Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: PUBLISHING WITHOUT PERISHING from Edupage
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 20:15:37 -0500
[ I have some arguments with Singapore but I would not put them in the "oppressive" category. Their people seem to democratically elect the government they want. . None of their citizens seem hesitant to criticize their government. At least when I was last there. djf] The Internet has become a haven for political and social activists seeking broader audiences for their controversial views. Yet some, living in oppressive environments such as China, Singapore, and the Middle East have come to fear reprimand from extremist religious groups or from local governments, which often filter Internet content to ensure social order. To enable these activists to distribute their writings safely, an Internet startup has formed to allow authors to publish sensitive information under the cloak of anonymity. The online bookstore, Booklocker.com, offers official page forms to preserve an author's anonymity, and site creator Angela Adair-Hoy says she will release the authors names only under court order. One Booklocker.com user, who goes by the pen name Savasan Yurtserver, fears terrorist action or political exile in response to his book, "The Bible or The Koran," which compares flaws in the two holy texts. "In the East, you can't question the scriptures," says Yurtserver. "There are many terrorist organizations in both my country and in the neighboring countries who take note of the authors that have radical views about religion only to kill them later." (Wired News, 25 Feb 2000) STARTUP U. Lured by the dream of success and financed by venture capital companies seeking to strike it rich by finding the next big entrepreneur, anywhere from 5 percent to 40 percent of students enrolled at business schools and graduate schools of computer science and engineering are dropping out to start an Internet business. Numerous universities have been prompted to add entrepreneurial courses and e-commerce programs to their curriculum offerings and sponsor business-plan contests whose winners often receive very generous financial awards from venture firms. Other schools have begun incubator programs that help students' startup companies gain solid footing in the business world, providing them with office space, computers, Internet access, and the like. Although schools are prematurely losing students to the business world at an unprecedented rate, there are many benefits these educational institutions reap from this Internet startup boom. However, this wave of entrepreneurial endeavors is not without its critics. Some schools are seeking to ward off criticism by creating formal guidelines that dictate what professors are and are not permitted to do. (Industry Standard, 21 Feb 2000)
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