Free Culture and

Free SpeechRebecca 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/

Natalie Behring http://flickr.com/photos/chinapix/115817611/

World Economic Forumhttp://flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/374716426/

From “Mao model” to “Murdoch model:” Does triumph of capitalism = triumph of

freedom?

Where are we going?

“Autocracies &Dictatorships”

“DemocraticCountries”

?

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 people2nd largest world economy12582 CNN.com stories

130 million people54th largest world economy937 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 servicesThe case of Shi Tao

Journalist jailed for 10 years for “revealing state secrets overseas.” Evidence leading to hisconviciton included evidencefrom Yahoo!

What do companies do… What do companies do… when users’ rights & interests… when users’ rights & interests…

and host government demands conflict?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 More alternative grassroots spaces neededspaces needed

Government

Company

CivilSociety

FreeCulture

Citizen

From Mao to Murdoch to…

Natalie Behring http://flickr.com/photos/chinapix/115817611/

World Economic Forumhttp://flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/374716426/

Neha Viswanathanhttp://flickr.com/photos/nehavish/2621954475/in/set-72157605845209515/

Thanks!

Rebecca MacKinnon

http://Rconversation.blogs.comwww.GlobalVoicesOnline.org

Rmack@hku.hk

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.