public about music / technology issues, while also bringing together diverse voices in an effort to come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges in this space. The FMC also aims to identify and promote innovative business models that will help musicians and citizens to benefit from new technologies.
Our policy agenda focuses on three broad themes, all of which have a direct impact on the ability for artists to make a living in the digital economy:
- Media reform: FMC seeks to reform the radio industry by holding the line on consolidation, expanding and protecting community radio, ending structural payola and ensuring the transition to HD radio benefits the music community and the public at large.
- Internet/broadband policy: FMC's Rock the Net campaign has organized and educated musicians about the critical importance of coherent and transparent Network Neutrality rules. We also focus on deployment, broadband competition and spectrum reform through our active participation in the Media and Democracy Coalition.
- Copyright: FMC leads the discussion about the role of copyright in a digital age. In our efforts to facilitate the creation of a legitimate digital music marketplace that allows artists to be compensated for their work, FMC conducts research and curates conversations on a range of copyright-related issues, including sampling, webcast royalty rates and other issues that impact artist compensation.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
FMC views policy issues through the frame of research, education and advocacy. The public policy fellow will work with FMC staff to identify issues of particular interest to the fellow, then develop and implement a strategy focusing on:
- Researching the issue, with a particular focus on the impact of specific policy decisions o the music community,
- Educating the community about this issue through blog posts, fact sheets and coalition briefings, and
- Advocacy around the issue, especially if policy choices have a clear cut impact on the music community
The Internet Education Foundation
- www.neted.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The Internet Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public and policymakers about the potential of a decentralized global Internet to promote democracy, communications, and commerce. Founded in 1997, IEF facilitates many educational projects including: GetNetWise.org, Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and The State of the Net Project.
GetNetWise is an educational site that contains information to help parents and computer users stay safe online. GetNetWise.org has the laregest searchable database of parental empowerment and cyber security tools on the Internet and uses multimedia audio and video to train users how to use these tools to enhance their safety. The Internet Education Foundation also does additional research and writing in the areas of online safety and security.
The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee is a diverse group of public interest, non profit and industry groups working to educate the Congress and the public about important Internet-related policy issues. The ICAC holds regular briefings for Congressional offices on topical Internet policy questions including broadband, net neutrality, copyright and intellectual property, cyber security, Internet governance and everything in between.
The State of the Net Conference Series brings together thought leaders, public Internet groups, industry and government to discuss the most relevant policy issues facing lawmakers. The annual State of the Net Conference in Washington is DC's largest technology policy conference.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Policy Debates: The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee hosts regular briefings on all major Internet policy issues before Congress (See list above). Fellows would be involved in developing briefing programs on an ongoing basis in all issue areas.
- Location-Based Privacy: The State of the Net Conference series includes an annual conference on location information privacy. Location technologies range from RFID chips to GPS devices on mobile phones. The fellowship would include work on those broad issues.
- Content Rating and Labeling: The IEF is working with many industry players to develop strategies for assigning classifications to online and digital content around concepts of age-appropriateness. Idea include exploring protocols for expressing traditional media ratings as well as the development of an open platform rating schema for user-generated content.
Media Access Project
- www.mediaaccess.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
Media Access Project is a 35 year-old non-profit telecommunications law firm and advocacy group located in Washington, DC. It represents civil rights, civil liberties, environmental and other citizens groups in policy debates before the Federal Communications Commission and the courts. Its mission is to promote the public's First Amendment rights to speak and to be heard in the electronic mass media.
MAP's work is divided between the "old media" ("equal time" for candidates, media ownership limits, creating low power FM radio stations, etc.) and broadband related issues such as net neutrality, expanding opportunities for unlicensed uses of the spectrum, municipal and community owned networks, and promoting minority ownership and participation.
MAP's small staff of attorneys is complemented by several law student interns each semester. Thus, mentorship and teaching is integral to its operation plan. Over recent years, MAP has made increasing use of economists and engineers in its activities.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Analyzing factors affecting public acceptance of municipally-owned broadband.
- Promoting the use of digital TV "white spaces" for unlicensed wireless use.
- Promoting rules and policies that ensure an open, non-discriminatory Internet.
- Promoting rules and policies that create opportunities for independent programmers to provide programming on cable systems.
- Promoting rules and policies that will increase the availability of Low Power FM stations, such as seeking changes in current interference standards.
- Mapping the effect of media ownership consolidation and broadband penetration on civic participation (i.e, voting behavior, etc.).
New America Foundation
- www.newamerica.net
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
Wireless Future Program - New America's Wireless Future Program develops and advocates policy proposals aimed at achieving universal and affordable wireless broadband access, expanding public access to the airwaves and updating our nation's communications infrastructure in the digital era. For more information, visit www.spectrumpolicy.org.
Open Technology Initiative - The Open Technology Initiative (OTI) formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. OTI promotes affordable, universal, and ubiquitous communications networks through partnerships with communities, researchers, industry, and public interest groups. OTI is committed to maximizing the potentials of innovative open technologies by studying their social and economic impacts – particularly for poor, rural, and other underserved constituencies. As an independent non-profit initiative, OTI provides in-depth, objective research, analysis, and findings for policy decision-makers and the general public.
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy -- an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality. Headquartered in our nation's capital, New America also has offices in California and New York.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Implement a non-proprietary FCC RSS feeder and integrated web portal to automate distribution of new proceeding materials to non-profit organizations and public interest groups.
- Develop an advocacy campaign for National Science Foundation supported research to be open sourced.
- Conduct a systematic analysis of the pros and cons of different Quality of Service approaches and their impacts on customer experiences, network capacity, and broadband system management.
- Assess the social and economic impacts of “open platform” systems on cellular telephone markets and the potentials for user-driven innovation and technological development on open platform devices.
- Analyze the impacts of a national broadband buildout and the viability of attaching support for the creation of major fiber infrastructure development as a part of 2009 transportation legislation.
- Provide ongoing technical support to public interest groups, policy reform initiatives, and allied organizations advocating for the use of open technologies and telecommunications infrastructures.
- And a follow-up/next step regarding "Opening New Spectrum for Wireless Innovation": Currently the most hotly debated spectrum reform issue is the FCC's proposal to open all vacant TV channels for shared, unlicensed access by broadband devices using "smart" radio technologies. However, empty TV channels are only a portion of the unused frequencies that could be opened for opportunistic dynamic spectrum access and wireless innovation. The federal government has reserved immensely valuable bands of frequencies used only in certain areas and sporadically, as have certain legacy industry licensees. This Fellowship project will focus on mapping and making the case for the feasibility of opening additional spectrum for dynamic, unlicensed access. Deliverables will include an online mapping of government spectrum. Interviews and meetings at the FCC, NTIA, U.S. Departments of Commerce and Defense, and with spectrum policy experts, engineers and economists will be part of the process of identifying spectrum allocations. The research could extend to technical issues related to advancing more open spectrum policies (e.g., software defined radio, spread-spectrum, interference temperature). An engineering background would be ideal, but not necessary; pro-active investigative and analytical skills essential. We would consider an application from a graduate student in economics who would instead develop an economic analysis of the costs and benefits of more open spectrum.
The Progress & Freedom Foundation
- www.pff.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. Its mission is to educate policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public about issues associated with technological change, based on a philosophy of limited government, free markets, and individual sovereignty. PFF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in 1993. We believe that the technological change embodied in the digital revolution has created tremendous opportunities for enhanced individual liberty, as well as wealth creation and higher living standards.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
Our Fellow will have the opportunity to work alongside PFF's analysts on all aspects of their work, which integrates legal, technical, and policy analysis. A background in law is preferred, but not required. Responsibilities will include research, writing, attending hearings and meetings, and organizing events. The Fellow will be engaged in rigorous research endeavors and will be given the opportunity to potentially author or co-author white papers, editorials, blog entries, and other articles and essays. Research areas include:
- Online Advertising & Privacy Policy Issues: PFF defends online advertising as the lifeblood of online content and services, particularly for the "long tail," and emphasizes a layered approach to privacy protection, including technological self-help, user education, industry self-regulation, and enforcement of existing laws, as a less restrictive—and generally more effective—alternative to increased regulation.
- First Amendment, Online Free Speech & Child Safety Issues: PFF strives to protect America's sacred First Amendment heritage and to preserve those traditional norms and protections in cyberspace, emphasizing a similar layered approach that involves readily-available parental control tools and education as effective alternatives to Internet censorship.
- Online Liability, Section 230 & the Protection of Online Anonymity: PFF defends Internet intermediaries from punishing legal liability, while also safeguarding our nation's long tradition of anonymous speech.
- Broadband Network Management & Next Generation Spectrum Policy: PFF has long been a major player in debates over the regulation of communications and broadband networks, and continues its advocacy of "light-touch" regulation that properly aligns incentives to encourage the construction of next-generation wireline and wireless networks.
- Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: PFF studies the role of copyrights and patents in encouraging the efficient production of expression and innovation in the Digital Age, and how best to reconcile the interests of creators, consumers, and online service providers in order to maximize the enormous creative potential of both emerging and traditional media.
- Space Commercialization: PFF seeks to enable the entire value chain of space commerce, including not only the satellite and launch industries but also new businesses such as personal spaceflight, space-based power sources, and the utilization of space resources.
Public Knowledge
- www.publicknowledge.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
Public Knowledge is a public-interest advocacy organization dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant information commons. This Washington, D.C. based group works with a wide spectrum of stakeholders--libraries, educators, scientists, artists, musicians, journalists, consumers, software programmers, civic groups and enlightened businesses--to promote the core principles of openness, access, and the capacity to create and compete.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
A Public Knowledge fellow will work with members of PK staff and focus on copyright related issues. The fellow will promote policy that ensures that U.S. copyright law and regulation reflect the "cultural bargain" intended by the framers of the Constitution: providing an incentive to creators and innovators while benefiting the public through the free flow of information and ideas. Fellows often have the opportunity to address technology mandates that extend copyright policy and are designed to erode competition, choice, and fairness. Work may include writing and developing policy papers, briefing memos for policy makers, multimedia presentations, blog post, regulatory comments, and hearing testimony. Fellows are expected to attend and brief PK staff on pertinent Congressional hearings, meetings with policy makers, public interest advocates, and industry coalitions. Public Knowledge also encourages fellows to create an independent research project based on their interests and academic and career goals.
As a Google Policy Fellow, I had access to speakers and symposia that I would never have known about otherwise. I was able to learn about the basics of lobbying, FCC regulatory structure and procedure, and First Amendment and freedom of expression implications in the online world." -- Jon Law (PK)
Technology Policy Institute
- www.techpolicyinstitute.org
- Fellowship Location: Washington, DC
The Technology Policy Institute is a think tank that focuses on the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation in the United States and around the world. Our mission is to advance knowledge and inform policymakers by producing independent, rigorous research and by sponsoring educational programs and conferences on major issues affecting information technology and communications policy. The Technology Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) research and educational foundation.
Fellowship Focus Areas:
- Broadband policy: effects of public policies on investment in infrastructure and content, international comparisons of broadband policies, and spectrum policy.
- Privacy and data security: benefits and costs to consumers of online information flows, and the effects of alternative privacy policies on consumers and the development of the Internet.
- Energy policy: effects of electricity liberalization, and implications of information and communications technology for grid management and energy conservation.
- Competition policy: the effects of competition policy (e.g., antitrust) on innovative, high-tech sectors.
- Internet governance: how accountability, organizational structure, and regulatory policy affect development of the Internet globally.
- High-skilled immigration: effects on economic growth and productivity, international trade and outsourcing, worker displacement and federal finances.
- Health Information Technology: costs and benefits of investment in health IT, barriers to adoption, standards, and privacy.