[LINK] 'Son of DOPA'

[Ivan Trundle]

(taken in full from http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/4598,  
though the title is somewhat misleading. Linkers might prefer to read  
Marianne Richmond's blog at http://blogher.org/node/15001 'Protecting  
Children in the 21st Century Act: DOPA Jr, DOPA Extra, or Just Dopey'  
instead, which is more balanced, and less of a comment about Wikipedia)

ps. DOPA is 'Deleting Online Predators Act 2006' and you can find out  
more here:
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/07/whats-wrong-with-dopa.html

But back to the blog...

U.S. senator: It's time to ban Wikipedia in schools, libraries
By Preston Gralla
Here's the newest from Sen. Ted Stevens, the man who described the  
Internet as a series of tubes: It's time for the federal government  
to ban access to Wikipedia, MySpace, and social networking sites from  
schools and libraries.

Early in January, Stevens introduced Senate bill 49, which among  
other things, would require that any school or library that gets  
federal Internet subsidies would have to block access to interactive  
Web sites, including social networking sites, and possibly blogs as  
well. It appears that the definition of those sites is so vague that  
it could include sites such as Wikipedia, according to commentators.  
It would certainly ban MySpace.

The bill is, in part, a rehash of a similar bill introduced last  
year, the Deleting Online Predators Act, also called DOPA. That bill  
passed the house, but got bogged down in the Senate.

Many people are calling this year's bill "Son of DOPA" because of its  
similarity to last year's bill.

There are so many things wrong with this bill, it's hard to count  
them all. But its greatest irony would be banning Wikipedia --  
perhaps the most widely used reference resource in the world -- from  
libraries and schools. I have plenty of problems with Wikipedia,  
including how easily it can be manipulated, and the way that student  
rely on it far too heavily. But ban an educational resource merely  
because it's interactive? If true, it's bizarre beyond comprehension.

It's easy to characterize Stevens as little more than a buffoon. He's  
certainly a buffoon, but he's a dangerous one. A law like his passed  
the House of Representatives last year. We're coming up to a  
presidential election, which always unleashes a kind of madness among  
candidates, especially when it concerns anything to do with children.  
So don't count this law out.



iT