HW#2 Message Board Entry
HW#2 Message Board
HW#3 Message Board Template+DB
READING:
John Perry Barlow – A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
It was interesting to see even at the beginning of the “web” explosion, there was already big government trying to get control of what it didn’t fully understand. As a teenager at that time, it really felt like a strange and new world for me to explore. It felt like the Wild West. There didn’t seem to be any rules. People were testing the boundaries of what they could get away with. Some people didn’t understand much of the World Wide Web and were either exploited or hide in whatever corners they were comfortable in.
The article sort of highlights the sense of freedom and rights we thought it gave us. People didn’t want to be monitored and controlled by some faceless entity when they themselves thought they were anonymous. The article does get repetitive but the points I took away from it is that the author wanted to fight for freedom on the internet and motivate other to follow suit.
Unfortunately it looks like what he was fighting against has already won the battle. There is heavier regulation now and privacy on the net is probably worse now with companies able to sell your browsing history. There are entire countries censoring content and making it illegal even to access certain communication and news sites. A consistent theme however is there are always people circumventing the government and technology to free information and access.