Notes From The Electronic Cottage

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Think today’s Internet and Web, what many refer to as Cyberspace, has turned out to be what early netizens envisioned? Turns out that 2021 is the 25th Anniversary of a document that hoped to address what Cyberspace would become. It is called “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.” Let’s take a listen and see what you think.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Many folks feel a bit fenced in by Covid these days, and that is a very understandable feeling. We know all about that type of being fenced in. We may not know quite as much about being geofenced in – in fact, we may have never heard the term. But if a person has a cell phone, there’s a very good chance that person has been geofenced – probably more than once – and never knew anything about it. So just what the heck is geofencing and why should anyone care? Listen up.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

We are going to be hearing a good bit in coming weeks and months about regulating Internet giants of one sort or another. So we will be in a little better position to figure out what politicians and assorted special interests are talking about that will, of course, affect all of us who use the Internet, let’s begin to look at some key terms in US communication law. Today, we’ll start with Net Neutrality, jettisoned during the Trump administration but quite possibly being resurrected during the current one.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today, let’s continue our exploration of what power our government has, or doesn’t have, to regulate media companies of one sort or another, online or otherwise, when it comes to speech or information.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

In the wake of what many are calling an insurrection in our nation’s Capital (and Capitol), Twitter, Google and other big tech companies removed the accounts of Donald Trump and others for, in the judgement of the tech companies, fomenting violence. Can they do that? Doesn’t that violate the right to free speech under the First Amendment? There is a lot of confusion about that and about what the law is and is not when it comes to free speech on the web. Let’s start at the beginning and sort things out because we are going to be hearing a lot about proposed laws in the next little while that will affect what we all can – and cannot – say online. Here’s chapter 1.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

New Year, time to sweep out the old – or, when we are talking about or computers, time to be sure we are preserving the old we want to keep, and updating the rest! Here are three very basis questions we can all ask ourselves as we start the New Year. They may seem very basic, and that’s because they are but polls indicate that well over half of personal computer users in this country don’t ask these questions, let alone try to answer them. Just in case, here they are.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

As the year turns, we are all focused on Covid and vaccines, and that is perfectly understandable. Still, once vaccines are distributed and the pandemic is under control, we will still be living in a digital world in which, we would suggest, those who have at least a basic understanding of science and technology will be a lot better off than those who don’t both for themselves personally and for society in general. Let’s think about that for a moment with the help of Stephen Hawking and Isaac Asimov.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Many folks may find a swell new personal digital device gifted to them in this holiday season. The first reaction for many people is to start using the device right away. Don’t! Instead, check and adjust the Settings on the device first to make sure that new gift works the way YOU want it to work, not just the way the manufacturer wants it to work.

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