Last week was a huge one for computer science education in the Nation’s Capital. Congressmen from both parties introduced two pieces of legislation – The Computer Science Education Act and the Computer Science Education Week Resolution – intended to help strengthen computer science education. I’ve written before that the road to education reform is long, and progress will come in fits and starts. Both pieces of legislation represent another step along this road and the beginning of a much broader engagement to bring attention to computer science education issues in the United States.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued a request for comments on proposed changes to the rules regulating asset-backed securities. Part of the suggested changes included a requirement to file a computer program of the contractual cash flow provisions expressed in a particular computer language - Python.

In connection with ACM’s Special Interest Group for Programming Languages - SIGPLAN - USACM submitted comments addressing that proposed change.

The detailed set of comments addresses some specific issues with the proposal, which include the need to make sure that all inputs and outputs for the program are at the same level of detail as the Asset Data File. Those issues prompted USACM and SIGPLAN to recommend the final proposal be run as a trial. A summary of the comments emphasizes the following points.
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Below is a list of items with policy relevance from the July issue of Communications of the ACM. As always, much of the material in CACM is premium content, and free content one month may slip behind a pay wall the next. You need to be a member of ACM or a subscriber to CACM to access premium content online.

News
Sharing Computational Perspectives by David Lindley
A review of recent projects in other disciplines that benefit from computer science expertise, including Federal Communications Commission spectrum auctions.

Censored! by Samuel Greengard
A description of how, and for what reasons, some countries censor Internet access and activity. Includes a discussion of means to breach efforts at Internet control.

Viewpoints: Legally Speaking
Should the Google Book Settlement Be Approved? by Pamela Samuelson
Samuelson reviews the history of the Google Books class action suit and proposed settlement. She argues that the out-of-print works provisions of the settlement are counter to the open access preferences of academic writers.

Viewpoints: Broadening Participation
Cultivating Cultural Diversity in Information Technology by Valerie Taylor
Describes the new Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT, started in March 2010, and the reasons such a center is needed.

The House is presently on recess until after Labor Day, and the Senate is scheduled to join them by the weekend.

August 4 (Continues to noon on August 6)
The Information Security and Privacy Board will meet to discuss a variety of matters.
1221 22nd Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

The House recently passed H.R. 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Sponsored by Rep. Markey of Massachusetts, the bill seeks to apply standards of accessibility first encouraged by the Americans with Disabilities Act to online services. Specifically the bill would:

• Extend general accessibility provisions for equipment that provides voice communication to include Voice over Internet Protocol, electronic messaging and video conferencing services.
• Video programming shown with captions on televisions must also provide captions if transmitted over the internet.
• Emergency information shown on television or similar display devices must also provide some audio to reach those with visual impairments.
• User interfaces for equipment that displays video information must be accessible, and any associated remote control must have a captioning button
• On-screen guides and text menus provided by navigation devices must also be accessible.

A very similar bill sponsored by Senator Pryor is waiting for a floor vote in the Senate. While both bills read as though they were written for the technology of a few years ago, they do move accessibility standards into the 21st century.

July 27

Hearing:

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on consumer online privacy.
2:30 p.m., 253 Russell Building

July 28

Hearing:

The Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on online privacy, social networking and crime.
2 p.m., 2141 Rayburn Building
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