Tech advocate

VICTORIA Espinel's appointment as CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance in 2015 is widely seen as a sign of how the focus of the global software industry has shifted from just protecting intellectual property (IP) to influencing global tech policy-making.

As the leading advocacy body for the software industry, BSA's members are among the world's biggest and most innovative companies. Based out of Washington, DC and with operations in more than 30 countries including Singapore, the alliance was set up in 1988 to fight software piracy, sometimes working with local law enforcement agencies.

Ms Espinel, a seasoned trade negotiator and lawyer, has an illustrious track record as a government policymaker. Appointed by then US President Barack Obama as the White House's Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in 2009, she was the first person to fill the position and became known as "IP Czar" during her tenure.

Ms Espinel stepped down from her job in the White House in 2013 but continued to have a key role in the government as a trade negotiator till she joined BSA in 2015.

When The Business Times caught up with her, she confides that one of the most gratifying aspects of her current job is "taking an organisation that was founded 30 years ago with a very important mission (of anti-piracy and IP protection) and then expanding its agenda".

She says: "IP is still very important to our members, but our policy agenda now is much broader and reflects what's happened in the software industry."

The top priority around the world today is the privacy and protection of both consumer and business data, says Ms Espinel. Organisations use products made by the likes of Microsoft, Autodesk, IBM, Salesforce and Oracle, among others and all members of BSA, "because they trust them and they believe that they will protect the (customers') information that they have... That's what people pay them for", she points out.

Privacy and security and the ability to trust that "your data will be protected" are really core to the industry, she notes, adding: "This is reflected in the policy issues that we work on around the world."

Free movement of data

Given the global reach of the companies that BSA represents, it's little wonder that ensuring free and unhindered movement of data around the world is a major goal for the organisation.

"We work with governments around the world on issues related to data localisation and on where data centres are to be built. We try to push back on governments that are putting policies in place that would inappropriately restrict data from moving across the world," Ms Espinel says.

Another major BSA initiative spearheaded by her is the setting up of a foundation called Software.org, where she serves as president. The independent and nonpartisan research organisation focuses on educating policymakers to ensure they keep up with the rapidly evolving technology landscape.

"This includes things like what would be the long-term economic and sociological impact of artificial intelligence, as an example. We've also done studies on technologies such as blockchain which is expected to disrupt markets."

The foundation is also working on a series of papers on quantum computing as it becomes the next new technology frontier, she reveals.

Ms Espinel adds a caveat by noting that Software.org is not focused on specific details of a regulatory policy but rather more on future-gazing - discussing what kind of impact a piece of technology is likely to have on society 10 years or so down the road. "We look at how it may impact the global economy and our lives."

The BSA chief notes that Software.org also spends a lot of time researching the jobs of the future and related workforce development needs and how to make sure greater diversity in the workforce. "So it's a big agenda and is a really important one. I'm really lucky that I have a great team that helps me with that. It's really exciting."

Coming back to the all-important issue of data privacy, Ms Espinel observes that it is necessary for people to understand what the trade-offs are between data privacy and the services based on the data - a good example being restaurant recommendations based on location data.

"I think it's completely fine for consumers to decide that there's a trade-off that they are willing to accept. But the point is, and this is what we try to get at with regards to privacy, there's a need to ensure a real understanding of the trade-off.

"We have a detailed privacy position and a lot of it boils down to, 'No Surprises'. People should not be surprised by how their data is used. They should have an understanding and the ability to say 'Yes' or 'No' to what they like and don't in terms of the use of their data," she points out.

According to her, once that understanding and framework is established then customers can make the choices they want to make. "It is not for us to say what those choices should be. But it is for us to try to ensure that people really understand what those choices are and have the ability then to execute those choices."

Policymaking challenges

As a former career government policymaker, Ms Espinel warms up to a question about the challenges that policymakers face given the global disruptions due to the current technology tsunami.

"I think the pace of change is much quicker than ever before. For much of human history it has been possible to look at one generation or two before and then extrapolate forward to get a fair idea of what will happen next. That is not possible today and that poses an enormous challenge for policymakers: How do you make the rules? How do you think about the societal outcomes when everything is changing so quickly?"

Ms Espinel makes an important point about the fact that one of the challenges facing both ordinary people as well as government policymakers is "loss of control". "We're at this particular moment right now where technology is moving very quickly and we're still adjusting to that in our lives and one of the consequences of that is people feel like they don't have control and they want to have control.

"This may change a generation or so from now but right now if you look at some of the specific policy concerns like privacy, cybersecurity, income inequality, election interference and fake news, I think many of these boil down to a loss of control. And I think part of what policymakers need to do - but importantly, part of what the industry needs to do - is make sure that people have that control," she says.

Ms Espinel notes that governments around the world, to a large extent, still follow a "command and control" approach to policymaking, more so in "in certain political systems".

She is sanguine that this needs to change. "I've thought about this a lot because of my own background. There is a need for a system that is more participatory, nimble and more agile and you are starting to see some governments experiment with this, including here in Singapore.

"Part of what that means is that the government needs to, where it can, have the ability to test out policy outcomes within sandboxes. You need to do it in a way that you're not creating expectations among citizens and companies and then changing the rules without a due process around it."

Ms Espinel feels that this is impossible to do unless the government "has the confidence to be self-critical because a very important part of that is having an understanding that you may, with all the best intentions, have a policy that does not work or have the benefit that you thought it was going to have".

It also means, she adds, having the confidence to look at that outcome and deciding to change the approach. "It is difficult for human beings and it is difficult for governments as a whole to do that."

There is also a need for broader participation of various stakeholders in policymaking, according to the BSA CEO. "I think there needs to be more participation from all sorts of interest groups and not just industry so that governments have the ability to take various viewpoints into account," she says.

However, this doesn't mean that the job of the government is to reconcile every point of view in order to come to a compromise; rather, the intention is to ensure that it is aware of different points of view, she points out.

"I can tell you as a former public servant, that's hard; it's hard for governments (to hear out different stakeholders). I think there's a lot more work that needs to be done on how inputs from all sorts of different groups is given to policymakers in a way that they can then absorb and take into account," Ms Espinel adds.

Related to this is the need to develop mechanisms whereby policymakers can convey to their constituents, as well as the general public, the mechanism and logic behind various policy decisions. "The ability to get information into governments and then from there to civil servants and then on to citizens is very critical. Hopefully technology will have a positive role to play there, but we're just at the start of the journey."

Talent shortage

The discussion veers to meeting the global talent shortage and the measures required to ensure that young people enter the workforce with the necessary digital skills.

In Ms Espinel's view, Singapore is doing a good job of training people for industry. "Singapore has an innovative education system and I would highlight the government has been a real leader in thinking about how to train their young people and their current workforce for jobs of the future," she says.

But globally it's a significant challenge. Pointing to the US, the BSA chief notes that there are hundreds of thousands of jobs that will come up soon for which the country does not have a skilled workforce.

"I think having individual governments around the world thinking about how to revamp their education systems in order to develop a skilled workforce is a big challenge and a significant priority and governments that can do that well will have a real advantage," Ms Espinel says.

She makes another key point: Increasingly digital skills are required for jobs that traditionally did not require them. "Every job, from that of school teachers, doctors, to factory and construction industry workers, will need digital and technical skills. And so, providing those skills through education is very important.

"It's a big challenge and is a place where industry and government need to work together because neither one can do it by themselves," she explains.

The BSA chief also champions the need for diversity in the workforce and not necessarily just more women. "I'm happy to talk about gender diversity, although when I think about diversity, it is broader than that, and that's very important to me.

"When governments and companies are thinking about diversity, they're thinking about it in a broad way because I feel very strongly, perhaps because of my personal background, that a range of perspectives (which a diverse workforce brings) is important in whatever industry that you are in. And the ability to make economic opportunity as widespread as possible is also important," she adds.

Specifically on gender diversity Ms Espinel, through BSA, works closely with Girls Who Code, a non-profit in Washington, DC. "It has been enormously gratifying because one thing I like about the programme is that it deliberately brings in girls who have not had access to coding and who are not often in an educational system that would give them that opportunity.

"It is wonderful to watch them, in seven weeks, go from not knowing anything about coding to being able to build websites and program robots; it's really exciting. But the most exciting part is the confidence that they come out with (from the programme). And I think that's immensely gratifying," she says.

Five years into her BSA role, two phrases that keep popping up as Ms Espinel discusses her work are: "It's fun, it's exciting!". And far-reaching, she might have added. The lawyer who was once America's IP Czar is, after all, talking about work that touches on the large-scale adoption of technology that is changing our lives.

VICTORIA A ESPINEL

President and CEO BSA | The Software Alliance

Born: Richmond, Virginia, United States

EDUCATION

1989: BS in Foreign Service, Georgetown University

1992: JD, Georgetown University Law School

1997: LLM in Internet Law, London School of Economics and Political Science

CAREER

1992: Joined Sidley Austin LLP as an associate

1998: Joined Covington and Burling LLP

2001: Served as first chief US trade negotiator for intellectual property and innovation at USTR

2007: Joined the George Mason School of Law as professor of international trade and intellectual property

2009: Appointed as US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator

2014: Appointed to the US government's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN),

2015: Appointed president and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance

2015: Appointed chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the Digital Economy and Society

2017: Appointed president of Software.org: the BSA Foundation