CHARLES RIVKIN'S REMARKS ON FREE AND OPEN INTERNET IN TOKYO, JAPAN

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
The Importance of a Free and Open Internet
Remarks
Charles H. Rivkin
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Japan Association of the New Economy (JANE), New Economy Summit
Tokyo, Japan
April 7, 2015
Remarks as prepared

Good morning and my special greetings to everyone here at the New Economy Summit in this remarkable and bustling city.

The title of this conference, “The New Economy,” highlights a timely point for me about the Internet. It isn’t just an essential component of the new economy. It really is the economy.

As early as 2011, the global digital economy’s impact on GDP growth in G7 countries had already surpassed the energy and agriculture sectors. It is rapidly transforming the emerging markets that are the key to future growth and globally shared prosperity. More and more, everything we do in the economic, commercial and financial realms is either leveraged by, or dependent upon the Internet.

In fact, the Internet has become one of the greatest and most important change agents of our lives. Three billion people are connected to the Internet today. Some estimate that number will rise to five billion by 2020. More than two-thirds of us have mobile phones.

The Internet is not only pervasive; it can cross borders and time zones at the click of a mouse. Cross-border Internet traffic grew 18-fold between 2005 and 2012. It continues to flow, day upon day, hour upon hour, microsecond after microsecond.

Clearly, the Internet is indispensable in everything we do, whether we are communicating with those we hold dear, seeking economic opportunity, or addressing the greatest shared challenges of our time, from the effects of climate change to finding cures for chronic diseases.

With something so essential, beneficial and central, to modern life, it’s imperative that we do everything in our power to preserve this precious asset. We must do so thoughtfully and with our eyes firmly focused on the futures of our children.

I spoke yesterday before the Japanese National Press Club about the importance of preserving data flows, which is essential, if we are to truly safeguard the viability of the Internet. I told them that, in many ways, the Internet is like the golden goose in a well-known children’s story; one that has been retold across centuries and many cultures, from Aesop’s Fables to the Buddhist book of Vinaya.

The details differ, depending on the culture, but the story is essentially the same. A family comes into possession of a magical goose – or a bird – that provides golden eggs – or in some versions, golden feathers. But in their zeal to further exploit this remarkable goose, the family ultimately kills the bird.

The story serves as a cautionary tale for how important the Internet is to all of us – and how we must all work together to make sure we don’t destroy humanity’s golden asset. It’s timely too, for as we meet, this is a critical moment in the fast moving evolution of the Internet, when important decisions lie before us.

The world community – in multilateral and other forums – faces complex and difficult choices, such as whether states – and the intergovernmental institutions they control – should be in the drivers’ seat for managing how the Internet works. Also in the debate is how we can find a balance between protecting people’s privacy and preserving the free and open flow that makes the Internet so dynamic. These and other questions are hugely impactful; not only for the world but for both our nations.

My country is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Japan on so many issues in this space. Our two countries are more than partners in this effort and our faith in our alliance is strong. We are not only among the Internet’s biggest producers and consumers, we are some of its strongest advocates.

In multilateral forums and negotiations, and in our own continuing bilateral dialogues, we continue to promote and support the decentralized, multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance because it is in the best interest of continued innovation and broadly shared prosperity.

We also pursue other related agendas, such as how we can construct rules for the collection, use and distribution of data in our markets in a way that protects privacy while supporting innovation.

As Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, I am humbled to lead the office at the State Department which has such a leading and integral role, not only in Internet governance, but in trade and related matters, such as intellectual property rights. All three come to bear in one of our most important and ongoing negotiations: The Trans Pacific Partnership – or TPP.

This high standard multilateral trade deal will not only open new channels of trade and investment, and set high environmental, labor and consumer standards. It will encourage and support private sector investments in the transmission of data across borders. It will also work towards the certainty of a safe space where the Internet can continue to grow.

Whether we are engaging as bilateral or multilateral partners, or speaking on national issues in the U.S. Congress or the Japanese National Diet, we recognize that no decision can only affect our own nations and citizens. The Internet impacts everyone, for better or worse, and therefore must stay free and open. Japan highlighted this support for Internet openness when it joined the Freedom Online Coalition at its meeting in Estonia in April last year.

We know that, as we address what seem to be the most domestic issues, such as the privacy of our citizens, we must also consider their wider application and consequences. We must strike a balance between our understandable caution and the need for the Internet to be accessible to everyone.

The United States does not claim to have all the answers. But we strongly believe that, when it comes to the question of protecting data, corporations have some of the strongest motivations and the best resources to safeguard them.

By holding them accountable to best practices and sound rules, instead of creating walls, we believe we can provide a more dependable and enforceable defense. It is our hope that more countries, especially those who value democracy, openness and freedom, can adopt this or similar models.

As we work to maintain a free and open Internet, we are also focused on another critical issue: developing and expanding the Internet to create opportunities for developed, emerging, and developing economies alike.

According to many studies, more than half the world’s population is offline. It is also estimated that 1.8 billion people around the world will enter the consuming class by the year 2025. Almost all of them will be from emerging markets. This will create increased demand and global production, which means economic opportunities for both our countries, as well as improved goods and services for emerging and developing country consumers.

Digital technologies enable even the smallest companies and entrepreneurs to become “micro-multinationals” – selling products, services, and ideas across borders. In emerging and developing nations, whose small businesses are so often the backbone of their economies, this access to global markets would have dramatic results.

By linking more entrepreneurs and SMEs to global supply chains; and by connecting more people to each other and the information and services available, we could help ensure that all populations have access to technology. We can also ensure that no singular group is excluded due to barriers such as prohibitively high costs, lack of network connectivity, or social or cultural hurdles.

If you’ll permit me to return to my earlier metaphor, the Internet – like the goose of those children’s books – is something we cannot afford to lose. That is why the United States and Japan continue to expand connectivity, keep digital trade routes open, and make the Internet more accessible, as we also work to drive innovation and grow our economies.

There can be few more ambitious goals than these, but with partners like Japan, and the transformative potential of the Internet, we are confident that we can achieve them.

A generation ago, most of us would never have dreamed technology could leverage human aspirations at this kind of scale. It is a remarkable sign of our times that we can even think to do so. Let us not waste this unprecedented opportunity. Let us move forward together with vision, respect for one another, and an even greater sense of responsibility for our greater global community.

Thank you.

DIGITAL LEARNING

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Nature field trips go digital
Harvard researchers tame the next learning frontier with mobile phones, environmental probes and virtual reality

The buzz around the pond these days isn't coming from bees. It's coming from middle-school students on a data collection field trip to a local pond. But on this trip they've traded paper and pencil for mobile phones and environmental probes. With their smartphones, students access interactive media such as video, audio, 3-D models and animations to learn about the ecosystem they're visiting as well as answer specific and open-ended questions about their data collection activities. Their probes measure environmental variables that contribute to water quality.

This augmented reality experience is part of a pilot program called EcoMOBILE developed by researchers at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education (HGSE). Funded by NSF and Qualcomm's Wireless Reach Initiative, EcoMOBILE has two goals. The first is to learn how technology impacts learning and the second is to help students connect abstract science concepts learned in the classroom with real-world experiences.

"Technology in and of itself does nothing for learning, but it can be a catalyst," says the project's principal investigator, Christopher Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard. "We're interested in why technology impacts learning as much as whether it does or not. We are always concerned with how effective we can make these technologies and what the limits are."

Augmenting reality

The EcoMOBILE curriculum includes a pre-trip classroom session, one or more field trips and follow-up class sessions. During the initial session, students learn about water quality variables such as pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. They also practice using the smartphones and measurement probes they'll use at the pond. During the field trip, students use the mobile phones to navigate to "hotspots" where they collect water samples. The phone software prompts students to make observations about the pond and its organisms; provides information about concepts such as dissolved oxygen; supplies step-by-step instructions for obtaining and testing a water sample; and delivers feedback on the just-completed measurement.

Back in the classroom, students share the observations they made at the pond. They compile their data, creating graphs and calculating the range and mean of each set of measurements. They then discuss their findings and explore why variations may have occurred.

During the EcoMOBILE experience, students proceed at their own pace, personalizing their experience. "This approach engages them to a different degree than other formats," says project co-director Amy Kamarainen, a limnologist (a scientist who studies inland waters). "Students take ownership of the data and experience a new level of responsibility for their work." She adds that the EcoMOBILE experience is like a mini-apprenticeship, allowing students to see science as a creative process. "It helps students enjoy what they're doing but also understand that ecology is a very analytic field."

The technology also helps students study the complex time and spatial scales characteristic of ecosystems. "Ecosystems can be hard to learn about because kids have a limited amount of time to study them," says Kamarainen.

While at the pond, students learn about change over decades by accessing a video that simulates a visitor from 1850 discussing the pond's history. Another activity allows students to view 3-D molecular simulations of ecosystem processes such as photosynthesis.

Simulating reality

EcoMOBILE complements EcoMUVE, a multi-user virtual environment for classrooms created five years ago by Dede and co-principal investigator Tina Grotzer, an associate professor of education at HGSE. "ECOMUVE is like a flight simulator. We can create experiences not found in nature," says Dede. "EcoMOBILE is like flying the plane. You can get very good in the simulator, but ultimately you want to get people to be effective in the real world."

In EcoMUVE students assume a specific role: Water chemist, naturalist, microscopic specialist or private investigator and for eight virtual days are responsible for monitoring and collecting data in their respective areas. Students work in teams to analyze the data and create a concept map that illustrates the cause and effect relationships found in the ecosystem.

Assessing reasoning patterns

EcoMUVE and EcoMOBILE offer an opportunity to assess how students approach situations requiring complex reasoning. "We can look at where kids go in EcoMUVE and what kinds of data they collect. We see that patterns of movement shift," explains Grotzer.

When students first enter the virtual pond their movements are random. After a fish kill, the initial movement patterns give way to more purposeful ones. The changes suggest that students' thinking has changed and they are attending to different features and data sources in the environment says Grotzer, who as director of the NSF-funded "Understandings of Consequence Project" for more than a decade has studied how students reason about complex causal patterns.

Refining the technology for the future

After several years of iterative design, EcoMUVE is available as a free download through a licensing arrangement with Harvard. EcoMOBILE, however, is still under development and available only for research purposes. Although the program, built on the FreshAiR platform, runs on both Android and iPhones, some of the 3-D simulations are only available using Androids.

"We want to be able to make EcoMOBILE customizable," says Shari Metcalf, project co-director. With time, the team anticipates creating a website that would include software templates teachers can download to tailor augmented reality scenarios to their own local ecosystems.

Seventh-grade teacher Allison Kugler has worked with the EcoMOBILE project for three semesters and thinks the technology is a good fit for middle school students. "They want to be challenged but not get frustrated," she says. In a comparison of EcoMUVE and traditional hands-on activities, Kugler found that students had an easier time understanding ecosystem concepts with EcoMUVE.

As applications software becomes more refined and mobile phones more sophisticated, Dede suggests student-directed learning tools like EcoMOBILE will become commonplace. "We can't just keep loading more topics into classroom learning. We need to focus on 24/7 learning," he says. "This is the next frontier."