Friday, July 12, 2002: 8:00 pm (Area "B"): Since the explosion of the world network in the early 1990's, visionaries and pundits have been promising that "information wants to be free" and the web's free exchange of knowledge and ideas would be a liberating political and economic force throughout the world. It's been almost ten years now: where is this newfound freedom, especially in places like China? The Middle East? What about right here at home? This talk will discuss government/corporate efforts to restrict the free flow of information on the Internet and the political, ethical, and socioeconomic consequences. Topics will include hardware in use by the People's Republic of China to monitor and censor information it deems "subversive," routing tactics in Saudi Arabia to enhance government oversight and censorship, and the constitutionality of email snooping hardware and software in use in America. A Q&A session will follow.

Hosted by Bryan Maloney and Alan Brown