NEW ECONOMY, NEW RULES SIG

    You and your fellow experts on the new global economy and digital law have been hired to deliver a presentation to the Council on the Quality of Life in Ventura.  Your audience, in particular, is concerned with the question of how the global economy and information technologies are changing the way we live and work in the United States generally and in Ventura County specifically.  How are things different today?  What will they be like tomorrow?  Our Ventura "101 Tech Corridor" being the source of many high technology companies, these questions have a direct relation to the quality of our lives.

    The rise of personal computers, worldwide digital networks, and a globalized marketplace raises dilemmas that are new. For example, peer-to-peer technologies are a serious concern.  Some claim: "Information wants to be free!"  Others express a worry that copyright infringement will lead to a cultural "Dark Age."   We are not sure what to think; we need to examine the issues very carefully.  We would also like an expert to argue that copyright laws should be relaxed with the new vehicles of delivering information, while another argues that the same laws as before should apply.  An individual should argue the rise of a global economy is a good thing, while someone should argue to the contrary.  In seeing experts argue opposite points of view, we hope to be able to better see the truth as perhaps somewhere in between.  Ventura County is threatened by the same freeway crowding and lack of affordable housing as the rest of Southern California; and so, finally, we need someone to present to us the complexities surrounding urban sprawl.

    The Council on the Quality of Life in Ventura, comprised of individuals who are not experts in copyright law or global economics and its implications, badly needs your advice, expertise, and recommendations about these complex issues before it makes any recommendations.  The Council will rely heavily on you and your group's presentation to provide us with the information and advice necessary to do advise the community.  The wisdom of our decision will rest in large part on the quality of information we receive from you.

    Good luck!  We await eagerly the presentation of your SIG. 

    Very Truly Yours, 

    Council on the Quality of Life in Ventura

P.S.  Be sure to read this last reminder as you sit down in your groups to start this project!