CPSR's approach to advising policymakers

This paper describes the approach that Computer Professionalsfor Social Responsibility (CPSR) uses to advise and influencegovernment policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels. Itanalyzes why CPSR - a relatively small organization - has enjoyed afair amount of success in influencing policy. It also describes arecurring pattern that applies to CPSR's involvement inpolicymaking, using as an example CPSR's involvement inpolicymaking on the Calling Number Identification (CNID) telephoneservice. An appendix lists situations in which CPSR has directlyadvised policymakers.