… here’s a little light relief.

Three columns in today’s Observer raise interesting issues.

First, Vint Cerf – If you thought the internet was cool, wait until it goes space age – sings a characteristic paean to the internet:

After working on the internet for more than three decades, I’m more optimistic about its promise than ever. It has the potential to change unexpected parts of our lives: … we’re at the cusp of a truly global internet that will bring people closer together and democratise access to information. We are all free to innovate on the net every day and we should look forward to more people around the world enjoying that freedom.

Of course, not all of that information is or will be equal. Some of it is erroneous, or unreliable, or irelevant; so we will have to acquire and apply principles of discernment and technqiues of filtering. Unfortunately, we aren’t very good at doing that now; and there is nothing to suggest we not be any better online. Read the rest of this entry »

If the unlamented Privacy Bill, 2006 were to make an unwelcome return from limbo, the Oireachtas could do worse than to revise it in the light of a recent Australian example.

First, the balanced and detailed Privacy Act, 1998 (Cth) (as amended and consolidated) is an excellent starting point for any legislative development of Irish privacy law. The range and detail of its coverage, and its focus on protecting against invasions of privacy across the board, and not merely by media, make it a far more compelling protection of privacy than the flawed Irish Bill. Read the rest of this entry »

Some own goals are comical; others are crucial; but rarely are they as wilfully self-inflicted as the three own goals which the press has recently conceded to privacy. Read the rest of this entry »

The controversy about the article by Kevin Myers in last week’s Irish Independent rumbles on. And as I said in my last post, that is all to the good. It is the frank and open debate of the points he makes in the article that will best serve his critics, not an over-reaction to his rhetoric.

Here’s a sample of the online reaction: Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Myers (pictured left) is a mordant and trenchant journalist, possessed of contumacious views and caustic expression. He is a classic contrarian, articulating non-populist positions with style and vigour. Sometimes he does this with Swiftian ridicule and satire; sometimes with polemic and overstatement; and sometimes with acerbic and penetrating insight. When he gets it right, he is one of Ireland’s best exponents of sharp and biting political commentary and analysis.

Though I rarely, if ever, agree with him, I am always challenged by what he writes. Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, advised that one should know the enemy. In that spirit, I read Kevin Myers: I seek him out because I know that I will usually disagree with his views. And the fact that he can challenge my views, or a contemporary consensus, is, in many ways, the best justification for freedom of expression. When he takes a strong position, it challenges those of us who disagree with him to understand our own positions, marshal our thoughts, and understand precisely what we believe and why we believe it, the better to explain why we disagree with him.

However, last week, Myers crossed the line from commenting on the news to making it. Read the rest of this entry »

This week is Say No to Ageism Week. It is an initiative of the National Council for the Advancement of Older People, the Equality Authority, and the Health Service Executive; and it will be launched by today in the Equality Authority’s offices by Maire Hoctor TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Older People.

Ageism is discrimination against older people, whether by stereotyping or prejudice or by unjust differences in treatment. It often takes the form of attributing fixed and negative characteristics to older people regardless of the personal attributes and ambitions. Say No to Ageism Week is a national campaign seeking to raise awareness of ageism and its prevalence in Irish society and to encourage a commitment to change, espcially in the public sector. Good reasons to change are set out by Eleanor Fitzsimons in this morning’s Irish Times (sub req’d) [with added links]:

Putting an end to ageism and compulsory retirement in Ireland

How long should Charlie Munger (84), number two in the world’s most successful company, Berkshire Hathaway, wait for his boss Warren Buffet (78) to call it a day? Should Philip Roth (75) unplug his PC and stop mining the rich seam that has yielded some of his best work ever? …

How did Rupert Murdoch (77) end up on the Time magazine list of the worlds 100 most influential people, along with fellow oldies the Dali Lama (72), George Mitchell (74), Karl Lagerfeld (69) and 25 other wrinklies? And closer to home, why are Irish football fans so excited about pensioner Giovanni Trapattoni (69) taking over at the top?

Ageism is endemic in our culture, and our system of compulsory retirement at the arbitrary age of just 65 (and sometimes only 60) robs society of valuable, experienced and productive members. …

From today’s Bits Blog on the New York Times site:

Newspapers Argue for First Amendment Right to Snoop on Readers

Usually, when people talk about the trade offs between privacy and freedom of the press, the argument is about whether the public has the right to know some fact about an individual’s personal life.

The newspaper industry is now arguing that the First Amendment protects its right to follow users around the Internet so it can charge higher prices on advertising.

This argument was made in a filing by Newspaper Association of America commenting on the Federal Trade Commission’s proposal that the companies involved in advertising that uses what is called behavioral targeting create a self-regulatory code that limits their use of sensitive information. Read the rest of this entry »