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MAJOR CHANGES AT THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION Cambridge, Massachusetts eff@eff.org Wednesday, January 13, 1993 The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in July, 1990 to assure freedom of expression in digital media, with a particular emphasis on applying the principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to computer-based communication. EFF has met many of those challenges. We have defended civil liberties in court. We have shaped the policy debate on emerging communications infrastructure and regulation. We have increased awareness both on the Net and among those law enforcement officials, policy makers, and corporations whose insufficient understanding of the digital environment threatened the freedom of Cyberspace. But we've found that Cyberspace is huge. It extends not only beyond constitutional jurisdiction but to the very limits of imagination. To explore and understand all the new social and legal phenomena that computerized media make possible is a task which grows faster than it can be done. Maintaining an office in Cambridge and another in Washington DC, has been expensive, logistically difficult, and politically painful. Many functions were duplicated. The two offices began to diverge philosophically and culturally. We had more good ideas than efficient means for carrying them out. And an unreasonable share of leadership and work fell on one of our founders, Mitch Kapor. These kinds of problems are common among fast-growing technology startups in their early years, but we recognize that we have not always dealt with them gracefully. Further, we didn't respond convincingly to those who began to believe that EFF had lost sight of its founding vision. Against that background, the EFF Board met in Cambridge on January 7, 8, and 9 to revisit EFF's mission, set priorities for the Foundation's future activities, adopt a new structure and staff to carry them out, and clarify its relationship to others outside the organization. 1. EFF'S CAMBRIDGE OFFICE WILL CLOSE. We will be shutting down our original Cambridge office over the next six months, and moving all of EFF's staff functions to our office in Washington. 2. JERRY BERMAN HAS BEEN NAMED EFF'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR In December, we announced that Mitch Kapor would be leaving the job of Executive Director. He wanted to devote more time and energy to specific EFF projects, such as The Open Platform Initiative, focusing less on administrative details and more on EFF's strategic vision. We also said that we would conduct a search for his replacement, appointing Jerry Berman as our Interim Director. Jerry's appointment is now permanent, and the search is terminated. 3. CLIFF FIGALLO WILL MAINTAIN EFF'S PRESENCE ON-LINE, AND WILL DIRECT THE TRANSITION PROCESS. Cambridge Office Director Cliff Figallo will manage the EFF transition process, working out of Cambridge. He is now considering a move to Washington for organizational functions yet to be defined. In the meantime, he will oversee our on-line presence and assure electronic accessibility. 4. STAFF COUNSEL MIKE GODWIN'S ROLE TO BE DETERMINED We recognize the enormous resource represented by Mike Godwin. He probably knows more about the forming Law of Cyberspace than anyone, but differences of style and agenda created an impasse which left us little choice but to remove him from his current position. EFF is committed to continuing the services he has provided. We will discuss with him a new relationship which would make it possible for him to continue providing them. 5. COMMUNICATIONS STAFFERS GERARD VAN DER LEUN AND RITA ROUVALIS WILL LEAVE EFF. Despite the departure of the Cambridge communications staff, we expect to continue publishing EFFector Online on schedule as well as maintaining our usual presence online. Both functions will be under the direction of Cliff Figallo, who will be assisted by members of the Board and Washington staff. 6. JOHN PERRY BARLOW WILL ASSUME A GREATER LEADERSHIP ROLE. John will replace Mitch Kapor as Chairman of EFF's Executive Committee, which works closely with the Executive Director to manage day to day operations. Mitch will remain as Board Chairman of EFF. All of the directors have committed themselves to a more active role in EFF so that decisions can be made responsively during this transition. 7. EFF WILL NOT SPONSOR LOCAL CHAPTERS, BUT WILL WORK CLOSELY WITH INDEPENDENT REGIONAL GROUPS. We have labored mightily and long over the whole concept of chapters, but, in the end, the Board has decided not to form EFF chapters. Instead, EFF will encourage the development of independent local organizations concerned with Electronic Frontier issues. Such groups will be free to use the phrase "Electronic Frontier" in their names (e.g., Omaha Electronic Frontier Outpost), with the understanding that no obligation, formal or informal, is implied in either direction between independent groups and EFF. While EFF and any local groups that proliferate will remain organizationally independent and autonomous, we hope to work closely with them in pursuit of shared goals. The EFF Board still plans to meet with representatives of regional groups in Atlanta next week to discuss ideas for future cooperation. 8. WE CLARIFIED EFF'S MISSION AND ACTIVITIES In undertaking these changes, the board is guided by the sense that our mission is to understand the opportunities and challenges of digital communications to foster openness, individual freedom, and community. We expect to carry out our mission through activities in the following areas: POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND ADVOCACY. EFF has been working to promote an open architecture for telecommunications by various means, including the Open Platform Initiative, the fight against the FBI's Digital Telephony wiretap proposal, and efforts to free robust encryption from NSA control. FOSTERING COMMUNITY. Much of the work we have done in the Cambridge office has been directed at fostering a sense of community in the online world. These efforts will continue. We have realized that we know far less about the conditions conducive to the formation of virtual communities than is necessary to be effective in creating them. Therefore, we will devote a large portion of our R & D resources to developing better understanding in this area. LEGAL SERVICES. We were born to defend the rights of computer users against over-zealous and uninformed law enforcement officials. This will continue to be an important focus of EFF's work. We expect to improve our legal archiving and dissemination while continuing to provide legal information to individuals who request it, and support for attorneys who are litigating. Both the board and staff will go on writing and speaking about these issues. Our continuing suit on behalf of Steve Jackson Games is unaffected by these changes. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT. We have started many projects over the years as their need became apparent. Going forward, EFF will allocate resources to investigating and initiating new projects. To ensure that our projects have the greatest impact and can reasonably be completed with the resources available, EFF will sharpen its selection and review process. IN CONCLUSION... We expect that the foregoing may not sit well with many on the Net. We may be accused of having "sold out" our bohemian birthright for a mess of Washingtonian pottage. It may be widely, and perhaps hotly, asserted that the "suits" have won and that EFF is about to become another handmaiden to the large corporate interests which support our work on telecommunications policy. However plausible, these conclusions are wrong. We made these choices with many of the same misgivings our members will feel. We have toiled for many months to restore harmony between our two offices. But in some cases, personal animosities had grown bitter. It seems clear that much of the difficulty was structural. We believe that our decisions will go far to focus EFF's work and make it more effective. The decision to locate our one office in Washington was unavoidable; our policy work can only be done effectively there. Given the choice to centralize in Washington, the decision to permanently appoint Jerry Berman as our Executive Director was natural. Jerry has, in a very short time, built an extremely effective team there, so our confidence in his managerial abilities is high. But we are also convinced of his commitment to and growing understanding of the EFF programs which extend beyond the policy establishment in Fortress Washington. We recognize that inside the Beltway there lies a very powerful reality distortion field, but we have a great deal of faith in the ability of the online world to keep us honest. We know that we can't succeed in insightful policy work without a deep and current understanding of the networks as they evolve -- technically, culturally, and personally. To those who believe that we've become too corporate, we can only say that we founded EFF because we didn't feel that large, formal organizations could be trusted with the future of Cyberspace. We have no intention of becoming one ourselves. Some will read between these lines and draw the conclusion that Mitch Kapor is withdrawing from EFF. That is absolutely not the case. Mitch remains thoroughly committed to serving EFF's agenda. We believe however, that his energies are better devoted to strategy and to developing a compelling vision of future human communications than in day to day management. The difficult decision to reject direct chapter affiliation was based on a belief that no organization which believes so strongly in self-determination should be giving orders or taking them. Nevertheless, we are eager to see the development of many outposts on the Electronic Frontier, whether or not they agree with us or one another on every particular. After all, EFF is about the preservation of diversity. This has been a hard passage. We have had to fire good friends, and this is personally painful to us. We are deeply concerned that, in moving to Washington, EFF is in peril for its soul. But we are also convinced that we have made the best decisions possible under the circumstances, and that EFF will be stronger as a result. Please cut us some slack during the transition. And please tell us (either collectively at eff@eff.org or individually at the addresses below) when we aren't meeting your expectations. In detail and with examples. We don't promise to fix everything, but we are interested in listening and working on the issues that affect us all. The Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation Mitch Kapor, mkapor@eff.org John Perry Barlow, barlow@eff.org John Gilmore, gnu@toad.com Stewart Brand, sbb@well.sf.ca.us Esther Dyson, edyson@mcimail.com Dave Farber, farber@cis.upenn.edu Jerry Berman, jberman@eff.org Cliff Figallo, fig@eff.org