Today I joined a group of twenty computer scientists in issuing a report criticizing an FBI plan to require makers of secure communication tools to redesign their systems to make wiretapping easy. We argue that the plan would endanger the security of U.S. users and the competitiveness of U.S. companies, without making it much harder […]
Who Owns the Future? Not the Middle Class
May 14, 2013 by
Jaron Lanier, in the latest contribution to the public conversation about how we live with technology, blames the Internet for the fall of the middle class. Only the problem is he’s wrong. In his new book Who Owns the Future? Lanier–often described with the word visionary–argues that the information economy in general and network technologies […]
Design is a poor guide to authorization
May 13, 2013 by
James Grimmelmann has a great post on the ambiguity of the concept of “circumvention” in the law. He writes about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) language banning “exceeding authorized access” to a system. There are, broadly speaking, two ways that a computer user could “exceed[] authorized access.” The computer’s owner could use words […]
Principles #4 and #5 for Fostering Civic Engagement Through Digital Technologies: Engage On-line and Off-line, and Prepare for the Future
April 16, 2013 by
As part of my continuing series, today I’ll discuss two more principles for fostering civic engagement and digital technologies. My earlier posts are: #1 Know Your Community #2 Keep it Simple #3 Leverage Entrepreneurial Intermediaries Principle #4: Utilize Creative Combinations of On-line and Off-line Communications Whether it’s a grass roots organization, national political campaign or […]
Two Major updates to RECAP: Developers from Around the World Write Code in Memory of Aaron Swartz
April 2, 2013 by
A little over two months ago, we joined with the Think Computer Foundation to offer a set of grants in memory of our friend Aaron Swartz. Aaron worked on many issues in his too-short life, but one of those was liberating American court records from behind a pay-wall. He helped to inspire our RECAP project, […]
