From: Patrice Riemens [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 23 September 2003 20:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Digital Imprimatur
Hi John & Joanne,
For CSL but watch out -- its 43 pages long!
cheers, patrice & Diiiino!
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http://fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/
First para:
Over the last two years I have become deeply and increasingly pessimistic
about the future of liberty and freedom of speech, particularly in
regard to the Internet. This a complete reversal of the almost unbounded
optimism I felt during the 1994-1999 period when public access to the
Internet burgeoned and innovative new forms of communication appeared in
rapid succession. In that epoch I was firmly convinced that universal
access to the Internet would provide a countervailing force against the
centralisation and concentration in government and the mass media which
act to constrain freedom of expression and unrestricted access to
information. Further, the Internet, properly used, could actually roll back
government and corporate encroachment on individual freedom by allowing
information to flow past the barriers erected by totalitarian or
authoritarian governments and around the gatekeepers of the mainstream
media.
Last para:
In the last years of the 20th century, we lived through the false dawn of
Internet commerce; wildly unrealistic expectations were raised, and fortunes
made and (mostly) lost chasing after them. But all the years since the early
1970's have really been one long dawn for the Internet, beginning with a
barely perceptible glimmer, then growing brighter and brighter until it
illuminated all but the darkest regions of the world. Even today, only a
tiny fraction, less than 10% of the global population, has ever used the
Internet, and even in the most extensively wired societies we have only
begun to explore its potential to augment all forms of human interaction.
Compounded geometric growth causes problems--the fact the Internet has not
collapsed already is one of the most significant testaments to the wisdom
and foresight of those who built it. Today, the problems are evident, and
people are at work attempting to solve them. Whatever solutions are adopted
(or not adopted--one may rationally choose to live with problems if the
solutions are worse), are likely to be with us for a long time. Whether they
preserve the essential power of the Internet and its potential to empower
the individual or put the Intenet genie back into the bottle at the behest
of government and media power centres who perceive it as a threat will be
decided over the next few years. That decision will determine whether the
long dawn of the Internet was, itself, a false dawn, or will continue to
brighten into a new day for humanity.
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