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Mitch Ìý The question of anonymity on the web is pretty interesting one. If you spend any time in political discussions or any kind of lifestyle discussion on the web, forums and postings and so on, you could see that the conversation typically degenerates to a very uncivil level quickly particularly when and as the people who are posting are anonymous. You don't know who they really are. They lack accountability, people feel free just to say whatever they want and that's one downside to anonymity. Um, there are others.

Mitch ÌýAt the same time, in the American tradition, protections for anonymous speech are, er, pretty solidly entrenched in first amendment law. And in a way, the ability to speak and be heard separate from your identity is important especially in extreme political cases. Especially where there could be repercussions, er, to free speech, the ability to speak in a way where, who, who you are, is not known is valuable. I would even say precious sometimes.Ìý

Mitch Ìý So there's a kind of a balancing act of social interests that I will frankly say different countries draw the line in different places and I don't think one size necessarily, er, fits all. So, but, personally I come down on the side of wanting to protect rights to anonymous speech even though it's, um, unpleasant and difficult, it has a lot a negative consequences, and it, people, it's much easier, er, to, you know, libel someone or be slanderous and as I said, like in the, in the UK I know, not, not in cyberspace, I'm sure you'll cut this out though I wanna say it, I'm fascinated by this.

Mitch Ìý ÌýYou know there are these whatever they're called, ASBOÌý

Intv Ìý ÌýYeahÌý

Mitch Ìý Ìýer, laws that you could never have in the US. They would just never, they would be deemed unconstitutional because it'd be too vague about what constitutes antisocial behaviour. And we just draw the line in a different place here and, as I said, I don't think there's a right answer. It's, these are hard things, they're all trade off's, so that's, that's, that's the deal with anonymity too.Ìý

Intv Ìý Ìý What is the greatest threat to privacy online and what can be done to protect it?Ìý

Mitch Ìý ÌýWell, there are a variety of threats to privacy online. The worst case scenario would be when information about a person is collected by a large powerful institution, whether public or private, whether government of corporate, in a way that is, is used profoundly to their disadvantage, and where the individual has no control over the usage of that information.Ìý

Mitch Ìý Ìý Ìý Um, so it could be to, er, conduct surveillance on people, er, and in fact, er, it is so much easier now to collect, so much more information about what people do, what they read, what they see, what they buy, er, that in the hands of a government that has no respect for civil liberties, if you can imagine the sorta post-nine eleven world run amok, there's an enormous threat that it would be used to silence political opposition and political, er, you know, opponents and enforce a kind of authoritarian regime. That's the scenario I worry about.

Intv Ìý Ìý Programme Four which is about how the web has re-wired us as human beings. This is a couple of questions about Second Life.

Intv Ìý ÌýWhy are people drawn to virtual communities such as Second Life?Ìý

Mitch Ìý Ìý Ìý One of the reasons people are drawn to virtual communities like Second Life is people are hungry for community. They're hungry for meaning in a society that is oriented around the production and consumption of consumer goods. Buy more stuff. I mean, it doesn't make people happy. I know this sounds like a gross over-simplification and in some ways it is. But when there is an alternative to be able to reach out and to find kindred spirits who have come in interest or share a common perspective on life and to feel fulfilled by that, people will do that even if it is a somewhat, er, low resolution version of reality. I would call a virtual world like a very low-res version of real reality. People are hungry for meaning, hungry for contact.

Intv Ìý ÌýWhat's so liberating about being involved in a virtual community like Second Life?Ìý

Mitch Ìý Well, it's a funny thing which is the experience of connecting with other people in Second Life in a virtual world, it is experiential, in a certain sense, so that it is, it become difficult to describe it except by appeal to having had a similar kind of experience. So if you ever felt really connected, you've come to some place, I'm not talking about computers, technology or network, and you found some people, and you go, I like it here. I feel like I belong. This is new. This is interesting. I can be who I really am here and I can't in other places. I want more of this. I wanna invest in this, I wanna become known here, I wanna contribute to it, this feels good. It's that kind of experience that is sort of missing in people's lives. So when they find that in a place like Second Life, they get hooked.

Chat Ìý

Intv Ìý ÌýThe web interprets censorship routes around it, it's a famous quote by John Gilmore, can you explain how and why that happens?

Mitch Ìý There's a famous quote that says, "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." And when John Gilmore said that, he actually wasn't being metaphorical, he was literally describing the communication protocols of the internet. So if you're trying to get a message from Point A to Point B on the internet, it's sort of like driving from place A to place B.Ìý

Mitch Ìý You got a network of roads, there's multiple ways that you could drive, um, but one of the roads, er, you know, could be damaged, er, closed, maybe there was an accident, I don't know, maybe there was a problem and so, as a driver you find another way to get there, you find a different road. The internet works the same kind of way, er, it has these routing tables that determine how, how things move, if it can't go from A to B through Path 1, it finds a Path 2.Ìý

Mitch Ìý Well censorship is a kind of a blockage in a road so it's like putting up a wall so messages can't get through, er, you know, at a certain point, on a certain path. It's in the very protocols of the internet that if that happens, that condition is detected, and it goes through a fallback, it says, OK I can't get through this way, is there another road by which I can get there? And, er, because the internet is an interconnected network of many different paths, er, just like the highway system, it generally can do that. So censorship is treated as a kind of a damage, as a kind of damage to the, er, the information highway and the internet's protocols find other ways to get through.