iSummit keynote: Free Culture & Free Speech

Free Culture and Free Speech Rebecca MacKinnon http://Rconversation.blogs.com www.GlobalVoicesOnline.org This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Silicon Valley's “Benevolent dictatorship”

EFF's Danny O'Brien

Concern about over-reliance on “Web 2.0 giants”:

“ It’s like if I was to concede that a benevolent dictatorship is a far more effective model for a political system than a liberal democracy.”

http://www.oblomovka.com/wp/2008/07/21/surprise-packages-benevolent-dictatorships/

From “Mao model” to “Murdoch model:” Does triumph of capitalism = triumph of freedom? Natalie Behring http://flickr.com/photos/chinapix/115817611/ World Economic Forum http://flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/374716426/

Where are we going? “ Autocracies & Dictatorships” “ Democratic Countries” ?

The World Wide Web just by existing isn't solving the “Caring Problem”: (Ethan Zuckerman's research on global media attention: http://h2odev.law.harvard.edu/ezuckerman/ )‏

127 million people 2nd largest world economy 12582 CNN.com stories 130 million people 54th largest world economy 937 CNN stories (Courtesy Ethan Zuckerman http://ethanzuckerman.com /)‏

Alternative to commercial, professional media

Vibrant blogospheres fueled by culture of sharing

HOWEVER: we need advocacy & activism Blogger arrests: Egypt & Saudi Arabia

Company-level censorship: Tianya (Chinese blog host)‏

Privacy issues and surveillance via e-mail services The case of Shi Tao Journalist jailed for 10 years for “revealing state secrets overseas.” Evidence leading to his conviciton included evidence from Yahoo!

What do companies do… when users’ rights & interests… and host government demands conflict? Government Company User

It’s an issue EVERYWHERE. (U.S. govt. “secret surveillance,” etc.)‏ User

Jimbo Wales: “I won’t censor” Tradeoff: some countries censor Wikipedia, and will censor Wikia, etc...

Grassroots P2P networks

Non-profit alternatives

WITNESS video hub:

Alternative to YouTube for human rights activists.

Will it work?

More alternative grassroots spaces needed Civil Society Free Culture Government Company Citizen

From Mao to Murdoch to… Natalie Behring http://flickr.com/photos/chinapix/115817611/ World Economic Forum http://flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/374716426/ Neha Viswanathan http://flickr.com/photos/nehavish/2621954475/in/set-72157605845209515/

Thanks!

Rebecca MacKinnon

http://Rconversation.blogs.com

www.GlobalVoicesOnline.org

[email_address]

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.