Recent Experience My name is Paul Hyland, and I am an internet consultant. I am currently working on redesigning the web site for NASD, and have worked for the District of Columbia, the Adrenaline Group, Exit1, Inc., and Cambridge Associates, LLC.  I also worked with Rolling Stone to help them build their America Online site, which looks a lot like their web site. In the mid-1990s (when most of this site was created), I was the lead Music Producer for America Online.  I produced a new channel called MusicSpace, which contained music and information from Rolling Stone and MTV, and from record labels like Warner Bros. and Virgin.  I also worked on Education areas with partners like Smithsonian. More details on my professional life are revealed on my resume.

Education and Public Policy

When I was studying to be an engineer at Yale, I started to think about the social impacts of information technology.  I even wrote a paper in 1984 on the implications  for privacy and civil liberties of the convergence of computer and telecommunication technologies.  

In 1985, I joined Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR).  I helped found the DC Chapter and served on the Board of Directors from 1991 to 1994.  As Chair of the Publications Committee, I spearheaded CPSR's use of the Internet to publicize its message, and started its first public Listserv email list (now at cpsr-announce@cpsr.org).  I also helped draft one of CPSR's major policy papers, Serving the Community: A Public-Interest Vision of the National Information Infrastructure. In 1996 I helped organize the annual meeting, which was held in Washgington, DC, and created the web page that publicized it.

Several other groups do good work on these issues.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation is well known, and lent major support to CPSR's privacy work at a critical time.  Later, some leaders of CPSR's computer privacy work spun off to form the Electronic Privacy Information Center.  

I recently completed Masters studies at the George Washington University in Science, Technology and Public Policy, part of the Center for International Science and Technology Studies.  While there I wrote Case Studies: Computer Telecommunications As Used by Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations.  (Here are the appendices.)  Other interesting works concerning technology and society include Howard Rheingold's The Virtual Community, and of course, the Unabomber Manifesto.

| Back to Top |