Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

I Love Eduroam

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

One of my few achievements was getting UMiami to join Eduroam, the nifty university consortium that allows visiting academics to log in automatically to the internet supplied by all other member institutions. European universities were early adopters; the US is catching up. Once you get it set up on your devvice, it’s seamless; I’m using it now via the University of Amsterdam.

Posted in Internet, Talks & Conferences, U.Miami | Comments Off on I Love Eduroam

Off to Amsterdam

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

I’m going to (some of) Amsterdam Privacy Week — the early bits, plus the Amsterdam edition of PLSC where I’ll present a work in progress on how we might structure anonymous transactions so they are of some use in preventing profiling, but not so private that the US government inevitably will choke on them. Whether there is in fact something worthwhile in the intersection of those sets could be debated, but it seems worth thinking about at least.

Unfortunately, I will miss much of the event — I’m journeying back on Tuesday — as there are only so many classes you can reschedule in good conscience.

Please email me at myfirstname.mylastname@gmail.com if you are going to be there and want to meet up at some point. That’s Michael Froomkin if you are wondering what my name is.

Blogging likely be light to non-existent while away. Might tweet from time to time though at @mfroomkin.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Off to Amsterdam

Deadline for We Robot Paper/Demo Proposals is Nov. 1

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Reminder: We invite submissions for We Robot 2016 to be held in Coral Gables, Florida on April 1-2, 2016 at the University of Miami School of Law. See the full call for papers and participation.

We Robot–the premier US conference on law and policy relating to Robotics that began at the University of Miami School of Law in 2012, and has since been held at Stanford and University of Washington–returns to Miami Law April 1st-2nd in 2016. Attendees include lawyers, engineers, philosophers, robot builders, ethicists, and regulators who are on the front lines of robot theory, design, or development. The main conference will be preceded by a day of special workshops on March 31. Details at the We Robot web site.

We Robot 2016 seeks contributions by academics, practitioners, and others in the form of scholarly papers or demonstrations of technology or other projects. We Robot fosters conversations between the people designing, building, deploying and using robots, and the people who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate. We particularly encourage contributions resulting from interdisciplinary collaborations, such as those between legal, ethical, economics, or policy scholars and roboticists.

This conference will build on the growing body of scholarship that explores the increasing sophistication and decision-making capabilities of robots, in collaboration with humans and autonomously, and the increasingly widespread deployment of robots everywhere from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, to the battlefield. All of this disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues. This year the program committee is especially interested in papers that discuss issues relating to the deployment of robots in positions that put them in direct contact with people, but as always we remain open to cutting-edge works on any topics fitting within our larger mission. Surprise us. Educate us. We’re listening.

PS. If you would rather attend and be part of our very lively audience, registration is open and there’s an early bird rate.

Posted in Robots | Comments Off on Deadline for We Robot Paper/Demo Proposals is Nov. 1

It’s a Plot

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Author Charlie Stross has some legitimate complaints that he addresses to studio executives.

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on It’s a Plot

Who Gets to Say Who Won

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

NakedCapitalism asks the obvious question:

Sanders won the CNN focus group, the Fusion focus group, and the Fox News focus group; in the latter, he even converted several Hillary supporters. He won the Slate online poll, CNN/Time online poll, 9News Colorado, The Street online poll, Fox5 poll, the conservative Drudge online poll and the liberal Daily Kos online poll. There wasn’t, to this writer’s knowledge, a poll he didn’t win by at least an 18-point margin. But you wouldn’t know this from reading the establishment press. The New York Times, the New Yorker, CNN, Politico, Slate, New York Magazine, and Vox all unanimously say Hillary Clinton cleaned house. What gives?

As far as I can tell there was no scientific polling done of “who won” which is very odd given that there were such polls after the GOP debates. All the above are unscientific polls. But so too is the poll of pundits.

Posted in 2016 Election | Comments Off on Who Gets to Say Who Won

Just Busy

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

The “Mom Rule” says I have to post every so often to show I’m not dead.

I’m fine. My office keyboard, on the other hand, decided it doesn’t feel like typing certain characters.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Just Busy