[I've had a bad dream]
It was a Sunday night. I'd gone to sleep, ready for my Monday
work day.
Sometime the next morning I woke up, in a frenzy. My alarm hadn't
gone off.
In fact, my alarm clock was gone. I stumbled into the shower,
pissed off that I had missed a meeting that would've advanced
my career. In a low-grade fog, I blundered through my morning
ritual, lather, rinse, brush, blow dry and other boring bits.
Coffee down, I wandered into the living room. Big gaps where
the computers, TV, and phone usually resided. I had a painful
panic and adrenaline attack wondering if the perpetrators were
still there in the House...
And they were. They were in the Senate too, and 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue.
cold sweat.
[keep these thoughts handy]
A vast majority of people in this country have so little idea
of what interactions occur online, it's no wonder we're such an
easy target for attack. So many people have been unfairly
influenced into believing the Internet is a pornographers
paradise. What hasn't been made clear yet is that the Internet
provides creative and life affirming outlets for so many.
Think of the ill, shut-ins and the infirmed. Think of the
educational institutions that use the Internet for serious
scientific discussion on controversial topics. Think of the
millions of students that can now have the opportunity to
access vast amounts of information. Then realize what effect
the "Communications Decency Act" will have on this interaction.
It's so simple to narrow the focus of the uninformed populice
down to issues of smut and pornography, and infinitely more
difficult to educate, or re-educate, those same people as to
the benefits of the Net. After all, not everyone can afford to
buy a whiz-bang computer to hook up and look around. In fact,
many of those who can don't because of negative media publicity
and political hyperbole.
Dozens of lobbying organizations and right-wing groups are
finding this election year a bonanza for espousing their
versions of "family values". It's resulting in the real
possibility of a loss of our online communities and
collaborative freedoms.
[my tale of two cities]
In 1992, I moved from Sacramento back to San Francisco. I'd been
maintaining data networks for MCI, and wanted to move on with the
company.
In the previous job, I'd worked with computers, but never really
understood them. The company lived and died by email (and still
does), but this was business after all.
Computers had been tools, and nothing more.
So here I am at my new job. "Here is your computer, Jim. Do with
it what you will.", said the powers that be.
So I did. I learned how it worked. I pulled the cover off, and
peered inside.
I loaded programs, I made mistakes. I wantonly erased hard drives.
But I LEARNED.
I remembered the late 1970's, when I discovered how to make pixels
blink randomly on a Radio Shack TRS-80, which got my enthusiasm
pumping.
"Hey", I said, "This is cooooool.".
So I played some more, and learned all I could. My bosses
appreciated the fact that I could help them with their computers.
After all, they were Management and didn't have the time to learn.
1993 was also the year I joined the Well, a commercial online
community based in Sausalito, California. There, I found people who
were just like me. People who had had their spirits kindled or
re-kindled by the ebb and flow of the community. I have never met
most of these people face to face. But they are still my friends, and
I love them.
Then, in 1994 I saw the world wide web for the first time.
*SMACK*
[complete paradigm shift]
I put up a simple web page. A "me and my dog" kind of thing. Just
Jim once again playing with a new technology.
And then I started looking at what other folks were doing on the
Net. I looked in gophers, I looked in FTP sites, I looked everywhere.
I was happily drowning in information, and I rolled around in it
pretty much like pigs do with mud.
I gained knowledge, and my web site grew. I found literally thousands
of people with my same interests and I made many friends.
[cut to late 1994]
Someone I've never met sends me email asking if I want to join him
and a dozen or so others and play with another new technology, VRML.
"What's that?", I asked.
"Virtual Reality Modeling Language", he replied.
"yeah, right.." I thought skeptically.
But it was real.
At first, it was a grass-roots effort. Computer geeks collaborate
over the Internet making lowgrade 3D images available only to them,
since one needed a $10,000 box even to look at your work.
But, it was, again, "coooool".
Then the BIG TIME companies start playing.
SGI, then Netscape... Microsoft, SONY, SUN and others followed.
"OK," I thought to myself. "They'll give us tools, and what we need
to make this easier."
and they did.
But, I was still wearing my suit and tie, working for MCI. MCI just
didn't get it. For them, the Internet was a gravy train, a way to
make a quick buck and advertise their core long distance services.
The concept of community, and of interesting collaborative efforts
was so foriegn as to be suspect.
[cut to late 1995]
I take a two week vacation to Saipan, in the South Seas. I get my
head together. I re-evaluate my priorities. I look at my world, and
I look at the rest of the world.
I decide to quit my job. I decide to work with the Internet.
Why? Because the Internet is where I can learn. It's where I can
meet people with similar interests. It's where I can read, and see
things that make me chuckle one moment, and frown with consternation
at the next.
And, the Internet is where I can grow.
I live here now. I'm not just ones and zeroes. I'm a real flesh and
blood person.
So are my friends.
Where did I meet them?
You guess.
[present day]
I've made some great contacts on the Internet. I've loved, I've
hated. I've looked at the so called "dirty" pictures. I've traced
the geneology of my family back to the middle ages. I even found my
best friend from high school, after no contact for over 15 years.
And now my bad dream is coming out of my sleeping mind. I can now
see, and even read it while I'm conscious.
This troubles me, greatly.
What happens if freedom of speech is eliminated in cyberspace?
Education suffers.
Information supplies dry up.
The United States loses its technology edge.
Human rights violations cannot be exposed because
they are considered to be obscene.
and,
The FIRST amendment to the Constitution is seriously compromised;
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
I fear.
Can I live here still? Will the next step be to make those of us who
express ourselves outlaws, or governmentally non-positive speech a crime?
I fear.
Resources for information on the 24 Hours of Democracy and Political Activism
Executive Summaries of the Essays (Alternate site)
Submit an Essay (Yes, you still can!)
Activism Contacts
This is a list of participants in the 24 Hours of Democracy Project who are interested
in pursuing further projects. You can add yourself to the list.
The Blue Ribbon Campaign for online freedom of speech, press, and association.
Help Repeal the Communications Decency Act
Support a Constitutional Amendment
(Alternate site)
This form lets you communicate your support for the following proposed Constitutional
Amendment to protect your rights on the Internet.
"The Constitution's protections for the freedoms of speech, press, petition, and assembly, and
its protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and the deprivation of life, liberty
or property without due process of law shall be construed as fully applicable without regard to
the technological method or medium through which information content is generated, stored,
altered, transmitted or controlled."
Organize For Freedom and Democracy on the Internet Worldwide
Let's you find other people who share your interests related to 'Freedom and Democracy' on the Internet.
N.O.D.E.S. (tm) - A proposed interface to the Internet.
NODES is a developing plan for an expert system interface which would filter
the content of the Internet for each user based on a collaborative ratings system and
user-specified preferences.
Voting By Phone: Empowering People
Home Pages that Support Democracy
The Freedom Links
You can add your own page to this list.
Center For Democracy and Technology
The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public policies that
advance constitutional civil liberties and democratic values in
new computer and communications technologies.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit civil liberties organization working in the public
interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access to online resources and information.
The Society For Electronic Access
Promoting Civil Liberties and Access in Cyberspace.
Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition
Internet Users, Publishers, Online Service Providers, Non-Profit Groups,
and Civil Liberties Advocates Launch Court Challenge to Fight The CDA.
CDA is unconstitutional, Fails to Recognize Unique Nature of the Internet.
Voters Telecommunications Watch
Find out the latest U.S. Legislative news. Sign up for their announcements-only
mailing list.
'Email Democracy' for Congress
(Alternate site)
A form for sending email to Congress and the President with a
public domain archive
'Email Democracy' for the Media
(Alternate site)
Send a 'letter to the editor' with this form.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights