INTERNET

PAUL SMITH, Partner, Jenner and Block Law Firm, March 5, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If the (Internet Protection) Law is upheld (by the U.S. Supreme Court), a library that does not filter its Internet would be ineligible for Federal funds for its internet programs. How important are these funds to most libraries?
SMITH: They are a relatively small part of overall library budgets. However, in these times of fiscal stress at the state and local level, it is quite predictable that some libraries will feel that need to comply to keep the subsidy.
In any event, our argument is that as a matter of principle, Federal funds should not be tied to conduct that improperly restricts the information flow to patrons.

ARIANA CHA, Washington Post Staff Writer, July 14, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: My family is yelling something about the house being on fire, or some jibberish like that, yet I am too busy writing this question on the Internet to pay attention.
Haven’t families always been distracted by something? It used to be television was breaking up families. Now it is computers. Perhaps television was at least something a family could watch together. Are families separated longer periods through computer use than they use to spend watching television, in the pre-personal computer days? If there is a significant difference, is this causing problems?
CHA: A great question, but I’m afraid I don’t have a great answer. There’s considerable debate about this. On the one hand, the Internet is much more interactive than television ever was; more families, including the one in the story, use it to keep in touch and coordinate schedules. Some studies have found that a lot of parents spend time in front of a computer with their children. On the other hand, it is a sometimes solitary activity, because, obviously, only one person can type at the keyboard at one time.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has been done some research on this. As have Grunwald Associates and UCLA. Also look for studies by Stanford University and Carnegie-Mellon University.
CZIKOWSKY: I appreciate where you explain some of the short-cuts, such as ROTFL. I never would have guessed that one. I am very bad at figuring those things out. For the longest time, I though LOL meant “lots of love”. I then realized the woman who I thought loved me was laughing at me the whole time. Are there more standard initials I should know before I make more of a fool of myself?
CHA: I think most of us over the age of 15 have trouble keeping up with the ever-changing shorthand of the Internet. You might find it fun to go on to Google and type in “internet” and “abbreviation”/”symbols” to get a list of some charts.
I like: S, “Smile”, L8R, “Later”, and KISS, “Keep it Simple, Stupid”.

JENNIFER HOWARD, Washington Post Book World Contributing Editor, November 17, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: I know that “blog” is short for “web log”, yet I believe blogs would get a more positive public response if they were called something else. Whenever I mention I have a blog, people respond with well wishes that I recover soon. Perhaps reporting such as yours will inform the public to learn what blogs are. How much confusion do you find people have when they first hear the word “blog”?
HOWARD: Not a lovely word, no. It’s like the sound a hunk of mud makes when you throw it at a wall. Not that I do that often. In my experience, people either know what blogs are or they don’t, and it doesn’t have to do with the word. (Although my mother-in-law, bless her heart, thought I was talking about “bling”, as in “bling-bling”, as in the hip-hop term for jewelry).

JOEL ACHENBACH, Washington Post Staff Writer, February 20, 2994
CZIKOWSKY: Will future historians even find the remains of information from the Internet? Web sites die. Data stored on discs begin deteriorating after ten years. Even our paper disintegrates at one of the fastest rates in paper history.
ACHENBACH: There’s something called the Internet Archive (run by Brewster Kahle) that I think is designed to put all of human knowledge on the Web, and that included old Web sites. I did a big story a few years ago about the problem of information getting lost, degrading,etc., and the issues of digital storage, it’s a threat but I guess I assume that, yes, people will figure out a way to transfer the data from medium to medium so it’s not lost.

WALLACE WANG, author, November 17, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: I tried to steal the book (“Steal This File-Sharing Book”), but I couldn’t get it past security. Would you please post it on the Internet so I may just print it out for free?
WANG: I’m sure someone will eventually scan and post the book on the Internet.l In fact, my book shows specific web site that will tell you exactly what you need to do to do just that.
I actually requested that the publisher post the book online for free publicity and advertising, but right now publishes are still squeamish about file sharing and they want to protect their profits first, which is understandable. Still, fire sharing can often help publicize a book, recording artist, or movie just as much as it can hurt sales too, so file sharing is definitely a double-edged sword.

ROBERT O’HARROW, Washington Post Staff Writer, January 21, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: I understand all this (private Internet) data is out there, and the government wishes to get that data, but isn’t the real question: what does the government intend to do with that data, and how might someone misuse that information?
O’HARROW: Excellent point. I agree, to a degree. I believe we have a lot of homework to do first to understand these companies and the role they’re playing in observing us with increasingly fine resolution.

SHANNON HENRY, Washington Post Columnist, March 10, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: What are your thoughts on the current security of the Internet? How vulnerable is it to an organized attack from a terrorist group or some high tech hackers? What are the laws should financial accounts be hacked into: are our investments insured or are we at potentially serious risk should hackers get into them and move the funds to an unknown place, or to a country with which we have no diplomatic ties?
HENRY: Yes, everything is vulnerable, both to terrorists and to teenagers with too much time on their hands. I personally find it frightening. We should all know the extent to which our accounts are protected.

WENDY HUI KYONG CHUN, Brown University Professor, March 10, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Aren’t bloggers and writers of private journals in potential trouble if someone sees something they said that they can print out and show to an employer that might get them into trouble?
CHUN: Yes—and I’m intrigued that more and more employers will do a google search on their perspective employees.
The question is this: how many bloggers care?
I know a lot of them write to generate publicity, and being in public cuts both ways. I know quite a few people who have written things earlier in their careers that they now disagree with—we just need to accept the fact that people can change their minds, that a person can’t always be tethered to one text. As more and more people have blogs, maybe we can stop treating them as “secret” selves.
The question you bring up, though, is an important one, especially in terms of data backup. What does it mean that it’s almost impossible now to withdraw something from public circulation?