WWW@10 Part 2

Web 2.0 = AOL 1.0? How the forces of darkness are conspiring in smoke-filled rooms to break the Internet -- and you're not invited

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This was by far the most controversial talk of the conference. Cory Doctorow is a member of the EFF (Electronics Frontier Foundation), an organization working to protect digital rights. Doctorow talked on many things from the passing of a law that required police to have a warrant before reading your email, to peer 2 peer networks, to public domain, and solutions to the copyright problem on the internet. For me, this was the most interesting talk. There are a few reasons for this. The first was that Doctorow presented a radical idea, far different than one you usually hear. The second was that he was looking at the internet today, the internet of tomorrow, and was actively involved in this. The other speakers did important things for the internet when it was getting started. Their speeches did not communicate to me that they have done incredible things with the internet since then. They have experience, Doctorow has a vision. He was greeted with much applause by the students at the talk, when he was told that our school shut down a peer 2 peer network run by students, and said that the school was not allowed to do such a thing. It is my understanding that the school did not shut down anything, instead went after an individual who was engaging in illegal acts and, the server was shut down out of fear. Understand, I do not necessarily agree with everything Doctorow says, but this doesn’t change my opinion that he was the most dynamic interesting speaker at the conference. The other speakers are living in the internet of yesterday and perhaps today. Doctorow is living in the internet of today and stepping towards the internet of tomorrow.

Extreme Education

Using Science Fiction to Teach Computer Science

This talk by Sanderson seemed like an instructional session for other professor’s to teach a course similar to one he taught. The basic outline of his course entailed reading and or viewing science fiction, lecturing on said fiction, discussing it, and then letting the students do their own outside research and write a paper on it. My main question from this session is when this class will be available to us. I would be interested in taking this class for a few reasons. I would like to expand my knowledge of science fiction. I believe science fiction is a representation of the culture, and this class seems to address that issue head on.

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Digital Natives in Your Midst? Give them LEGO’s to play with

This talk by Mitchell discussed learning objects. Learning objects are hard to define, but are programs used for teaching. She discussed the history of learning objects and gave several resources for finding and learning how to create your own. The most interesting thing I learned from this talk was that she plays first person shooters.

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Political Match Maker.

This was a senior project by three Rose seniors last year. The project is a website that is supposed to provide unbiased information to people of candidates in a presidential election, quiz them on their stands, and then tell them who should vote for. It appears that very little was actually implemented in terms of code and algorithms. I do have to admit that politics interests me little.

Are we all caught in the Web?

Robert Cailliau was the co-inventor of the internet, with Tim Berners Lee. This talk was one of the more interesting I attended and dealt with structure and communication on the internet, and society, as being limited by our brains. He said that small communities have a certain structure and as the size increases smaller more focused groups appear, and the entire system becomes more complex. I believe he was saying the same thing happens with the web. Or maybe he asked how this is related. Since his talk and thinking about it, I find this topic fascinating. I plan on writing up a short article on my thoughts at a later time. Cailliau was one of the better speakers at the conference, and did not seem satisfied to know that he helped create the internet, but was also looking to the future of the web.

Digital File-Sharing: P2P's Challenge to the Law

Nessons is a lawyer who has happened to be involved with technology and the internet throughout his career. His talk focused on copyright laws and peer 2 peer networks. He discussed the music industry’s failed attempts to prevent copyright violation. The legal victory against Napster and the failure against peer 2 peer clients. I found the precise legal information to be valuable, instead of the average person’s interpretation of the law. He also discussed spoofs and denial of service attacks on those distributing certain files. His solution to the problem was in iTunes. Have a legitime source to access single songs, leave the legal situation of P2P in limbo, letting the industry use DOS attacks on people distributing new songs. I agree this is not perfect, I do not believe this is the best situation. I find Doctorow’s blanket license, through ISP’s perhaps, which is similar to radio licensing, to be much more attractive.

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Workshop Report

This listed a number of items a workshop apparently thought up of what they considered important issues. There were few original ideas or controversial topics.

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What Will the WWW be in 2014?

This was a final question and answer session of the conference. With regards to the title question, no one really made any predictions.