Senator “Series of Tubes” Stevens (R-AK) has called for a Federal ban on Wikipedia and other interactive Web tools in schools, libraries and other places that receive Federal financial support and provide public access to the Web.
Apart from the obvious stupidity that Sen. Stevens has when it comes to all things Web, there’s another reason why this bill really scares me. It will further exacerbate the digital divide between those who can afford high-speed access at home and those who cannot.
After all, publicly funded Web access is what allows homeless bloggers like Crystal Evans to blog about their experiences and draw awareness to the problem of homelessness.
Now, everyone knows that school kids rely way too much on WikiPedia and other online sources for school projects. The plethora of searchable content on the Web makes fact-finding for any assignment unbelievably easy to do. And yes, there is the problem of online predators.
To use a Brobackian analogy, what Senator Stevens is proposing is kind of like banning airplanes because they crash once in a very great while. Yes, the Web can be a dangerous place for kids. But so can playgrounds, swimming pools and amusement parks. You don’t see Federal bans on those, do you?
I don’t normally make a practice of espousing politically related opinions on this blog. But in this case, I thought it was pertinent to our business audience as well. Why? Because your core constituencies read your company’s blog from the public library. Your customers network socially and spread information about your products within and between their groups of friends during school breaks. Shutting down public access to all parts of the Web would keep your fan base from spreading the word about you.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
marc 02.15.07 at 10:46 am
OMG… this sounds like an Onion story. SCARY!
Jason 02.15.07 at 12:31 pm
May I propose a counter-analogy?
It sounds like the senator wants to ban the use of Wikipedia because it is too good at what it is intended to do–be a resource of information.
This is just like wanting to limit public access to certain restaurants because they are OMG TOO DELICIOUS!
steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate 02.16.07 at 10:17 pm
As open source team collaboration tools like wikis proliferate, politicians become increasingly irrelevant.
As people come together to formulate bi/non-partisan activist groups online, and solve problems, the grassroots efforts will increasing bypass government and lobbyists.
Government is dead and the myth of politics has come to full disclosure.
We no longer need mediation or representatives when we can independently and directly bring about change in our society.
The monolithic domination systems smell their own rotting corpses and are full of fear. I spit on their graves.
steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate 02.16.07 at 10:18 pm
As open source team collaboration tools like wikis proliferate, politicians become increasingly irrelevant.
As people come together to formulate bi/non-partisan activist groups online, and solve problems, the grassroots efforts will increasing bypass government and lobbyists.
Government is dead and the myth of politics has come to full disclosure.
We no longer need mediation or representatives when we can independently and directly bring about change in our society.
The monolithic domination systems smell their own rotting corpses and are full of fear. I spit on their graves.
steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate 02.16.07 at 10:26 pm
I double posted inadvertently because I get an error message when I attempt to post a comment.
Richard Lipscombe 02.18.07 at 10:48 pm
This is a complex issue. Government is about to become less relevant (William Safire predicted this last century) at the National level and thus more intrusive. Government at the State (local level) is about to become more relevant and thus less intrusive. Virutal cooperation is the new way to conduct politics however we do not have too much experience with it. Plus the experts in virtual politics are too young to vote. Much more I could say on this but that is the essence of it.