FTC Taps Ed Felten As First Chief Technologist

An anonymous reader contributes this snippet from Digital Daily: "Looks like the Federal Trade Commission got its first choice of Chief Technologist, because it's hard to think of anyone better to serve in that capacity than Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten, a guy whose CV makes everyone from Microsoft to Diebold shudder in embarrassment."

Comments

o.O

[the_one_wesp]

So he's the FTC's FCT?

Re:o.O

[blair1q]

FTW

Re:o.O

[digitalunity]

He's also a doctor(but not an MD).

Linguistics funnies aside, he is absolutely the best guy for the job. Which is why I'm so shocked he got the job.

Re:o.O

[Anonymous Coward]

FTW!!!

FTFY.

Re:o.O

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF?

Re:o.O

[eliphalet]

The FTC are serious people, and this is a staff job, so he doesn't have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Re:o.O

[Hylandr]

TWIS...

Re:o.O

[Anonymous Coward]

FWIW

Re:o.O

[Snarph]

...Coming up next.

Why do they "tap" people?

[Anonymous Coward]

For the love of my sanity... US Govt: Please Stop Tapping People!
In all seriousness, I have always hated the use of the word "tap" in these situations. It makes no sense, unless President Obama quite literally tapped the guy on his shoulder to get his attention and immediately asked him to take this position. ...not to mention the sexual connotations of the term.

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[Skarecrow77]

I always think of it in the magic: the gathering term, as in you're "tapping" them to use their resources.

or like a beer tap on a keg.

take your pick.

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[mrsteveman1]

+++ great commenter, would tap again

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[Anonymous Coward]

Be sure to have a Dwarf or a Beer Elf on hand after taking a pick to the keg.

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[blair1q]

It's borrowed from the use of the term to refer to selecting someone for a fraternity.

IIRC, it's something the Skull and Bones came up with, which is probably another reason to outlaw them.

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[Hylandr]

Well if your phone line has been tapped you are indeed pretty well F*cked...

- Dan.

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[Dragonslicer]

The use of "tap" to select a person for a job probably comes from the use of the word in tapping trees for sap, or the device that you get beer or water from. The analogy might be that you're extracting knowledge, experience, etc. in the same way that you extract sap from a tree or beer from a keg (hopefully without the leaving-them-empty part).

Re:Why do they "tap" people?

[ushering05401]

They invented it? The idea is you get the first tap when you take up a certain level of responsibility, and a double if you drop it. Do a good job and you can skip the double and act like you own the whole bar for the rest of your life.

FTC and GAO are two of those agencies the country really really needs when things get rough. Their missions are as core to what the citizenry cries out for at every election as anything done by the CIA. Not more important, but just as important.

Maybe those Princeton guys found an old-timey patron or something... they seem to be getting noisier by the day.

He should be jailed!

[www.sorehands.com]

He and that criminal piracy organization that he works for, Princeton, should be locked up!

He and Princeton only works to provide tools to pirates and to destroy the movie and music industries.

How dare he support piracy and takes the food out of the mouthes of deserving industry executives! Without the repeated extensions of the copyright periods, there will be no incentive to produce new versions of Snow White. 75 years is just not enough time to make back the money invested in making a song or a movie!

Re:He should be jailed!

[Anonymous Coward]

Note to the RIAA and MPAA morons with mod points today: the above is a sarcastic comment to be modded +funny, not +insightful or +informative.

Re:He should be jailed!

[gstoddart]

Note to the RIAA and MPAA morons with mod points today: the above is a sarcastic comment to be modded +funny, not +insightful or +informative.

It can be two things. It can be insightful without being literal.

Re:He should be jailed!

[magusxxx]

Without the repeated extensions of the copyright periods, there will be no incentive to produce new versions of Snow White. 75 years is just not enough time to make back the money invested in making a song or a movie!

Finally someone has a clue! If my landlord can make money off of something 100 years old then so should Scott Joplin!

Re:He should be jailed!

[tqk]

Oh, fsck off. Damn, I'm tired of puerile replies like this.

Think harder! Think deeper! Think nuance! Improve the human condition, or shut up. Try to not follow the party line, is the first step.

It was not in the least bit "funny." Yes, I'm a curmudgeon (whatever). Bite me.

Obligatory xkcd

[rsborg]

Hopefully not like this.

Applause

[blair1q]

First article ever contributed by Ed Felten's mom.

Great, more Elitism in Government

[BitHive]

Anyone else get the feeling that these ivory tower intellectual types are looking down their noses at us? I'd much rather we have someone like CowboyNeal as national CTO. Now there's a guy I could have an e-beer with.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[blair1q]

Anyone else get the feeling that these ivory tower intellectual types are looking down their noses at us?

Every time someone asks that I think, or say, "yes, and it's well deserved."

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[BitHive]

Well, enjoy your Hitlerocracy. It's well deserved.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Monkeedude1212]

I'd much rather we have someone like CowboyNeal as national CTO.

What makes you think he isn't?

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[geekoid]

Yes., nothing worse the having someone educate, and knowledgeable person rendering an opinion. Only the ignorants should be listened to! Just because I don't know something, doesn't mean you educated and smart people can tell me how it works!

Sorry, didn't mean to steal the Tea party's platform.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[geekoid]

Wow. simply Wow. So you think only people who are uneducated and ignorant should have important posts.

Way to go, you irrational twit.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[TheStatsMan]

And we need even more elitism in government. The non-knowledgable need to be nay-sayed.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[blair1q]

#SeigFail!

"The so-called 'intellectuals' still look down with infinite superciliousness on anyone who has not been through the prescribed schools and allowed them to pump the necessary knowledge into him. The question of what a man can do is never asked but rather, what has he learned? 'Educated' people look upon any imbecile who is plastered with a number of academic certificates as superior to the ablest young fellow who lacks these precious documents."

Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf"

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[sumdumass]

Sorry, didn't mean to steal the Tea party's platform.

I didn't know that was their platform. But it makes sense now that you mentioned it. That is if the other side thinks they have all the answers even after demonstrating their solutions don't work. But hey, who am I to tell someone that knows everything something?

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Urza9814]

I think you're confusing 'elitism' with 'intelligence'...

'elite' implies wealth and power. True, that typically also leads to a better education, but you can put any idiot through Harvard and he'll still be an idiot.Just because you do well at an ivy-league school does not mean you're intelligent. Hell, I find that people who do well on exams are just good at memorizing information. When it comes to actually using that information or having any common sense at all, many of them can't and don't. So you can remember the formulas the prof gives you, remember the problem formats, and manage to pull numbers out and plug them into the right formula. I've seen plenty of people do that without having any clue what the formula actually _means_. Hell, there have been times where I've done that myself.

What we really need in government are people who know how to interpret and use information. That's about it. I'm not saying Ed Felten can or can't do this, I'm just saying that that's certainly not part of being 'elite'. It is, however, a large part of intelligence.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[TheStatsMan]

Whether I take this definition:

A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status.

Or this one:

The best or most skilled members of a group.

I still want those people in governance positions. Certainly when posed with this question I prefer elite to rabble.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Urza9814]

I'm personally not a huge fan of having the government entirely composed of people who have no idea what it's like to not have health insurance. People who have no concept of life on less than a 6 figure salary. People who don't know the meaning of the word debt. Yes, that's exactly who's in there now. In some cases it works. In many others, it's a complete failure. Not everything can be understood through numbers and statistics. How can you claim to represent people when you don't have even the tiniest concept of what life is actually like for 95% of them?

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[ebuck]

Well, due to the reform, they won't know what it is like to not have health insurance, nor will anyone else. Of course, the public won't stand for it, they need to have the right to know what it's like to not have health insurance.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Dragonslicer]

He must work at Fox News

</flamebait>

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[byteherder]

I went to school with Ed Felton. He is not an ivory tower intellectual type, he is just extemely bright and extremely curious.

Oh yes, by the way, you can have a beer with him. I have done so many times.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Shark]

You realize that by ridiculing the tea party like this you are helping them win, right? I'm assuming you're just trying to be funny (so do the mods), but really if you want to consider yourself a worthy opponent of their ideology, you ought to study it better and defeat it with rational arguments.

Anyone can sling mud at an idiot, but that doesn't make them look any smarter than their target. If you really are the better man, you ought to show it.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever spoken to an academic? You might be surprised how poorly your stereotypes stand up to reality. Those I've dealt with have been quite respectful to me when I showed ability. I once got a job at a university when I was in high school by making a suggestion to a professor via email. He liked it and hired me as a lab assistant. Now if they were all elitist as you ignorantly claim, wouldn't they look down on some dumb high schooler? Espeically seeing as how they have hordes of grad students with B.S. after their name (hehehe bullshit) to hire instead.

All I have to offer is anecdotes, seeing as how this is a subjective matter, but the others I've spoken to on the matter tend to agree. Academics have a low opinion of the intelligence of outsiders simply due to the Bayesian probability involved (and given the latest election, who can blame them), but they're always willing to be proven wrong.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[turbidostato]

"'elite' implies wealth and power."

No, it isn't.

Elite simply implies "the top notch". Think tenis elite, football elite, intellectual elite, political elite...

The wealth and power elite is listed in Forbes.

The intelectual elite comes (mostly) from top rank universities and it is showed by their merits (coming from top rank universities or not).

When it comes to think, I for one want prefer the intelectual elite to the unwashed masses.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Urza9814]

And top universities cost a lot of money. I know plenty of people who are far more intelligent than I am that are going to far worse universities - or no university at all - simply because they can't pay for it. The most intelligent person I ever met is currently working at McDonald's, trying to earn enough money to pay for tuition at a rather terrible university.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[Cassius Corodes]

Sometimes, and I don't want to comment on the tea party situation specifically, it does no good to rationally debate people. People are not inherently rational and so sometimes cling to positions that are not rationally defensible despite hearing arguments to the contrary (and everyone is subject to this, incl. myself) - so an alternative can be to mock them. People are more likely to respond to social arguments (you will be laughed at if you believe this) then rational arguments (you will be logically wrong if you believe this) and so it can be a successful strategy of changing people's minds / motivate them to explore alternative viewpoints (not necessarily the main proponent(s) who will likely bunker down further - but they are not important anyway - its those on the periphery). Its advisable to use both approaches in tandem.

Yes its not ideal but people are in many ways fubar so you gotta do what you can.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[ScrewMaster]

So you think only people who are uneducated and ignorant should have important posts.

A hell of a lot of my fellow Americans do, I'm sad to say. We don't revere knowledge and learning anymore, we treasure sound bites.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[ScrewMaster]

Ever spoken to an academic? You might be surprised how poorly your stereotypes stand up to reality.

Very true. Much of my early career as a software developer (late seventies, early eighties) was spent working with senior medical researchers at a couple of local Universities. I had time time of my life, actually ... it was some pretty cool stuff for the time, and those guys were great. Always willing to take the time to explain something, never tried to make anyone feel stupid, nothing like the stereotypical "ivory tower" types that many people seem to believe inhabit our institutes of higher learning. Oh, it takes all kinds, but having an advanced education doesn't make you any less of a human being. It may make you harder to fool

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[ushering05401]

A nice observation, 602015. Maybe another way to put is that trafficking in snippets results in an economy of snippets.

Complex subject matter is more prone to fracturing when such an economy exists.

The great judges and counsels of history have either had the power to get enough of the full story to make balanced decisions, or to intuit the implications of a judgment and decide well despite knowledge of their own ignorance.

IMHO they all would have had a hell of a time replicating the feat in today's society without first rooting the communication apparatus.

A well meaning populace has the ability to graze complex subject matter via snippet while primarily focusing on immediate needs of meat space. This appears to also require a culture of continuing mental development; a dedication to sorting through the snippets; reflecting on sources; exerting preference of affiliation directly through the demonstration of preference for information.

It seems that this is where we fall down.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[ushering05401]

I'll jump in as well.

I had a conversation at some function with a guy my sister knew. Turns out he was into the final stages of a PhD and when he found out that I wasn't going to college he offered me a several thousand dollar set of books on philosophy and asked nothing in return.

IIRC he claimed that the hardest part of teaching certain fields was getting the students to stop looking in the books for the questions they were supposed to be answering.

So when some random, uneducated guy he met wondered about the connection between the failings of Sophism and the modern desire for general sophistication he already had years of exposure to formal students to measure against. All I had to do was say one thing he hadn't heard in all those years. Probably the same situation for a lot of highly trained folk.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[TapeCutter]

"you ought to study it better and defeat it with rational arguments"

If rational arguments were effective most politicians and priests would be unemployed.

Re:Great, more Elitism in Government

[ScrewMaster]

IIRC he claimed that the hardest part of teaching certain fields was getting the students to stop looking in the books for the questions they were supposed to be answering.

Yes. To do that which schools are supposedly teaching their students to do: think. Most of us are born being able to breathe on our own, conversely most of us need some training to learn how to think for ourselves. I'm not convinced that our schools are doing that anymore (I haven't been in one for many years, but looking at the caliber of some of their recent graduates I'm concerned.)

Confirmed by Felten on Twitter

[Anonymous Coward]

"I will Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Comission"

http://twitter.com/#!/EdFelten/status/29679614884

Re:Confirmed by Felten on Twitter

[poetmatt]

helps to copy it with proper english or do a lazier copy paste.

"I will be Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission. http://bit.ly/bRiFrS http://bit.ly/9HujRz"

Duh

[kmac06]

What did you think the Obama administration would do? Hire someone with even a tiny bit of private sector experience? Ha!

Re:Duh

[Snarkalicious]

Princeton is a private university known for it's research. Just sayin.

Re:Duh

[SuperKendall]

And researchers are noted for a certain disconnect from reality... Just Sayin'.

Although personally I think he seems like a good pick, we'll have to see what he actually does or recommendations he makes.

Re:Duh

[AuMatar]

And what advantage would private sector experience give him in this position? Other than industry ties that would be used to manipulate him?

Re:Duh

[geekoid]

Yeah, it should be Carli, because she did such a great job~

We really don't want people who think in 3 month blocks advising on decsions that will impact every citizens. That's smart.

The government caters to all citizens, business caters to only those people who want/afford there good and/or services.

Running the government like a business will fail. Every time some one tries it, it fails. Why? because they MUST cater to everyone. Regardless of income. Plus, they can never maintain the high level of service the government provides cheaper then the government does it.

Re:Duh

[MintOreo]

Researchers are noted for a certain disconnect from triviality, not reality.

Re:Duh

[Dynedain]

Running the government like a business will fail. Every time some one tries it, it fails. Why? because they MUST cater to everyone. Regardless of income. Plus, they can never maintain the high level of service the government provides cheaper then the government does it.

True, most businesses have a luxury of excluding unwanted customers, something the government cannot do. That said, the government can learn a lot from private business. For example there's little to no incentive for government employees to be better or more efficient at their jobs. All compensation is determined entirely by tenure and job title. Imagine if the DMV awarded quarterly bonuses for superior performance, better results, or cost-cutting efficiencies. The department would operate completely differently than it does now, there would be real incentives for having usable online customer/citizen tools, and good customer/citizen service could be a real valued, measured goal instead of simply a minimum job requirement to get a guaranteed paycheck.

Some school districts have started experimenting with these sorts of techniques, much to the chagrin of their teacher's unions, and real improvements in students are being seen without raising funding levels. The teachers are motivated by more than just personality to better themselves and improve their skills. The students rightly reap the benefits of having better teachers.

Re:Duh

[Raenex]

Just sayin.

This expression needs to die already.

Re:Duh

[GodfatherofSoul]

There's also the issue of accountability. However you feel about efficiency, governments are fulfilling a social role and private industry is trying to make the most money it can. My biggest gripe with privatization is how we're handing off social interests to parties with priorities that are not those of the electorate; e.g. the privatized prison industrial complex lobbying politicians to get more people arrested rather than actually solving the illegal immigration problem.

Re:Duh

[flaming error]

Why? Just askin'.

Re:Duh

[flaming error]

> we're handing off social interests to parties with priorities that are not those of the electorate
I hear what you're saying, totally agree with you.

But I do want to point out that this "handing off social interests" is met with wild enthusiasm from half of the electorate. Our electorate consists largely of tens of millions of proudly ignorant schmucks who have no idea what they want and will passionately fight against their own interests if a tv show tells them to.

Re:Duh

[Anonymous Coward]

...and, unlike most/all businesses, the government gets in a shitstorm when it tries to raise its prices, er, fees...er, taxes.

Visa/Mastercard up their merchant fees? Well, that's good business, all right!

Re:Duh

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't stop me, I'm a Saiyan.

Re:Duh

[Snarkalicious]

It's getting there. Once upon a time, it was the provenance of the correct, used to punctuate a pithy, incisive attack. In recent months, it has become the equivalent of 'your mom', an over-used bit of drivel at the end of proclamations by minor douchebags (Hi! My name is Snarkalicious. Just sayin). Soon it will fall into disuse, only beeing brought up occasionally by Freepers and the like who came across it for the first time in 2-4 year old comments and find it to be horribly charming.

CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[Chapter80]

Why would someone's CV make you shudder in embarrassment?

Just because he's quite talented and has a strong background, why would that cause Microsoft to shudder?

Jealousy maybe, But embarrassment? Are there pictures of Ballmer dancing, on his CV?

Re:CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[Anonymous Coward]

Felten showed that Microsoft was lying when they claimed in court that they could not remove Internet Explorer from Windows without disrupting the entire OS. He was also responsible for other discoveries embarrassing for several companies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Felten

Re:CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[www.sorehands.com]

Maybe because he believes in fair use?

He was one of the scientists behind the MPAA v. 2600 amicus briefs.

He also went after the RIAA when they threatened to sue him if he commented on encryption in one of his presentations.

Re:CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and a fat lot of good that did anybody.

Well, actually it helped the lobbyists Microsoft is now employing in DC and other capitals, and that in turn helped the politicians.

But we the people were not served by it.

I'd be embarrassed at wasting my time trying to prove or disprove something as pointless as that.

Re:CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[Anonymous Coward]

The RIAA has nothing to worry about, beurocracies don't give "Technologists" authority, just responsibility.

I guess /. readers haven't worked for the government.

Re:CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[Anonymous Coward]

As Wikipedia states correctly:

> Microsoft also argued that Felten's tool did not even completely remove web-browsing capability
> from the system, since it was still possible to access the web through other Windows executables
> besides iexplore.exe, such as the Windows help system

He made a big show with smoke and mirrors, basically removing icons and commonly used shortcuts. It IS impossible to remove IE without breaking the help system for starters.

Re:CV makes everyone shudder in embarrassment

[TapeCutter]

If he's not affraid to speak truth to power then I predict a highly publicised sex scandal somewhere in his near future.

He'd be great as Chief Tech at FEC too

[rsborg]

It'd be great if we had someone who truly understood "eVoting" advising the folks who mandate/monitor election activity.

Gone within a year...

[russotto]

...when he realizes that he has no decision making power, and all the decisions are made on politically basis with his job being to justify them.

Whoa!!

[jandersen]

Hey, what's going on here? Do you know what you have just done? Praised a government decision, that's what! I mean, surely the man is corrupt or something...