The end of ?information?: Computers, democracy, and the university

Abstract

This paper describes some of the challenges which the growing pervasiveness of computers and electronic communications technology present to liberal democracies. We argue that these technologies, by their influence on the mechanisms of publicity and privacy, make possible the abuse of an underdeveloped popular epistemology. The confused response of the courts to cases of information crime suggests that the university is a better forum in which to meet and master these challenges. Emily PragerMany things have been promised, and other things threatened, by futurists writing about the information revolution. We have been told, for instance, that computing technology might serve as a means for the decentralization of commerce, and bring the developed world some respite from overcrowding, dense pollution, and other legacies of the industrial revolution. At the same time, we have been warned that in trying to apply old laws to the fundamentally new legal problems which computers and electronic communications technology raise, our courts may trade away part of our personal liberty to commercial interests, or to the interests of government, upsetting the judicious balance of freedoms which is so crucial to a liberal democracy. This paper will attempt to explore how the growing pervasiveness of computers and electronic communications may influence the vital exchange of knowledge and ideas which liberal democracies require for their survival. It will describe some of the challenges this new "wired world" presents to them, and discuss how the university can help them

Towards geographies of cyberspace

“…The great fear is that the Internet`may well simply turn into an extension of social control through the control of information' (Interrogate the Internet, 1996: 129). Increasingly large portions of our individual details have been converted into digital form, residing in various databases (Mitterer and O'Neill, 1992). Agencies from the police, to the military, to the government and industry are all actively collecting and exchanging digitally recorded data via cyberspatial technologies.…”

Enter the cyberpunk librarian: future directions in cyberspace

“…However, the building blocks of this future domain are under development and the net should be seen as part of the evolutionary process rather than as the determinant of any final structure for cyberspace. A more appropriate analogy is the “growing electronic nervous system” of Mitterer and O′Neill[5, p. 124 ]. They foresee a domain that will be as essential to human existence and experience as the nervous system in our bodies.…”

“…Awareness of the knowledge‐based dimension of power is growing in the UK, but action at a community level is less sophisticated and lacking in co‐ordination. Mitterer and O′Neill[5] highlight the fears of unofficial censorship made possible by the increasing pressure for compatibility and convergence of electronic media. They hold out the alternative potential of new technologies to promote freedom of information, and to improve scrutiny of government and commerce.…”