Articles about the politics of technology

Technology, Democracy and Liberation: an interview with Darin Barney
Dru Oja Jay
Darin Barney is a professor of Communications at the University of Ottawa and the author of Prometheus Wired: The Hope for Democracy in the Age of Network Technology.
18 March 2003

Technology and Social Change, Or: Three Myths of XML
Kendall Clark
First in a series of two articles dissecting the myths of XML and the Semantic Web.
18 May 2001

Politics and the Web's Future
Kendall Clark
As the world is codified one schema at a time, what are the political consequences and implications for the future of the Web?
12 February 2001

The Moral Life of Geeks
Kendall Clark
In a society that is increasingly undemocratic and fascist, what moral dilemmas do technically-minded people face, and how might they resolve them?
10 September 2000

Why Cluebot.com is Clueless
Kendall Clark
Cluebot.com claims to be the dispenser of "clues" about politics and technology. But what you're just as likely to get from it is glib, first world racism.
12 October 2000

Information Prostitution
Bijan Parsia
Infomarkets: a way to sell out being helpful.
30 May 2000

Burn, Baby, Burn!
Kendall Clark
Break 'em up! Stomp 'em down! Burn 'em out!
10 June 2000

Fight, Don't Fear the Panopticon
Kendall Clark
We are rapidly becoming the Surveillance Society, fulfilling a Benthamite dystopian nightmare; the end of privacy, the end of the Individual, the end of dissent.
10 June 2000

A Three-Way Breakup Doesn't Go Far Enough
Kendall Clark
Judge Jackson should be applauded for being willing to break MS up, but he's going about it all the wrong way.
26 May 2000

Turning off: Light pollution and net noise
Bijan Parsia
Reflections on distractions and other obscuring phenomena.
19 May 2000

Myanmar Bans Email
Kendall Clark
Myanmar, neé Burma, banned email on Saturday.
15 May 2000

Microsoft the Censorious
Kendall Clark
When in doubt, MS plays hard ball!
11 May 2000

As Usual, Lawmakers Don't Get It
Niel Bornstein
McAfee? He's blaming McAfee!?!
11 May 2000

Propaganda
Niel Bornstein
A reminder from the Recording Industry Association of America
21 April 2000

Dick Armey Toes the Redmond Line
Kendall Clark
Bill Gates and Dick Armey make a fine team!
7 April 2000

IANA Approves .ps Top-Level Domain for Palestine
Niel Bornstein
Any guesses as to how long it takes for sites in .il to start blocking sites in .ps?
23 March 2000

ICANN's Proposal to the U.S. Government to Perform the IANA Function
Kendall Clark
How is the publicly-invented, built and maintained Internet privatized? Read it for yourself.
14 March 2000

Civil Liberties Crackdown in the UK
Kendall Clark
The coming crackdown re: online, electronic civil liberties is going to happen in the UK first.
5 March 2000

Screw Amazon, Use Powells
Kendall Clark
Amazon.com is patent-happy; so use Powells. A boycott is always more effective if it helps the non-icky competitor.
28 February 2000

GM Food Conference
Niel Bornstein
The conference on genetically modified food may ask some tough questions.
25 February 2000

Ecommerce and A Civil Liberties Crackdown
Kendall Clark
Now that ecommerce is the raison d'etre of all information technology, particularly the internet, we'll see a new wave of civil liberties crackdowns to "safeguard" the enrichment of a greedy few.
16 February 2000

Editorial integrity? Slashdot?
Kendall Clark
The concerns about Slashdot's editorial integrity are missing the point.
4 February 2000

The Wiki Frontier
Kendall Clark
Mark Guzdial engages in a bit of subversive, first-strike declaration of prior art in case of more patent madness.
2 February 2000

James Fallows Survives the Belly of the Beast
Niel Bornstein
Fallows spent six months working with the Microsoft Word development team, and lived to tell about it.
29 January 2000

Just run Junkbuster
Kendall Clark
Stop all the whining and do something about the corporatization of the Web.
28 January 2000