What The Net is Doing to You

Bart writes "The BBC reports One of the world's first research centres dedicated to studying the social, political and economic effects of the net has opened in Oxford" I've offered to trade CowboyNeal to them as a research subject for a case of beer. I think studying the effects of the internet on him will save lives. See? Someone is thinking of the children.

Cliff Stoll had some comments on this...

[CoolVibe]

...regarding the effects of the internet on social life and people.

Check out the realvideo (yeah sorry) technetcast presentation here [ddj.com] . It's refreshing, to the point and funny. And oh so typically Cliff Stoll-ian. :)

Thanks, Eli

[sam_handelman]

"We must save the internet from its founding myth that it is good for democracy and is open and cannot be regulated."

Oh, is *that* why we need to be told what to do? For DEMOCRACY?

Eli Noam [columbia.edu] is an academic who moonlights as a beurecrat. Based on his webpage, he doesn't seem to advocate censorship exactly - he wants to somehow use regulation to encourage people to talk one another when they have diverse social backgrounds. This is a laudable goal, and I'm certainly no anti-government nut - but this is a stupid target for regulation. Like regulation to make people be nice.

He complains about centralization of information. This has NOT been my experience with the web - EXCEPT for academic journals. If he wants regulation to require peer-reviewed academic journals to make their content available for free online; well, that would be great. I'd support that 100%. A journal that wants money shouldn't publish publically funded research.

The fact is - the protocols (TCP/IP, http/html) fascilitate free, open and DIVERSE exchanges of communication. I can't think of any changes I'd make that would encourage people to interact with people of diverse experience. If there were improvements to these fundamental protocols, there would some justification in legislating them (you'd get them no other way), but I don't think his goals are well enough defined, or the effects well enough understood, to even talk about this as an option at this juncture.

His op-ed pieces [columbia.edu] are particularly enlightening if you really care what he thinks.

Only Research Center??

[redragon]

They must be on crack. There are many different places looking at these sorts of things:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Science__Tec hn ology__and_Society_Studies/

Seriously...most places that do cultural analysis of science are also looking at the effects of the internet.

Re:Only Research Center??

[McLuhanesque]

They must be on crack. There are many different places looking at these sorts of things. Seriously...most places that do cultural analysis of science are also looking at the effects of the internet

Indeed! At the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, this sort of examination is "standard fare" in our graduate courses, and for our post-grad fellows. In fact, Marshall McLuhan was doing this sort of investigation nearly 40 years ago, in looking at the cultural and societal effects of instantaneous, multi-way communications around the world.

In 1969, for example, executives at IBM thought he was crazy when he explained how there would be networked computers in every home, and how we would be able to buy groceries and other household items online!

Re:Thanks, Eli

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on how you define Democracy. And you don't need direct government intervention to censor the web, people can do it themselves, usually wihtout realising it. Read Noam Chomsky's Necessary Illusions [zmag.org] and Manufacturing Consent.

Re:Effects of the Net

[netclift]

If you want some links on the Internet and politics, check out my "e-democracy resources" flyer: http://www.publicus.net/articles/edemresources.htm l [publicus.net]

You can also join DO-WIRE: http://www.e-democracy.org/do [e-democracy.org]

Here are some recent subject lines from the archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/ [mail-archive.com]

[DW] Vox Populi, Online and Downtown - NYTimes Article, Steven Clift

[DW] Die Online-Kampagnen der Parteien Event - Berlin - 19 Oct. 2002, Steven Clift

[DW] Correction - Oct 1 - Re: [DW] Die Online-Kampagnen der Parteien, Steven Clift

[DW] E-Gov Conference - Korea - 6-7 Nov 2002, Steven Clift

[DW] [IP] Student Blogs, School Cracks Down (fwd), Steven Clift

[DW] Carnegie Mellon Team Wins $2.1 Million to Build Online Forum forCitizen Deliberation (fwd), Steven Clift

[DW] Online Campaigning 2002: A Primer - Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, Steven Clift

[DW] Publication - Making a case for local e-government (fwd), Steven Clift

[DW] Paris, Warsaw, Vilnius, Lisbon - Clift Speaking Schedule, Future Requests, Steven Clift

[DW] New Public Sphere: Technology and Politics in Sweden 1969-1999 - Lars Ilshammar PhD Dissertation, Steven Clift

[DW] Parliamentary E-Democracy Inquiry, Key Documents - State of Victoria, Australia, Steven Clift

[DW] US Election 2002 - Senate Campaign E-mail Lists - Wellstone at 25,000, Steven Clift

[DW] GILC Alert - China, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran ... and more, Steven Clift

[DW] Recycling Day - Two Items, Steven Clift

[DW] Voting Technology Glitches in Florida Primary, Steven Clift

[DW] MyBallot.net - New service from E-Democracy - details and press release, Steven Clift

[DW] Netactivism-Oriented Conference Calendar, Steven Clift

[DW] UK Political Participation Online Survey Results - From ERSC, Univof Salford, Steven Clift