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Site Contents: © Peter Sommer, 2012. Not to be reproduced without permission

PO Box 6447  London N4 4RX UK

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Most of my public policy work consists of carrying out background research and putting it in the public domain, as opposed to becoming involved in explicit lobbying and other campaigns.    With fair regularity I am rung up by journalists from the national and specialist press and from tv/radio.

The main organisations I belong to are:

Foundation for Information Policy Research   which is the leading think tank for Internet policy in Britain. It studies the interaction between IT, Government, business and civil society. It researches policy implications and alternatives, and promotes better understanding and dialogue between business, Government and NGOs across Europe.  I am on its Advisory Council

Information Assurance Advisory Council is a unique partnership that brings together corporate leaders, public policy makers, law enforcement and the research community to address the challenges of information infrastructure protection. It is engaged in the development of policy recommendations to government and corporate leaders at the highest levels. Its  recommendations are influential because IAAC's Sponsors and Members comprise leading commercial end-users, government policy makers and the research community.  I am an academic member and also author of its Directors and Corporate Advisors to Digital Investigations and Evidence

LSE Policy Engagement Network  The Policy Engagement Network is a cross-disciplinary initiative to conduct national and globally policy-relevant research. The primary objective of PEN is to inform policy deliberation through linking academic research with pressing policy issues.  We bring international experts from academia, industry, government, and civil society together to inform our work so that we may bring the key ideas and knowledge into the policy-making process.  We host dozens of workshops every year at the LSE, and we have run forums and conferences around the world.  Our most recent activity has been to produce a Briefing on the Home Office plans for the UK Interception Modernisation Programme.

EURIM,  The Information Society Alliance  which brings together politicians, officials and industry to help improve the quality of policy formation, consultation, scrutiny, implementation and monitoring in support of the creation of a globally competitive, socially inclusive and democratically accountable information society. It works across all boundaries to help set the agenda, stage constructive debate and report on progress.  It has very strong Parliamentary links.  I have observer status.

In December 1998 I was appointed Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee on Trade and Industry to support their inquiry into e-commerce. This has produced four published Reports. Seventh Report (HC 187);  "Building confidence in Electronic Commerce" . Tenth Report of Session (HC 648),  "Electronic Commerce",  Fourteenth Report of Session (HC 862), "Draft Electronic
Communications Bill" ,  Eighth Report of Session (HC66):     UK Online Reviewed:  The First Annual Report Of The E-Minister And E-Envoy.

More recently I also gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Terrorism and in 2010 to the Science and Technology Select Committee on Scientific Advice and Evidence in Emergencies

In October 2000 I was part of the UK delegation to the G8 Government-Industry Dialogue on Security and Confidence in Cyberspace Workshops in Berlin where I was asked to chair and mediate a number of the sessions.

In July 2003 I joined, at its inception,  the Scientific Advisory Panel on Emergency Response (SAPER) run by the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor.

In 2008 I was appointed to the Digital Forensics Specialist Group which advises the Forensic Science Regulator.

I have also run a workshop under the auspices of the UK chapter of the Internet Governance Forum to bring together representatives from NGOs concerned with the protection of children and NGOs concerned with issues of freedom of expression.

For OECD  in January 2011 Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute and I co-authored a study Reducing Systemic Cyber Security Risk.  The work is part of the OECD’s Future Global Shocks programme

A number of my other public policy activities are covered by confidentiality restrictions.