CIO Blog by Pablo Molina

Viewing by month: April 2008

Apr 30 2008

Privacy Policy

Posted by Pablo Molina at 7:40 AM - Categories: Announcements

On April, 28, 2008, the Georgetown University Law Center hosted a panel of European Parlament representatives and professor to discus Emerging Privacy Issues Between the US and EU: Bridging the Transatlantic Gap. Watch the video of the session at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/webcast/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=557 The United States and the European Union are confronting many common privacy challenges - promoting trust and confidence for Internet commerce, developing safeguards for behavioral targeting and search histories, security breach notification and identity theft. There are also areas - identification requirements, border control and passenger record transfers - where national security requirements appear to conflict with privacy laws. The panelists discussed current efforts to address these challenges. Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center Sophia in't Veld, Member of European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (Netherlands) Baroness Sarah Ludford, Member of European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (United Kingdom) Alexander Alvaro, Member of European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (Germany) Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Member of European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (Netherlands) Ignasi Guardans Cambo, Member of European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (Spain) Adam Levitin, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

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Apr 19 2008

Green Initiatives

Posted by Pablo Molina at 7:22 AM - Categories: Announcements

With the increasing cost of energy and declining environmental health of the planet, it is everybody's duty to use resources more efficiently. The Georgetown University Law Center Information Systems and Technology team has worked with community members to reduce the negative environmental impact of using technology. Three of our most successful initiatives are: setting up double-side printing by default, abandoning audiotapes and videotapes in favor of digital recordings, and consuming less energy by using flat panel monitors insteada of old ones. When the Information Systems and Technology department started replacing old monitors with flat panel monitors at the Law Center in 2003, it made sense not only in ergonomic terms but also in economic and environmental ones. We reduced by $50,000 per year the Law Center electrical bill and are using 82% less electricity, from 460,000 Kilowatts to 80,000 Kilowatts, per year. A standard 17” monitor consumes 204 Watts per hour, that is, 2.04 Kilowatts per day using a conservative estimate of 10 hours of usage per day. At a cost of 13 cents per Kilowatt, it costs about 27 cents per monitor per day. With 247 working days in the calendar, that comes out to about 504 Kilowatts or $67 per monitor per year. Because there are about 907 monitors in the Law Center Campus, it would take about 457,128 Kilowatts or about $60,679 to operate them per year. A flat panel LCD monitor consumes 36 Watts per hour, that is, .360 Kilowatts per day using a conservative estimate of 10 hours of usage per day. At a cost of 13 cents per Kilowatt, it costs about 5 cents per monitor per day. With 247 working days in the calendar, that comes out to about 89 Kilowatts or $12 per monitor per year. Because there are 907 flat panel monitors in the Law Center Campus, it takes about 80,723 Kilowatts and it costs about $10,494 to operate them per year. An interesting corollary to conserve resources is for community members to turn off their computers every time they step out of the office for more than two hours.

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