Markle Foundation / Accountability Framework For The Internet
Date Initiated: March 2000
The Markle Foundation launched a public opinion research effort focused on the question of accountability for Internet policy in March 2000. The findings of this research were then used as the basis for the development of an "Accountability Framework." This framework enabled policymakers, the press and the online community to understand what Internet users and non-users alike expected from the full range of public and private sector actors who shape, regulate, or use the Internet environment.
The project was particularly focused on questions of public trust, rights, protections and trade-offs in the online world. This effort - highlighting the differences and similarities between expert and public opinions and exploring the values that lie behind public attitudes - has helpedshape policy debates at both national and local levels. These findings were then made available on the State of the Net Series: Towards a Framework for Internet Accountability, sponsored by the Internet Education Foundation.
The opinion research was conducted using the services of Greenberg Quinlan Research, a Washington-based firm with research expertise on public policy, institutional transformation and the intersection of technological and political change.
