I’m going to take a few minutes to switch from the Blackboard patent issue to another legal crisis. Many of you have been hearing about DOPA (The Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006). Its purported intention is to stop online child predators, but what it effectively does is shut down access to any sort of social networking site (which seems to be defined as any site that has some kind of login requirement and allows you to post content) from schools and libraries. It’s so broad that it would filter out even official school web sites with logins. In other words, it’s Bad. You can read the ongoing drumbeat of blog posts on the topic here.
So what can you do about it? A while back, I promised that I would post some ways in which you can take action to help change our world (or, at least, our laws) for the better. Consider this post to be my first installment on fulfilling that promise. (more…)