Dr. Felten Goes To Washington: Lessons from 18 Months in Government

This talk will describe the speaker's experience in government, where he served as the first Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission. Technologists often complain that government is broken and policymakers are clueless, but the truth is more complicated. This talk will explain why government works differently, why it can be perfectly fine for policymakers to not understand how the Internet works, how to work effectively with government officials, why legislative strategy is NP-complete, and why we need more technologists to spend time in public service.

Edward W. Felten is a Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and the founding Director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy. In 2011–12 he served as the first Chief Technologist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. His research interests include computer security and privacy, especially relating to media and consumer products; and technology law and policy. He has published about eighty papers in the research literature and two books. His research on topics such as Web security, copyright and copy protection, and electronic voting has been covered extensively in the popular press. His Weblog, at freedom-to-tinker.com, is widely read for its commentary on technology, law, and policy.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Fellow of the ACM. He has testified before the House and Senate committee hearings on privacy, electronic voting, and digital television. In 2004, Scientific American magazine named him to its list of fifty worldwide science and technology leaders.