Comments on: Key Themes of Internet, Law and Politics 2007

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:52:59 +0000

By: Emmanouil

Emmanouil — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:10:04 +0000

Interesting…

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:03:43 +0000

Tell me, John, who will decide what’s desirable and what’s undesirable?

By: palfrey

palfrey — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:02:07 +0000

Dear Bobby: Benkler refers to Prof. Yochai Benkler’s amazing book, The Wealth of Networks. It is free online at the wiki of the same name; just google “the wealth of networks” and you’ll get there. Prof. Eric von Hippel has written an extraordinary book, too, which is also free online, called Democratizing Innovation. They are both worth reading. They connect on the topic of peer production of economic and social goods.

Dear Ike: Who will decide? A great question. I think we are all deciding, all the time. I think we’re in a rolling consitutional moment in which we as Netizens are participating through our actions. Should there be a form of export control on software or hardware exports that help police states to identify transgressors? Well, the proposed Global Online Freedom Act suggests “yes” (though does not go on to define that regime, rather punting it to the Dept. of Commerce et al.). It would be hard for the US to pass such controls, because, as Cisco argues, there’s a US law — the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) — that requires the hardware to be built in a way to allow police to do just that — here in the US! So, no, against that back-drop, I don’t think we should pass such an export control.

Thanks for writing.

By: Ike Izenberg

Ike Izenberg — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:23:11 +0000

Tell me, John, who will decide what’s desirable and what’s undesirable?

For example, is it desirable if, Lord forbid, Cisco or Yahoo or Google or another software giant might make it possible for a police state to snare its free-ranging citizens as they inquire into what the police regime cosniders undesirable?

Should there be a form of export control on software or hardware exports
that help police states to identify ‘transgressors’?

I’d be interested in your views.

By: Jonathan Zittrain

Jonathan Zittrain — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:23:38 +0000

Yep, “herdict” is a neologism of “verdict from the herd.” I think these can be very useful and powerful — in our StopBadware inititiave, the hope is that a distributed application can help aggregate vital signs and judgments from a number of sources, expert and non-expert alike, that in turn can help participants figure out good code from bad. Kind of a reverse botnet. The principle is widely applicable, I think — the kind of architecture that can help ferret out bad code can also help answer the question of filtering — “Why can’t I get there from here?” — by comparing notes among different internet users automatically.

Also, if done right, the verdicts based on broad participation might be hard for a single entity to commandeer or subvert. But JP also points out the downside — this is a new architecture for aggregating judgments, and the more complex it is the harder it is to know why it comes up with the judgments that it does.

Best,
JZ

By: Bobby Damsky

Bobby Damsky — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:51:48 +0000

I wasn’t familar with your reference: von Hippel & Benkler. Help?

Is “Herdict” composed of Herd & Verdict as in a Herd Mentality?