Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
Something to say, at last - or to point to anyway...
Courtesy of Martin Röll, here at last is something promising surfacing from out the stinking, stupid mess that is the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva.
From the coverage I've seen, there seems to have been a remarkable tide of dumb prolixity coming out of this event - lots of posturing over completely valueless arguments such as "who should rule the internet" and suchlike malarkey. I'll let clearer minds deal with all that tosh.
Today, however, something of a minor clue breakthrough. Iran's reformist President, Mohammad Khatami, interviewed about the state of the Net in his country, had some interesting stuff to say on the topic of censorship while also, not incidentally, mentioning weblogs a number of times in his comments.
"There are a lot of internet connections in Iran. All countries have certain reservations about the internet, but they are not about freedom of expression. They are only porn and immoral websites. Even political websites that are openly opposed to the Iranian government, and all other educational and scientific sites, are available to the Iranian people. But the expansion of digital expression should not harm the culture or identity of nations. We need new conventions, while allowing fair use of the internet."
That's more like it. And we'll have less of this rot about the UN's need to "run" or "administer" the Net, thanks very much.
[AHEM: I wrote and thought I'd posted this last week. Only now realising that I'd left it marked as 'draft' all this time. Doh is me.]
Courtesy of Martin Röll, here at last is something promising surfacing from out the stinking, stupid mess that is the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva.
From the coverage I've seen, there seems to have been a remarkable tide of dumb prolixity coming out of this event - lots of posturing over completely valueless arguments such as "who should rule the internet" and suchlike malarkey. I'll let clearer minds deal with all that tosh.
Today, however, something of a minor clue breakthrough. Iran's reformist President, Mohammad Khatami, interviewed about the state of the Net in his country, had some interesting stuff to say on the topic of censorship while also, not incidentally, mentioning weblogs a number of times in his comments.
"There are a lot of internet connections in Iran. All countries have certain reservations about the internet, but they are not about freedom of expression. They are only porn and immoral websites. Even political websites that are openly opposed to the Iranian government, and all other educational and scientific sites, are available to the Iranian people. But the expansion of digital expression should not harm the culture or identity of nations. We need new conventions, while allowing fair use of the internet."
That's more like it. And we'll have less of this rot about the UN's need to "run" or "administer" the Net, thanks very much.
[AHEM: I wrote and thought I'd posted this last week. Only now realising that I'd left it marked as 'draft' all this time. Doh is me.]
