The State vs. Technology-Controlling Wireless Communications
Blackberry and Skype are facing a combination of bans and pressure for more government control as the services seek expansion across the globe.
Communications technologies have been the concern of government since the printing press. Any means which allows greater ease and reach of information and ideas can be seen as a threat to any form of government seeking to manipulate and control public access to such technology.
As digital and wireless technology erases distance and boundaries, whether physical, social or political, the levers of power can change. Ranging from the public becoming aware of how "official" news may differ from actual events to the support of individual thought, there are many governments that see threats from new communications.
At the same time, these governments can see how the same technologies offer means of greater means to track what their citizens see and read, who they talk to and where they go.
As always, the technology we create only offers tools and means to connect, to share, to create. How we use such technology, and react to it with fear or excitement, remains our individual and collective choice. The particular genie of new communications technology is released and offering the world many wishes. Those choices, and how some are made and achieved, will likely be increasingly difficult--but unavoidable.
Communications technologies have been the concern of government since the printing press. Any means which allows greater ease and reach of information and ideas can be seen as a threat to any form of government seeking to manipulate and control public access to such technology.
As digital and wireless technology erases distance and boundaries, whether physical, social or political, the levers of power can change. Ranging from the public becoming aware of how "official" news may differ from actual events to the support of individual thought, there are many governments that see threats from new communications.
At the same time, these governments can see how the same technologies offer means of greater means to track what their citizens see and read, who they talk to and where they go.
As always, the technology we create only offers tools and means to connect, to share, to create. How we use such technology, and react to it with fear or excitement, remains our individual and collective choice. The particular genie of new communications technology is released and offering the world many wishes. Those choices, and how some are made and achieved, will likely be increasingly difficult--but unavoidable.
posted by Glenn Moss at 9:16 AM
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