Paul's Web Space 2.1

Why I decided to fight for freedom on the Internet

My fight for freedom on the internet started with a conviction that the convergence of computing and telecommunications technologies would not only usher in great possibilities for the future of civilization, but posed great threats to our privacy and civil liberties. I saw governments and other powerful institutions capitalizing on the power thus unleashed to watch and control us in ways that were unimaginable at that time.

The time was 1984. As a senior EE student at Yale, I wrote my signature paper about the threats to privacy and civil liberties posed by the convergence of computers and telecommunications. This was before the Internet was known to more than a several thousand academics, researchers, and government/military types, and before I had my first email address that communicated with other computers or networks. But I sensed that something was coming, something big, and I wrote about it in surprisingly prescient terms.

Later in the 1980s, I co-founded the DC chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), for which I obtained my first Internet email account through PeaceNet. In the early 1990s, I served on the Board of Directors of CPSR, during which time our DC office was helping to start a brand-new organization called EFF -- serving as its first professional policy staff while the organization was being built. I am back on CPSR's Board today, and have been active, writing and speaking and helping CPSR and other organizations fight this fight ever since.


Blog-a-thon tag:
EFF15
¶ 12:57 AM | Permalink | | | Links to this post
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What the world needs now is another new blog

You know that's not true. Why, then, do I think my musings are worthy of their own space on the web? Well, I have a home page that looks (and is) almost ten years old. People go there from time to time, and I am increasingly not exactly embarrassed, but not exactly proud either.

It is my intention, when this blog is sufficiently well developed, to make it my new home page. (I will keep a link to the old version, designed by good friend Ian Gillespie, because it looks nice - but it doesn't work any longer as a home page.)

The more recent inspiration for me to finally take this on is a challenge from EFF - their 15th anniversary Blog-a-thon for Freedom. My next post will be my entry into that contest.

Finally, I do have cool things to say, about technology, culture, freedom, music, and now, kids and education. Maybe you'll think I do too! ¶ 4:09 PM | Permalink | | | Links to this post
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