Communities, the Internet, Openness and Freedom

This presentation is available, with links to more info, via the Boulder Community Network at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/talks/community.html

Introduction

Some notes on preserving the freedom and openness that nurture community and democracy. Not "choir", not "cacaphony", but somewhere in-between. The "growing edge" between order and chaos, unimpeeded by monopolies.

• Example of a grassroots virtual community: the Boulder Community Network (BCN)
• Other Virtual Communities
• Benefits of Openness and Freedom
• The shift from openness to control

Boulder Community Network (BCN)

Big success getting community on-line very early on:

• Lots of savvy volunteers; lots of help from CU and the community
• 1994: City council agendas & associated full-text memos
• United Way's "Red Book" of information on human services organizations, now LINC
• One Stop Career Network
• Web sites for hundreds of other local organizations
• Community Center
• Local environmental information based on EPA grant: Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network (BASIN)

Now much easier to get inexpensive web space. BCN is now evolving to leaner operation focussed on indexing where to go for local information, helping educate non-profits and citizens, promoting the benefits of free software, and technical assistance for non-profits.

Other Virtual Communities

• See Howard Rheingold's books
• Approaches to conferencing, discussions, chat, etc
• The open standard for online discussions: Usenet newsgroups, e.g. boulder.general
• Moos, Muds, like Diversity University Educational Technology Services

Benefits of Openness and Freedom

My lessons over the years: openness is the key to citizen involvement and associated community benefits. E.g. from this symposium:

• 1st amendment freedom of speech, of the press
• letters to the editor - open to all
• open government: democracy - voting extended to more and more people open city administration: Open Meetings/Sunshine laws; input and/or authority extended to community members: Boulder's city boards & commissions
• value of open space, public lands devoted to habitat
• business success in boulder aided enormously by university with its committment to open inquiry
• existance and success of Internet based on openness, lack of central control

• Linux: a free, open operating system made by volunteers, hugely successful. Used for most web sites. Open, cheap, robust, educational, standards-compliant. Not yet as many applications as some home users want. Of great interest internationally. Used by Mexican schools. See the Linux Terminal Server Project for info on Linux in the Schools.
• Non-profit communities
• Public radio

The shift from openness to control

• Spamming of newsgroups, email - huge, costly problem
• Missing, bad, or changable corporate on-line privacy policies
• Privacy intrusions, e.g. tracking of people across sites by doubleclick.com et.al., tracking people's email with web bugs.

Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford, writes in "The Future of Ideas" about the importance of this openness in creating the Internet, the opportunities for greater openness and innovation, and the threats to the future from forces that want to assert control so they can hold on to their power.

• Monopolization of the software, like Windows and MS Office
• Monopolization of the networks, like cable and radio/tv/wireless.
• Legal attacks on people for what used to be "fair use" of copyrighted material, etc. Search for CPHack, DeCSS, iCraveTV, Eldred vs Ashcroft, etc.
• See Legal constraints on Netizens: DeCSS, Clue.com, etc. for more info

• As always Get Involved - you can make a difference!

For more relevant links, see my home page.
Last modified: Fri Mar 8 13:56:04 MST 2002

Copyright (c) 2002 Neal McBurnett. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation