Technology and Politics

One of our new communication technologies readings for this week was a blog post from Brian Whitman, the co-founder and CTO of The Echo Nest, which is "a music data company in Somerville, MA that powers most music experiences you have on the internet today."It was about how they analyzed what types of music people listen to, and how it correlates with what political party they identify with. It said that people who listen to musicians like Kenny Chesney or Blake Shelton generally swing to the right, while people who listen to musicians like Rhianna and Maroon 5 swing to the left. I generally use 8tracks and listen to playlists with the tags "chill, indie, and study" and get very indie, calming music. I'm guessing that would swing more to the left, which makes sense for me. However, I think both people's music tastes and political preferences vary way too much to make such a generalization, but hey it's still fun.


We also discussed the current global debate of censorship on the Internet by the government. It is a debate because it potentially violates basic human rights. When I searched the topic online, the USA Internet Society website came up. One of their issues I found particularly interesting was the idea of intellectual property. In our lecture, one of the powerpoint slides said "If property is theft, than intellectual property means they're stealing your mind". This was an eye opener for me. The Internet Society says,  "The question of new technology also raises intellectual property issues: domain names are often inextricably linked with trademark issues; and the ease with which digital technologies allow for copying and distribution challenges copyright law enforcement. The outcomes of these debates may have serious implications on your ability to access and use the Internet unmonitored". It is unfortunate that the malpractice of technology of others could affect everyone the use of the Internet for everyone else.  

I don't really understand why there needs to be information on the Internet about how to make a bomb and things like that, so to that point I agree there should be some regulation on what can be posted on the Internet. There are too many crazy people in the world who have access to a tremendous amount of knowledge on dangerous things. However, I believe innovation, creativity, and economic opportunity should always be preserved on the Internet, and that is exactly what the Internet Society fights for as well.

USA Internet Society 2013, Internet Society. Available from <http://www.internetsociety.org/>. [28 August 2013].