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While these panelists diverge on the precise metaphor — ‘picking through a minefield,’ ‘hacking through the underbrush,’ ‘navigating uncharted waters’ -- they all agree that the web poses novel dilemmas and hazards for truth-seeking and speaking citizens.  First the good news: “There was a conscious decision by Congress to give online space some breathing room,” says David Ardia, shielding website operators “who allow others to use their site to speak out” from liability for some published content. This has permitted the explosive rise of YouTube and blogging services that serve as platforms for the masses. On the other hand, copyright and other legal claims are being successfully prosecuted against website hosts and posters. Ardia worries about the underreported phenomenon of citizen journalists who post on the web and find themselves “fighting an authority.” There is “an extensive chilling effect,” says Ardia “If you discover information that shows government corruption or puts powerful institutions on the defensive, you run the real risk of having them lawyer up, come after you, or put you in a position where you can’t afford to stand up for your rights.” Another emerging issue: When web content is construed as invading privacy, legal suits arise that lead to a delicate dance between free speech and privacy. “Horrible things are said and done through the internet,” says Ardia, “but overall the impact is far more beneficial than harmful. As we start to fix instances of bad conduct, we run a great risk of correcting one thing, but at the cost of speech that should be protected.” While the Obama Administration has pledged to make government more transparent, there is wild inconsistency in how federal, state and local governments make their work available. Daniel Schuman describes how some public authorities offer “giant data sets” lacking the kind of sophisticated formats that enable fruitful vetting. Congress members must post an earmarks reque...
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Date Found: January 11, 2011
Date Produced: January 11, 2011
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MIT World |
July 07, 2011
In three presentations that look back to digital-age milestones, and glimpse ahead to what may come next, speakers share some previously undisclosed stories, great enthusiasms, and a few concerns. Nicholas Negroponte tells a few “dirty secrets” about the start of the MIT Media Lab, including ...
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MIT World |
June 29, 2011
Winners of the A.M.Turing Award, the Nobel Prize of computing, describe their singular contributions to the field, and their works’ impact. They also find time to discuss the current and future state of computer science. Moderator Stephen Ward starts with 1990 prize winner Fernando Corbato, who ...
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MIT World |
June 13, 2011
Drew Davidson likes to play with blocks in his sandbox, as he demonstrates in a show-and-tell to interactive media colleagues. In this case, the playground is an online game called Minecraft, a two-year-young internet sensation with millions of followers, developed single-handedly by a ...
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MIT World |
June 06, 2011
Amy Bruckman finds the accomplishments of such online collaborations as Wikipedia, Apache and Firefox “nothing less than astounding,” and is both eagerly seeking and hoping to foster the next creative group Internet sensation. In her lab’s empirical studies, Bruckman has dissected different ...
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MIT World |
June 06, 2011
The ultimate questions for this Sandbox 2011 panel, posed by moderator Alan Gershenfeld, are “Where is technology not working? When is technology not the answer?” That’s a bold agenda for a panel of children’s media creators and a roomful of other producers in the industry, from Sesame ...
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