The questions about the initiative's privacy policies also apply to its role in surveying government networks, says Jim Lewis, a former foreign service official and director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

FORBES: Bush's Double-Edged Cyber-Security Plan

Coordinate with national and international geoscience authorities and policy makers on research, technology transfer and public awareness raising programmes on the use of remote sensing for environmental monitoring, geohazard mitigation, georesource modeling, transboundary geoscience map integration, geoengineering, climate change and environmental geology.

UNESCO: Vacancy : Secretary of The International Geoscience Programme, Chief of Global Earth Observation Section (24/5/2011) (SC 330 - (P5))

At APEC WES, I assembled a panel of five great women leaders representing the key sectors of the new innovation economy: Education and research, government and public policy, social entrepreneurs, and business and technology.

CNN: Women! Embrace your inner geek

Again, I agree with Butterworth that in an ideal world, journalists, politicians, and the public would all be more technically literate and, therefore, more able to assess the technical claims being made in public policy debates related to technology, science, and medicine.

FORBES: How Non-Geek Government Can Make Cyber Policy

These leaders came together at the invitation of the White House Offices of Public Engagement and Science and Technology Policy, and the Level Playing Field Institute, for the first Tech Inclusion Summit.

FORBES: Local Leadership Key in Inclusive Economic Competitiveness

Instead, the letter calls for a new approach to climate and energy policy centered on direct public investment on clean energy technology.

FORBES: Climate Fight Down Under

Low power prices are good for the U.S. economy, and the purpose of public policy should not be to artificially support a particular technology.

WSJ: The Experts: What's the Best Way Forward on Nuclear Power?

Critics such as Simson Garfinkel, a technology journalist, argue that the group has become a key maker of public policy and that it ought to start acting like one, especially by opening its membership and meetings to a broader public.

ECONOMIST: The consensus machine