[LINK] Discussing terrorism on Link

[Jack Gilding]

Given our previous discussion about the acceptability or otherwise of
discussing the Tampa situation on Link I am surprised no one has weighed in
on this in relation to the World Trade Centre & Pentagon attacks.  (Or
perhaps they have - messages from Link often arrive here out of sync and
somewhat delayed).  Anyway here's my opinion.

Since I started working for myself at home rather than in an office I have
resubscribed to Link - I couldn't cope with the traffic when I was in an
office managing other staff. It is now a significant part of my
work-related information network and in some ways takes the place of the
office tea-room conversations. I am therefore pretty tolerant of
interesting discussion that stray off-topic.  Although Link has a specific
purpose and agenda, after surviving for so many years it also becomes a
"virtual" (but no less real) community with a whole cast of interesting
characters, conventional wisdoms, repetitive conversations and other human
foibles, as well as a remarkably relevant source of on-topic information.

I value the discussion on Link of many topics which range from clearly
on-topic through some grey areas to some clearly off-topic threads.  I
would rather do this in the Link community where I have some background on
the personalitities and positions people are coming from rather than
looking for some general discussion of political events to join.  I know
the players and can efficiently choose not to read messages based on either
the author or the subject. Any link contributors are an exceptionally
interesting and well informed group.

I can get general discussion and analysis of current affairs from the
newspapers. What I get from Link discussion is a perspective on current
affairs that focus on socio-technical implications and angles, in the
current crisis for example:

* What are the strengths and vulnerabilities of a relatively open, wired,
democratic society in dealing with terrorism based on a totally different
world view.

* What are the new threats to democracy, privacy and personal safety posed
by an increasingly technologically dependent and interconnected society.

* Practical technological issues raised by current events, eg how can
someone possibly highjack an airliner and pilot it into a building? Could
anything realistically be done to prevent such acts?

* The threats to democracy and privacy arising from the response of
governments to terrorist activities.

On the other hand I can see the perspective of people who want what Link
has to offer as part of their work but cannot afford the time to wade
through extraneous messages - the "delete message" button is *not* the
whole answer.

At a practical level I would suggest that if possible, someone with the
resources offer to set-up a "Link-off-topic" list for those from the Link
community who want to discuss broader issues.  This does not have to hosted
at ANU and it could even be on a free service such as yahoo, but, without
dobbing people in, I know there are regular Link contributors who have the
facility to host such a list with more control over archiving and management.

I would also welcome any information on other email-based Australian lists
which might be a better mechanism for disussing socio-technical aspects of
current affairs which have a quality of debate and content as good as Link
(if they exist).



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Jack Gilding                          mailto:jack@backroad.com.au 
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