From: eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Date: Tue Feb 29 2000 - 17:15:37 PST
(((obviously there is genuine demand for a distributed anonymous
publishing infrastructure even now)))
From: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
[ 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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