Internet and Democracy: The Sequel: Difference between revisions

From Technologies and Politics of Control
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(UTurn to 1303516799)
 
(23 intermediate revisions by 12 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
<div class="editsection noprint editlink plainlinksneverexpand" align="right" style="float: right; margin: 5px; background:#eeeeff; color:#111111; border: 4px solid #dddddd; text-align: center;">
<big>'''Syllabus'''</big>
{| border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="4" style="background:#eeeeff; text-align: left;"
|
* [[Politics and Technology of Control: Introduction|Jan 25]]
* [[Paradigms for Studying the Internet|Feb 1]]
* [[New Economic Models|Feb 8]]
* [[Peer Production and Collaboration|Feb 15]]
* [[Collective Action and Decision-making|Feb 22]]
* [[New and Old Media, Participation, and Information|Mar 1]]
* [[Law's Role in Regulating Online Conduct and Speech|Mar 8]]
* Mar 15 - ''No class''
|
* [[Regulating Speech Online|Mar 22]]
* [[Internet Infrastructure and Regulation|Mar 29]]
* [[Copyright in Cyberspace|Apr 5]]
* [[Control and Code: Privacy Online|Apr 12]]
* [[Internet and Democracy|Apr 19]]
* [[Internet and Democracy: The Sequel|Apr 26]]
* [[Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare|May 3]]
* [[Final Project|May 10]] - ''No class''
|}
<br clear="right" />
</div>
'''April 26'''
A decade ago, the Internet was widely seen as a means to diminish the power of countries to regulate the flow of ideas and information.  However, we have witnessed the resurgence of national sovereignty in cyberspace, with many countries now resorting to a combination of technology, law and intimidation to reign in the spread of free speech via the Net.  Often aided by the technological support of the private sector in the United States, for this class, we will debate the ethics, practicality and implications of Internet censorship.  
A decade ago, the Internet was widely seen as a means to diminish the power of countries to regulate the flow of ideas and information.  However, we have witnessed the resurgence of national sovereignty in cyberspace, with many countries now resorting to a combination of technology, law and intimidation to reign in the spread of free speech via the Net.  Often aided by the technological support of the private sector in the United States, for this class, we will debate the ethics, practicality and implications of Internet censorship.  
 
<onlyinclude>
== Readings ==  
== Readings ==  


Line 11: Line 36:
== Additional Resources ==
== Additional Resources ==


== Topical Links ==
</onlyinclude>
 
== Class Discussion ==
== Class Introduction ==
'''Reluctant Gatekeepers: Corporate Ethics on a Filtered Internet'''


''Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey''
== Links ==


Here is a link to the link to the extensive Freedom House "Freedom on the Net 2011" report. (Honestly, at 410 pages I haven't really had time to read and evaulate this, but I thought I would throw it up on the wiki for those who might be interested.)
http://www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/FotN/FOTN2011.pdf
[[User:BrandonAndrzej|BrandonAndrzej]] 17:12, 20 April 2011 (UTC)


Taking on applied ethics close to information and business ethics, Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey bring up that that successful technology companies should focus on implementing great ideas that people will pay for. Seems obvious yet this easy realization comes with a subsequent hindrance. That to carry out these practices, governed-states will turn to other private firms to provide tools and services necessary to effect the censorship and surveillance of the content appropriate to their standards. Almost any business in the information technologies or telecommunications space will find themselves in this position. These private firms hired from the governed-states benefit greatly from these modifications. They profit from the rendering of  established technologies, which allow them to grow alongside these technological advances. It is not an uncommon practice, these private firms include hardware manufacturers, software firms, online service providers, and local access providers, among others who rely on these appropriated modification of already distributed technologies.
On the Today show this morning, one of the lead headlines was about your location can be followed thru your IPhone and IPad which is something we have been chatting about for the last two classes in the chat room. Also, there was an interesting article for corporate counsel on law.com regarding the idea that the government is watching corporations on the internet:
 
http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202484184534
Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey argue as a result, that the corporations, as an unifying industry, are best placed to work together to resolve this additional rendering of their technologies by adopting a code of conduct to govern their activities in these increasingly common situations. These corporations in their practices will unify competitors, yet allow competitors to create without modifying private firms in a separate, yet similar industry to profit off them. In addition, they argue that in forming this code of conduct, corporations should consult with NGO's, academics, public officials, and other more relevant practitioners to ascertain their prospective success in avoiding further conflict with these governing states and private firms. Yet corporations know that they have an obligation to obey local laws with respect to services they offer in all jurisdictions to their citizens. Corporations often perceive that they do not have the option of resisting the demands of law enforcement officials, for fear that the corporation or their local employees will face legal penalties or that their licenses to operate will be revoked. Some corporations, recognizing the risks in doing business in certain locales have limited the types of services that they offer in those contexts to avoid being placed in an uncomfortable position. ( such as Google.cn ;) )
[[[[User:Sjennings|sjennings]] 18:22, 21 April 2011 (UTC)}}
 
For corporations know well enough that complying with ethics would avoid unfavorable outcomes in the way they are perceived. Thus, by forming this code of conduct, corporations will operate with more ease in terms of compliance amongst each other. However, some corporations conclude that there is no ethical problem here or, at least, that the stated ethical problem is nothing new. If an Internet censorship and surveillance group is entirely legitimate from the perspective of international legal policies and societal norms in a governed state, then for an outside provider to do business with them, they are required to participate under those conditions.
 
Regardless, an industry-led approach to this supposed ethical problem could have, at the very least, the benefit of improved clarity to its users. Allowing for a more democratic selective process, their users can appropriate themselves with these corporations only empowering the user to be a self-governing user of these technologies. If the code is well-drafted and well-implemented, users of Internet-based services would know what to expect in terms of what their service provider would do when faced with a particular censorship or surveillance demand. The benefit of such an approach could well extend to further self-incorporating developments amongst the companies and the users. Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey close that the ICT industry as a whole should strive to provide the best possible services without compromising civil liberties of its users, the generativity of the network which shelters these users, and by doing so, operate in a democratic approach that protects its users without sacrificing the development of its technology.
--[[User:Kida89|Kida89]] 20:36, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 
== From Class ==
 
== Class Discussion ==
 
== Today's Presentations ==

Latest revision as of 16:58, 17 January 2013

April 26

A decade ago, the Internet was widely seen as a means to diminish the power of countries to regulate the flow of ideas and information. However, we have witnessed the resurgence of national sovereignty in cyberspace, with many countries now resorting to a combination of technology, law and intimidation to reign in the spread of free speech via the Net. Often aided by the technological support of the private sector in the United States, for this class, we will debate the ethics, practicality and implications of Internet censorship.

Readings

Additional Resources

Class Discussion

Links

Here is a link to the link to the extensive Freedom House "Freedom on the Net 2011" report. (Honestly, at 410 pages I haven't really had time to read and evaulate this, but I thought I would throw it up on the wiki for those who might be interested.) http://www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/FotN/FOTN2011.pdf BrandonAndrzej 17:12, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

On the Today show this morning, one of the lead headlines was about your location can be followed thru your IPhone and IPad which is something we have been chatting about for the last two classes in the chat room. Also, there was an interesting article for corporate counsel on law.com regarding the idea that the government is watching corporations on the internet: http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202484184534 [[sjennings 18:22, 21 April 2011 (UTC)}}