Restructuring U.S. Science Policy
With the current administration nearing its term limit, U.S. science policy may soon be relieved of a number of ideological and religious constraints. Restructuring U.S. science policy will look at three key areas likely to benefit under either a McCain or Democratic administration: science education, biotechnology and climate change. Attention will be paid to recent and pending legislative changes in all three areas, and potential grassroots and Netroots responses. Each speakers is tasked to provide a picture of how U.S. science policy might appear a few years from now, assisted by ideas from an interactive audience.
Andrew Hoppin was appointed as the first ever Chief Information Officer for the New York State Senate in February 2009 with a mission to dramatically improve government transparency, citizen participation, and operational efficiency for the Senate through technology. The CIO's Office works in three main realms: opening up the Senate's legislative and administrative data for public access (for transparency), overhauling the Senate's internal communications and collaboration infrastructure (for efficiency), and launching new Web 2.0 / social media technologies for the Senate (public participation). He was also elected by his peers to serve on the New York State CIO Leadership Council, and selected by GovTech as the 2010 New York State Public Sector CIO of the Year.
Previously, Andrew co-founded the NASA CoLab program at NASA Ames Research Center, which increased efficiency and transparency at NASA by building new partnerships between NASA and external communities of practice such as the entrepreneurial technology community, the global open-source software movement, and constituents in the virtual world
of "Second Life."
Andrew has also founded several startup technology companies and has served as a strategy consultant, Advisor, or Board member for leading technology and political organizations such as the Craigslist Foundation, Netroots Nation, the Space Generation Advisory Council, the New Organizing Institute, and Civicspace Labs.
He got his start in online politics through organizing the New York for Clark movement in 2004, and then helping to manage the national Clark for President campaign's data and web applications.
Full bio and contact information at: http://globehoppin.com/about
Ed Brayton is the voice behind the popular blog Dispatches from the Culture Wars (http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches). He is also a fellow with the Center for Independent Media's New Journalist program and the co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science.
Constance is also the co-founder and CEO of Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company. She is a co-founder and Board member of BioE2E, Inc., www.bioe2e.org a nonprofit supporting bioentrepreneurship. She holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and an AB from Stanford University. She thanks everyone who fought to take our country back.
Writer, climber, and photographer Mark Bowen has written two books on the science and politics of climate change: "Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains" (Henry Holt, 2005) and "Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming" (Dutton, 2007). A physicist with a doctorate from MIT, he lives in the Boston area.
Stephen DarkSyde grew up in the Southwest and has long been fascinated by science, particularly evolutionary biology, physics, and astronomy. As the scope of incompetence and malfeasance in the Bush Administration and the wider Neoconservative Republican Party became evident throughout 2003, Stephen began reading and writing on blogs. In short order, he rejected the existing incarnation of the GOP and joined forces with progressive bloggers. He still considers himself a political neophyte, and tends to write mostly about science and science policy, with only occasional forays into political commentary.
