Saturday 5 February 2011

upcoming events

           Hello readers, I am writing to you from a rather storm battered but typically chilly Edinburgh. However, the weather is a small price to pay for living here because apart from the beautiful architecture, wealth of culture and its rich history it also means I can attend some of the events that are being run by Edinburgh University's SCRIPT Centre in the next couple of weeks (I had to try and link it in somehow...)
          This post is perhaps a bit eager as it would perhaps be more interesting for you to see what my thoughts are after I have attended the events but nevertheless I am quite excited about them so I just thought I would share that enthusiasm here! This post could also be seen as an advert to anyone in the central belt of Scotland who feels convinced by my enthusiasm that they would also like to attend! Anyway,  I will post after I have attended to give a much more informative analysis but I for now here are my initial thoughts.
          The first event is a lecture from with Dr Rex Hughes looking at the concept of a 'Treaty for Cyberspace'. This is an interesting concept and on the basis of Dr Hughes past research I think it will be a treaty relating to issues of cybersecurity. This is highly topical when considered in light of proposals for new laws of engagement for cyberspace which are being discussed as I write at the 2011 Munich Security Conference. My initial feelings about such a concept seem drawn to issues raised by the dichotomy of state and non state actors online and how negotiation of a global instrument could address the broad range of stakeholder interests in a way which avoids an instrument marginalised by the most powerful lobbyists. The other issue for me is if a hard law instrument like a treaty could be drafted with enough flexibility to tackle new technological security challenges but not be so principle based to challenge its effectiveness. The fundamental concept is something that fascinates me and my concerns are more procedural than substantive.
          The second event is a conference/workshop looking at 'Wikileaks and the Law'. As you can see from my posts below I was fascinated by 'Cablegate' so I was naturally quite excited when I booked a place at this event last week. It has a broad remit dealing with the fundamental balance between security and privacy, the legal issues for the new kind of journalism Wikileaks embodies and jurisdictional issues pertaining to Wikileaks legal status. There are a broad range of contributors with legal practitioners, media representatives and academics, including Professor Lilian Edwards who is the new Professor of E-Governance (Internet Law) on my LLM course at Strathclyde University. It will be brilliant to listen to this wealth of opinion on such a fascinating topic.
           The third event is with Professor Charles Raab of Edinburgh University lecturing on reforms in information privacy policy from the UK perspective. I have been reading parts of his book the 'Governance of Privacy' and can recommend it as a comprehensive analysis in this area. The fairly recent Communication from the EU Commission looking at reform of the EU data protection landscape makes this again an area of key topical significance and I look forward to hearing what impact Professor Raab foresees the changes having on the UK.
          As already stated I will post some thoughts here after the events, but until then keep an eye on my Twitter feed for any nuggets of excitement from the micro-blogosphere.

Thank you for reading :)

Moose