Internet Metaphors

We are accustomed to using metaphors to describe things to others. But the specific metaphors we use have a way of shaping others' understanding and expectations of a given phenomena as well as their approaches to it. Thus, if one defines 'international terrorism' as any act of violence against the United States, this definition will have different implications for our behavior than one based upon a narrower definition. It will also have a major impact on the way we view our options.

Similarly, our views of the Internet are shaped by the metaphors that are used to describe it. Although it is not always apparent, the experience of exploring or 'surfing' the Internet has been captured in many different ways, some of them mutually exclusive.

Read the following essays in your Reader:

Jonathan Katz, "Birth of a Digital Nation," WIRED , Issue 5.04, April 1997

Alfred C. Yen, "Western Frontier or Feudal Society?: Metaphors and Perceptions in Cyberspace," Berkeley Tech. L. J. , 2002

Jonathan Rosen, The Talmud and the Internet (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), selections

As you read these essays, ask yourself the following questions: 1) What Net metaphors are the authors using and how do they differ?; 2) Which of these metaphors corresponds most directly to your own use of the Net? It's conceivable that you experience combinations of these descriptions. But is it possible that you could experience all of them simultaneously? Finally, 4) What are the implications of each of these metaphors for our understanding of the world we live in. Does our choice of metaphors actually matter?

Practical assignment: Visit Google's Website . Ask yourself which of the three metaphors best describes your Google experience. Second, go to Google's Services page and determine which metaphor Google would most like to use to define itself.

 

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

The American Idea of Privacy

Read the Fourth Amendment closely (in your Reader). What does this amendment have to do with privacy? What guidance does it give to public officials? To what extent do citizens have privacy? What word is missing in this amendment?

Robert Ellis Smith's book, Ben Franklin's Website (see reviews on this link), will give you some ideas about both the evolution and the content of the American concept of privacy. Read the following chapters in the book: " Watchfulness " " Serenity ," and--for ways of understanding the concept of privacy in American Constitutional interpretation, " Brandeis ."

For Smith's views on the 'top ten myths about privacy', watch this video (30+ mins.) In this talk, Smith frequently refers to a top privacy site, epic.org . Smith himself is the publisher of a similar site, Privacy Journal .

Why is personal privacy such an important part of American culture? At the same time, why are we still inclined, arguably more than most liberal societies, to place limits on personal privacy (e.g., what we read, what we look at)? Or is it just a matter of other societies placing different limits on personal privacy? How does any liberal society maintain an appropriate balance between the basic right to privacy and behavior that is purportedly excessive or corrupting? Or should we be able to do absolutely anything we want in the 'privacy' of our own home?

Group Assignment: Contact Smith and ask him a question about the readings above. ellis84e@ma.ultranet.com .

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Digital Paranoia: Am I Being Watched?

In this section, we will consider some well-known threats to our privacy that emerge from the Internet. There are two questions I wish to consider: 1) Whether or to what extent our privacy is actually being threatened; and 2) If our privacy is being threatened, how this condition has come to pass. Is the loss of privacy something that is being done to us? Or have we somehow acquiesced to our loss of privacy?

A Three-Part Assignment:

1. For background Reading , read "Cyberspace" in Robert Ellis Smith, Ben Franklin's Website (which you own).

Then, contrast Karen Coyle's argument about the loss of privacy, "Privacy or Paranoia," with Amitai Etzioni's reasoning about the same subject in "The Hyper-hyping of Privacy." Both of these articles are in your reader.

2. How much of a threat to my privacy is represented by the Internet? Reflect upon possible answers to this question by considering each of the following topics:

a. The threat from 'cookies':

What are cookies anyway?

Why are advertisers interested in me?

Why are cookies not as bad as they seem (or, so say some people)?

What can these people learn about me?

Do I have no say in all of this?

b. The threat from 'spam':

Spam Predictions

What can pop-ups do for you (or, so we are told)?

Will the Can-Spam Act of 2003 work?: Yes! versus No!

The Spammers from Cydoor : go to 'Support,' then 'FAQ'

c. Contact the spammers at Cydoor or Gator/Claria , and ask them a challenging question about what the Cam-Spam Act means for them. For example, does the Act help them more than it hurts them?

(The Cydoor links worked on one of my computers but not on the other; I don't know why. Interestingly, if you go to the most notorious spammer, CommonName, you will see that ND has blocked it).