19.033 state of the Internet: some helpful suggestions

                Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 33.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: John Unsworth <unsworth_at_uiuc.edu> (17)
         Subject: Re: 19.030 state of the Internet: what is to be done?

   [2] From: "Leo Robert Klein" <leo_at_leoklein.com> (29)
         Subject: Re: 19.030 state of the Internet: what is to be done?

   [3] From: Matt Kirschenbaum <mkirschenbaum_at_gmail.com> (12)
         Subject: Re: 19.030 state of the Internet: what is to be done?

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 06:43:22 +0100
         From: John Unsworth <unsworth_at_uiuc.edu>
         Subject: Re: 19.030 state of the Internet: what is to be done?

> Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 07:32:30 +0100
> From: "Jim Marchand" <marchand_at_UIUC.EDU>
> >
>
> The Chicago Tribune had a poignant message the other day
>(05/14/05), which involves all of us. It was in the Voice of the
>People (Vox populi): "Cyber `junkie' gives up on relationship," by
>Chuck Kulig. He had, as many of my acquaintances, canceled his
>Internet service because of spam, adware, spyware, cookies and the
>like. Many of the members of the various scholarly lists on WWW
>tell me that they have given up precisely because of this. Kulig
>expresses it better than I possibly could: "I can't compete with
>pimply-faced nerds who sit at their computers in darkened rooms,
>sucking down caffeinated drinks 24/7 while they create nuisance
>programs that foul the digital highway." We need to do something
>about this, but what?

I read this article and thought: "Get a Mac."

J.

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 06:44:01 +0100
         From: "Leo Robert Klein" <leo_at_leoklein.com>
         Subject: Re: 19.030 state of the Internet: what is to be done?

On Mon, 16 May 2005, Jim Marchand wrote:
>
> The Chicago Tribune had a poignant message the other day
> (05/14/05), which involves all of us. It was in the Voice of the
> People (Vox populi): "Cyber `junkie' gives up on relationship," by
> Chuck Kulig. He had, as many of my acquaintances, canceled his
> Internet service because of spam, adware, spyware, cookies and the
> like. Many of the members of the various scholarly lists on WWW
> tell me that they have given up precisely because of this. Kulig
> expresses it better than I possibly could: "I can't compete with
> pimply-faced nerds who sit at their computers in darkened rooms,
> sucking down caffeinated drinks 24/7 while they create nuisance
> programs that foul the digital highway." We need to do something
> about this, but what?

Frankly, I'd rather have my legs chopped off than lose my DSL connection.
I agree that the current manifestation of the Internet is a scary place,
what with it's "spam, adware, spyware..." The situation is hardly helped
by Anti-virus software and built-in OS security that are unable to
communicate to the average user in a meaningful way. This is a major
problem.

I also admit that I've changed the way I operate because of this. I
choose software which is less vulnerable to attach and which allows me
greater control over my computing environment. Others do the same. I
guess what we have to do is instill in our users good online survival
skills. Just hitting "ok" on everything that pops up is a sure way to
Internet hell.

LEO

-- -------------
Leo Robert Klein
www.leoklein.com

--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 06:44:35 +0100
         From: Matt Kirschenbaum <mkirschenbaum_at_gmail.com>
         Subject: Re: 19.030 state of the Internet: what is to be done?

> Kulig
> expresses it better than I possibly could: "I can't compete with
> pimply-faced nerds who sit at their computers in darkened rooms,
> sucking down caffeinated drinks 24/7 while they create nuisance
> programs that foul the digital highway." We need to do something
> about this, but what?

We can start by abandoing crusty (and frankly distasteful) stereotypes
that do nothing to illuminate what really threatens open scholarly
exchange on the internet: copyright, DRM, government security and
censorship, and the branding/commodification of knowledge and
knowledge work (read Liu's Laws of Cool). Matt

--
http://www.otal.umd.edu/~mgk/