Progress for the status quo – on the Chamber of Progress
“There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory.” – Neil Postman A … Continue reading
“Cover Your Tracks!” – A Critique of the Privacy Project from The New York Times
Whatever you say, don’t say it twice. If you find your idea with somebody else: deny it. He who didn’t sign anything, who didn’t leave an image Who wasn’t there, … Continue reading
All watched over by machines – a review of Yasha Levine’s “Surveillance Valley”
There is something rather precious about Google employees, and Internet users, who earnestly believe the “don’t be evil” line. Though those three words have often been taken to represent a … Continue reading
Techlash! What Techlash?
In the early 1990s an assortment of activists and academics banded together in an attempt to challenge the direction in which high-technology, and infatuation with it, was taking society. And … Continue reading
The Nerd and the Inured
There’s no point being vague about it: Mark Zuckerberg won. Considering what could have possibly awaited the Facebook CEO when he testified before Congress he got off easy. Despite the … Continue reading
From Net Neutrality to the Net’s New Reality
There is a chance that this page took quite a while to load. Or that this particular site is now taking longer to load than it did in the past. … Continue reading
The users and the used
Woe be unto the tech company or platform that rolls out a new product or update and claims that it is in response to its users’ demands. For such action … Continue reading
When real life emulates dystopia…it isn’t a good sign…
“If people are not aware of the direction in which they are going, they will awaken when it is too late and when their fate has been irrevocably sealed. Unfortunately, … Continue reading
Don’t like what you see? – A review of Season Three of Black Mirror
“The future is not a blank page; and neither is it an open book.” – Lewis Mumford 1. When the daily news takes on a particularly grim sheen it can … Continue reading
Apple Is Not the Messiah
There is a lot of money to be made in crafting carefully manicured public relations campaigns for major corporations. Numerous large firms exist solely for the purposes of selling their … Continue reading
To Do: Digital Rights in Libraries
[Hi, pirates. The following is a press release from our dear comrade Alison Macrina of the Library Freedom Project. If you are going to ALA, or live near the Bay … Continue reading
Laws Expire, Surveillance Remains
The technological landscape of today is quite a bit different from what it was in the fall of 2001. This point is so obvious as to be banal, but to … Continue reading
Where Are They Now? The People’s Library Today
For many librarians the experience of reminding patrons to “please, return the books when you’re finished with them” is fairly common. After all, the idea of a person returning a … Continue reading
Awaiting the Other Shoe
Patience ranks high amongst the virtues that are commonly celebrated. It seems to represent the coming together of a host of other vaunted values: selflessness, calmness in the face of … Continue reading
Read Banned Books – Support Your Library
Displays of challenged, or banned, books generally provoke rather predictable responses: one group contentedly observes that somebody is speaking up against such filth, another group stares in bemused shock that … Continue reading
A Threatened Net or a Threatening Net?
The activist and writer Grace Lee Boggs is known for starting conversations and lectures with the following question: “What time is it on the clock of the world?” It may … Continue reading
Facebook Gets Emotional
Have you ever found that you felt rather depressed after using social media? What about quite happy? It is probably no great stretch to imagine that the answer to at … Continue reading
The Less Things Change…
The shock has worn off. At first we reeled and balked out of a sentiment of betrayed fury, but eventually we grew glumly quiet – and gradually we opened our … Continue reading
You Can’t Spell Betrayal Without FCC
There’s something about the Internet that seems to restore people’s faith in democracy. It’s free! It’s open! It’s a platform for the people! Anybody can make a website! It is … Continue reading
Books – Tools for Conviviality
Libraries are about much more than books. Granted, there are caveats to such a declaration. After all, there are rare book libraries, manuscript collections, and many types of libraries that … Continue reading
Money for censorship: CIPA, federal funding, and content blockers
In honor of EFF’s 404 Day, a day of action against internet censorship in libraries, a discussion about content filtering is in order. Libraries applying for and accepting certain kinds … Continue reading
We Apologize, We Will Change – An open letter from the NSA
[For Immediate Release – an open letter from the Assistant Director of the National Security Agency] To my fellow citizens, We are sorry. Let me repeat that to make my … Continue reading
Trading One Myth for Another – Seeing through Google’s Glass
A compelling argument could be made that myths have played, and continue to play, an important role in human societies. Granted, these myths appear in as many shapes and bizarre … Continue reading
Riddled With Questions: Interrogating Your Technology
Technology poses many questions. This inquisition occurs at multiple levels, there are the questions that it clearly asks of us: name, password, birthday, credit card number, address, where your friends … Continue reading
Oh, What the Zuck!?
It appears that Facebook has a fierce new competitor! While Facebook has become skilled in squishing startups, they are as yet unsure as to how to deal with this menacing … Continue reading
This “Open Future” is Brought to You By…
Freedom is a wonderful concept. When people hear it invoked their minds and hearts swell with the positive connotations they associate with that profound, but not profane, F word. It … Continue reading
Fighting Fire with Arsonists
As the sun set on March 7th a diffuse band of marathoners began an arduous trek: the “National Day of Unplugging.” From sundown on the 7th to sundown on the … Continue reading
Human Rights and Technological Wrongs
When engaging in a contemporary conversation about human rights it is inevitable that the matter of technology will be brought up. The interesting thing is not that this issue arises, … Continue reading
The Day We Fight Back (should be every single day)
So, what are you doing today? Hopefully you are going to take a moment to call or e-mail congress (or the appropriate equivalent) and demand that action be taken to … Continue reading
The Banality of NSA Reform
“The reforms I’m proposing today should give the American people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, even as our intelligence and law enforcement agencies maintain the tools they … Continue reading
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