GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web!
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Not SyncedEllery Roberts Biddle [mid-sentence]: ...Our weekly video hangout series!
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Not SyncedI think - let's see, we started a little bit off time
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Not Syncedso I'll say it again:
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Not SyncedEllery: Welcome to GV Face, our weekly video hangout series!
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Not SyncedToday, we are celebrating the 25th birthday of the world wide web.
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Not SyncedPretty exciting. That was on Wednesday.
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Not SyncedUm, we've got a really all-star lineup of guests
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Not Syncedon today's program.
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Not SyncedUm, moving from left to right, we have:
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Not SyncedAlan Emtage, a very special guest who is
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Not Syncedgonna talk to us about his very special creation
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Not Syncedof, uh, the first web browser...
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Not SyncedUm! We have Jeremy Clark, in Montreal -
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Not SyncedJeremy is a technical director at Global Voices.
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Not SyncedJosh Levy, from Free Press,
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Not Syncedin Massachusetts, in the U.S.
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Not Syncedand Renata Avila, campaign manager
for the Web We Want -
Not SyncedCreative Commons extraordinaire, and
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Not SyncedGV star, who is joining us from Berlin!
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Not SyncedWelcome, everybody!
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Not SyncedUm. So we wanted to start today's show
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Not Syncedby talking a little bit about the world wide web
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Not Syncedand the internet.
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Not Synced'Cuz a lot of people think that they're the same thing
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Not Syncedwhen actually, that's not quite true.
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Not SyncedI want to first turn to Jeremy
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Not Syncedand just ask, Jer, could you
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Not Syncedbreak it down for us, like,
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Not SyncedI thought that the internet was invented in the 70's
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Not Syncedbut, if it's the 25th birthday of the web,
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Not Syncedwhat does that mean?
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Not SyncedJeremy Clark: Okay, well, the
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Not Syncedbest place to start, I think, is
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Not Syncedthe internet - it has existed in various formats
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Not Syncedsince the 1970's, as you said,
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Not Syncedbut it was the web that really made it
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Not Syncedenter our homes.
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Not Syncedand, so, understanding the relationship is important.
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Not SyncedSo, the internet was invented by
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Not Syncedthe U.S. Government in a lot of senses...
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Not Synced...a mix of military and science funding
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Not Syncedthat developed the network of
actual computers -
Not Syncedthat can communicate with each other over
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Not Syncedwires.
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Not SyncedNow, another related technology that is also compri--
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Not Synced[amends] uh, built in to the web
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Not Syncedis called hypertext. And that is the notion
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Not Syncedof documents that can link between each other
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Not Syncedimmediately, without having to go and fetch
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Not Synceda separate document. Um.
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Not SyncedSo there were lots of systems since the 1960s
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Not Syncedthat were trying to implement hypertext, like,
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Not SyncedXanadu is an example,
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Not Synceduh, but all of them were commercial,
expensive, closed, -
Not Syncedand none of them were very popular.
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Not SyncedSo, Tim Berners-Lee, who is the
"inventor of the internet," -
Not Synced[corrects himself] of the web,
obviously, the World Wide Web - -
Not SyncedUm. [Tim Berners-Lee] put those two things together
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Not Syncedby building a service that runs
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Not Syncedon top of the internet, and he
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Not Syncedcalled it the World Wide Web.
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Not SyncedSo what the World Wide Web is, is the
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Not Synceddecentralized hypertext engine
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Not Syncedthat we use to communicate between
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Not Syncedcomputers' web pages.
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Not SyncedSo what makes up WEB is three things:
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Not SyncedURLs (or URIs) - Universal Resource Locator
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Not Syncedwhich are the addresses we use
to find things on the web, -
Not Synced[#2] HTML, which is the
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Not SyncedHyperText Markup Lanuage
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Not Syncedwhich is the way that the information
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Not Syncedis stored and sent
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Not Syncedso that we can then use browsers
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Not Syncedto view HTML, and then
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Not Syncedall the documents can be understood
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Not Syncedand then also they display the links
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Not Syncedso that the hypertext part of it works
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Not Syncedand we can jump around from page to page.
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Not SyncedUm, the final part is HTTP, which is
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Not Syncedthe HyperText Transfer Protocol
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Not Syncedwhich is the communication method
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Not Syncedby which the different computers can
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Not Syncedtalk to each other and send the
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Not SyncedHTML documents back and forth
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Not Synceddepending on the URLs.
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Not SyncedUm. So, when he built it, there were some
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Not Syncedvery important things that he
built into this system -
Not Syncedthat didn't exist before.
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Not SyncedAnd the main one is
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Not Synceduniversal authorship.
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Not SyncedSo he always intended that anyone
would be able -
Not Syncedto access these webpages,
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Not Syncedand anyone would be able to
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Not Syncedadd their own webpages, without
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Not Syncedasking for permission.
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Not SyncedWith the very explicit special condition
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Not Syncedthat anyone can link to any other webpage
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Not Syncedwithout permission.
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Not SyncedPrevious hypertext systems required that
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Not Syncedbasically, for you to link to me,
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Not SyncedI have to accept that link, and
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Not Syncedprobably create a link back to you, and
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Not Syncedthat wasn't required on the Web, which
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Not Syncedgives us a lot of freedom to link to people
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Not Syncedwho wouldn't want us to be able
to link to them, for example, -
Not Syncedso no one can say "I'm putting up free content..."
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Not Synced"...but you can't send your readers here,
because I hate you," et cetera. -
Not SyncedThe other one is that he made it
completely, completely free. -
Not SyncedSo in the world of
inter--[fumbles for words]--programming -
Not Syncedthe most free thing is generally considered
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Not Syncedto be the GPL [General Public License]:
open-source, free software licenses. -
Not Synceduh, and Tim Berners-Lee actually almost used
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Not Syncedthe GPL, because he wanted the web software
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Not Syncedhe was building to be free.
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Not SyncedBut at the last minute he actually changed his mind
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Not Syncedand made it full public domain,
because in certain ways -
Not Syncedthe GPL is actually more restrictive, because it
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Not Syncedforces other people - like, certain commercial actors
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Not Syncedwouldn't have wanted to use web technology
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Not Syncedif it were GPL, so he made it full public domain,
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Not Syncedand then from there went on to make all of the standards
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Not Syncedas open and, uh, general and free as possible.
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Not SyncedUh. So that's my extremely brief
history of the internet. -
Not SyncedIf anyone is curious, he wrote a wonderful book
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Not Syncedcalled "Weaving the Web" about his experiences
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Not Synced[enticing tone] As you can see, it's short!
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Not SyncedAnd he has lots of interesting technical information
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Not Syncedin it, without being overwhelming.
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Not SyncedIt's very approachable
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Not Syncedand he's a really interesting person
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Not Syncedand it - the book is much better than his tweets,
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Not Syncedwhich are usually incoherent.
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Not Synced[one of the participants huffs out a "whew"]
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Not SyncedEllery: Ouch!
Jeremy [?]: A few minutes? -
Not SyncedEllery: Thanks, that was - that was great, Jer!
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Not SyncedEllery: I mean, I think that that helps
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Not Syncedum, in conversations about internet policy,
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Not Syncedand internet governance, there's a lot of emphasis
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Not Syncedon the ability to kind of create and innovate
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Not Syncedwithout permission? Like, for every
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Not Syncedto be able to build parts of the web, and
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Not Syncedwhat you just laid out for us makes it clear
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Not Syncedhow important the Web piece of the infrastructure is
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Not Syncedfor that, for that capacity to become
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Not Synceda real tangible thing, and somebody that -
[amends] something that now -
Not Syncedwe can do - we don't have to have
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Not Syncedtechnical expertise to kind of build our own
spaces there. -
Not SyncedEllery: Um. So, I wanted to -
Jeremy: So um. -
Not SyncedJeremy: If I could add just one more thing, sorry -
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Not SyncedJeremy: I just wanted to give a couple examples
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Not Syncedof things that happen over the internet
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Not Syncedthat aren't the web,
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Not Syncedbecause that was the actual initial question.
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Not SyncedSo, one example would be torrents,
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Not Syncedwhere you're the - two computers
connect to each other, -
Not Syncedand stream information directly, without any URLs
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Not Syncedbeing mixed into the process.
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Not SyncedUm, another one is - email, at its core,
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Not Syncedis its own communication protocol
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Not Syncedthat doesn't have to use the web,
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Not Syncedalthough we often use web sites
to access and manage our email. -
Not SyncedUmm. And then another one was the one
right before the Web came out, -
Not Synceda very popular protocol was called Gopher,
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Not Syncedwhich people liked, and sort of worked like the Web
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Not Synced- you surf around and find things -
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Not Syncedbut it actually became commercial
right around the time that the web came out, -
Not Syncedso people would've had to start paying,
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Not Syncedand instead of starting to pay,
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Not Syncedthey switched to HTTP, HTML, and
the World Wide Web. -
Not SyncedEllery: Thank you.
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Not SyncedEllery: So I want to move to Alan, now... Um,
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Not SyncedAlan built the first search engine.
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Not SyncedAnd I'm kind of... like, overwhelmed, and feel sort of
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Not Syncedlike, giddy and nervous having him here.
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Not SyncedEllery: This is just -
[Alan laughs] -
Not SyncedEllery: This is, like, a really big deal!
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Not SyncedEllery: So, Alan, just - if you could tell us -
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Not Synced'cuz I think a lot of people don't know about Archie -
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Not Syncedum, it would be really cool just to hear
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Not Syncedabout how you sort of - what you were doing
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Not Syncedthat made you decide to, to do this
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Not Syncedand kinda what it was like, and then, I mean,
everything you've seen since... -
Not SyncedUnfortunately we're time limited, but...
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Not SyncedAlan: Right.
Ellery: You know. -
Not SyncedAlan [coughs]: Well, um, uh, well, that was back in
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Not Synced1989, and, I was working as a system administrator
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Not Syncedfor uh, McGill University - I was a grad student
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Not Syncedfor McGill University - and um, I was responsible
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Not Syncedfor getting software for - one of my responsibilities
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Not Syncedwas getting software for the faculty and the students.
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Not SyncedAnd at the time, the three major
protocols on the internet -
Not Synced- this was pre Web, ummm -
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Not Syncedwas, uh, Telnet, which would allow you to log in
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Not Syncedto a remote machine.
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Not SyncedEmail, ah, which would allow you to communicate
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Not Syncedah, with another - as we do now, with a, with a
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Not Syncedremote machines, plural,
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Not Syncedand, and FTP, which was the File Transfer Protocol,
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Not Syncedwhich allowed you to move, ah, data files, or files
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Not Syncedfrom one machine to another.
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Not SyncedAnd at the time what we had was - people had made
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Not Synced- remember it was a non-commercial internet
at the time - -
Not Synced- actually, commercial traffic was forbidden
on the internet at the time, -
Not Syncedbecause it was run by the
National Science Foundation -
Not Syncedand it was using educational money
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Not Syncedand therefore other than companies with
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Not Syncedresearch arms, like IBM and HP
and those kinds of things, -
Not Syncedwe didn't have any commercial traffic on the internet,
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Not Syncedwhich nowadays seems kind of amazing
to even think about - -
Not Syncedand, ah, so what people did, were to provide
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Not Syncedto provide free space on their machines
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Not Synced- and remember, you know, at the time,
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Not Synceda big disc would be a megabyte, you know -
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Not Syncedand so people would provide common repositories
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Not Syncedthat you could deposit programs that you had written
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Not Synceddatafiles, and documents, and that kinda stuff.
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Not Syncedinto these central repositories that were
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Not Syncedspread around the internet.
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Not SyncedThen other people could then retrieve them.
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Not SyncedAnd so I spent a lot of my time trying to locate
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Not Syncedsoftware, or the information that my, the
students and the faculty were trying to find, -
Not Syncedand I got tired of it.
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Not Syncedand since I'm lazy and a geek, I...
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Not SyncedI automated the process.
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Not SyncedI got - instead of doing it manually, I had a bunch
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Not Syncedof scripts wake up in the middle of the night
every night, -
Not Syncedand go out and index files.
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Not SyncedNow remember all of this was just file listings.
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Not SyncedIt's not like Google, it's not like
a search engine would be today, -
Not Syncedit is just... filenames. All it was, was filenames.
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Not SyncedAnd so what it would do
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Not Syncedwas it would go out every night,
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Not Syncedlist all the filenames in all the repositories,
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Not Syncedand allow you to search lists of filenames.
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Not SyncedAnd I only used it for myself!
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Not SyncedI only used it, um, uh, for my own personal use.
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Not SyncedUm, and at one point my boss,
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Not Syncedwho was also a student, a grad student
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Not Syncedat the University, let Peter Deutsch let it be known
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Not Syncedthat, um, somebody was asking for, you know,
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Not Syncedcould they, could somebody tell them where, um,
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Not Syncedy'know, a particular piece of software was.
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Not SyncedAnd, uh, uh, we, um, uh... we, you know,
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Not Syncedhe came and asked me,
he knew we had this database -
Not Syncedand he came and asked me if I could help out.
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Not SyncedAnd I gave it to him, and if, y'know,
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Not Syncedhalf a sec- half a minute later I had the information,
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Not Syncedand so he put this posting online, and, umm.
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Not SyncedPeople then started asking,
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Not Synced"Well, can you find this for me?"
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Not SyncedAnd, you know, all these manual requests!
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Not SyncedBasically - either through email, or UseNet postings -
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Not Synced- which is what we were using at the time -
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Not Syncedwe thought, this is silly,
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Not Syncedthere's no point doing these things manually
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Not Syncedwhen we can just allow people access
to the database itself. -
Not SyncedAnd in a moment of insanity,
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Not Syncedwe had to come up with a name for it,
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Not Syncedand I said, "Okay, well, let's just call it ARCHI,"
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Not Syncedwhich is "ARCHIVE" without the V
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Not SyncedAnd, ah, and within about three or four months
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Not Syncedwe were consuming about half
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Not Syncedof all of the traffic to eastern Canada
[where McGill University is] -
Not Syncedas this search engine became - as people, y'know -
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Not Synced- word of mouth -
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Not Syncedyou know, people who know about Archie
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Not Syncedare generally people of a certain age...
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Not Synced...I won't mention what that age is, but
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Not Syncedit's generally people who were in university
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Not Syncedor working on the internet, so it would have been
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Not Syncedso it would have been research people,
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Not Syncedpeople in academia in the early nineties.
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Not SyncedSo Archie lasted for about, uh, [hems and haws]
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Not SyncedFive years. Four or five years.
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Not SyncedAnd, um, it only indexed FTP archives.
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Not SyncedIt never indexed the web.
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Not SyncedNow, I went on, as Archie became popular,
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Not Syncedand I got more involved in the standards process
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Not Syncedand that kind of stuff,
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Not SyncedI worked, uh, fairly closely with Tim Berners-Lee
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Not Syncedto, uh, to standardize - for example,
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Not SyncedI did the - I ran the committee
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Not Syncedat the standard-setting body for the internet,
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Not Syncedwhich is the IETF
[Internet Engineering Task Force] -
Not Syncedto standardize URLs.
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Not SyncedBecause Tim had come up with
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Not Synceda set of rules for URLS,
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Not Syncedand as we looked at expanding that
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Not Syncedto a larger range of resources,
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Not Syncedwe realized that those rules did not cover
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Not Syncedall of the cases.
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Not SyncedSo, we worked, for, uh - Tim brought the,
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Not Syncedthe specification, his original specification,
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Not Syncedto the group, and we worked on it for,
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Not SyncedI don't remember, nine months to a year or so,
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Not Syncedto come up with a standard for URLs.
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Not SyncedSo all of those URLs that we use,
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Not Syncedday in and day out,
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Not Syncedwere, were standardized as a result
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Not Syncedof that committee.
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Not SyncedSo, it was, um, it was a really exciting time,
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Not Syncedit was a time of, y'know - the question I always get
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Not Syncedis why didn't make a billion dollars off of it?
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Not SyncedAnd I keep reminding people
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Not Syncedmost of the people who were pioneers -
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Not Syncedwith the exception of Mark Andreessen
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Not Synceduhm, didn't make a whole lot of money off of these.
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Not Syncedthese original things.
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Not SyncedWe were working in an environment which, uh,
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Not Syncedput a premium on getting the technology out there
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Not Syncedmaking it as widely available as possible -
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Not SyncedTim's big coup with CERN,
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Not Syncedwhich is the organization that he worked for
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Not Syncedwhen he first developed the web
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Not Syncedwas to get CERN to put, um, the web software
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Not Syncedthat he had created into the public domain.
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Not SyncedSo it wasn't even his to give away,
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Not Syncedit was CERN's property.
-
Not SyncedAs an employee [of CERN],
[Tim's work] would actually belong to CERN. -
Not SyncedUh. He, he actually convinced them
to put it in the public domain -
Not Syncedand that's what really, uh, y'know
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Not Syncedset [amends] lit a fire under the whole thing.
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Not SyncedAt the time, the philosophy behind it
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Not Syncedwas really, "Let's get this out there,
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Not Synced"..this is a brave new world,"
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Not Synced"..we don't know what all of this
technology's gonna be used for!" -
Not SyncedI don't think any of us - including Tim -
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Not Syncedimagined what it would become.
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Not SyncedY'know, he always had a much grander vision of it
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Not Syncedbut I don't - I can guarantee you -
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Not SyncedI've spent many, many, many, many an hour
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Not Syncedwith drinks, in bars, drinking with Tim,
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Not Syncedand I can guarantee you that he did not
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Not Synced- Sir Tim, by the way, Sir Tim -
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Not SyncedUm. I should - y'know, he even, he,
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Not SyncedI don't think, had any idea that it would basically
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Not Syncedtake over the world.
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Not Syncedand half the world's population would be using
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Not Syncedthe system that he created, twenty years later.
[corrects himself] Twenty-five years later. -
Not SyncedEllery: Thank you so much.
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Not SyncedEllery: I mean, so, speaking of which, yeah,
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Not Syncedit has changed, and, I guess, taken over, in a way,
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Not Syncedum, that we, I'm sure, wouldn't have expected.
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Not SyncedI wanted to now move to Josh and Renata,
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Not Syncedwho are both [something falls to the floor]
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Not Syncedvery [she looks at the fallen object, winces]
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Not Syncedcommitted, involved leaders in what has now
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Not Syncedbecome a global effort to - I mean,
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Not Syncedthe way that we're sort of putting it
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Not Syncedis "save the internet"
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Not Syncedor, preserve and protect the openness
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Not Syncedof all of the rights to free expression, access, um,
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Not Syncedand also privacy, that we all feel are embedded
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Not Syncedactually, in the way that it was built.
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Not SyncedSo, Josh, I wondered if you could explain to us
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Not Syncedreally briefly what your role is in your organization
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Not Syncedand then also, um, tell us about
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Not Syncedthe Web We Want campaign, and explain, y'know,
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Not Syncedhow you think this rights movement is shaping up
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Not Syncedand if you could kind of link it with everything that
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Not SyncedAlan just laid out for us,
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Not Syncedthat would be really wonderful.
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Not SyncedJosh Levy: I'll do my best.
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Not SyncedJosh: So, my name is Josh Levy,
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Not SyncedJosh: I'm from Free Press,
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Not Syncedwe're a U.S.-based organization,
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Not Syncedwe advocate for better technology and media policy
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Not Syncedthat allows for an open internet,
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Not Syncedfor better representation
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Not Syncedof people in the media, including media that's online,
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Not Syncedand for open access to information.
-
Not SyncedAnd this issue that we're talking about -
-
Not Syncedthe anniversary of the web -
-
Not Syncedis really central to our work,
-
Not Syncedbecause we've been fighting, for example,
-
Not Syncedto pass strong Net Neutrality policies
here in the U.S. for years. -
Not SyncedBasically ever since the issue first came up,
in the mid-2000s, -
Not Syncedwhen we saw big internet service providers
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Not Syncedblocking traffic coming from certain destinations.
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Not SyncedAnd that fight is ongoing.
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Not SyncedThe FCC, the Federal Communications Commission
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Not Syncedhere in the U.S., is charged with overseeing communications and technology policy,
-
Not Syncedpassed rules in 2010
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Not Syncedthat were intended to protect Net Neutrality
-
Not Syncedbut were passed in a way that we knew
wasn't gonna hold up in court. -
Not SyncedAnd we were - unfortunately, we saw that happen
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Not Syncedwhen a court in Washington, D.C.,
threw out those rules, -
Not Syncedeffectively throwing out any Net Neutrality
protections that people have. -
Not SyncedAnd so this gets back to what Jeremy was saying
-
Not Syncedthe "internet" versus the "Web," right?
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Not SyncedSo when we're talking about Net Neutrality,
-
Not Syncedwhich I hope a lot of people have heard of,
-
Not Syncedthis concept that we should be able to access
any information that we want online -
Not Syncedwithout anybody getting in the way, whether that's
a big company or the government - -
Not Syncedthat is, essentially, that's a policy that applies to
-
Not Syncedto the ways in which all of our computers
connect to each other. -
Not SyncedAnd we have this basic understanding
that the internet should be free and open, -
Not Syncedmeaning that my computer should be able to connect
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Not Syncedto yours in this global network of computers
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Not Syncedwithout any entity inspecting the traffic,
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Not Syncedtrying to understand what you're trying to access,
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Not Syncedand, based on that understanding, block it.
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Not SyncedSo if it doesn't like the video you're watching,
[it would be] slowing it down; -
Not Syncedor, if it doesn't like the application you're using,
blocking it - -
Not Synced- that, that should be totally unacceptable.
-
Not SyncedWe should be able to connect to whatever we want
in whatever way we want. -
Not SyncedAnd that includes using the Web, right?
-
Not SyncedSo the Web is basically an application
-
Not SyncedThe internet's this global network,
-
Not Syncedthe Web is just one application that
uses this global network. -
Not SyncedAnd so it's essential -
Net Neutrality is essential to using the web, -
Not Syncedbecause as we've seen today,
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Not Syncedusing the web is so essential to all of our lives
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Not Syncedand big companies, and governments, have so much power over it that they can block all kinds of things:
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Not Syncedpolitical speech, videos that we wanna watch,
pictures of cats, et cetera. -
Not SyncedSo. Um, anyway, so that's what Free Press is doing,
-
Not Syncedin large part, trying to protect
that notion of Net Neutrality. -
Not SyncedAnd out of that fight came a number of campaigns,
-
Not Syncedincluding the campaign to stop SOPA
[Stop Online Piracy Act] -
Not Synced- which was the bad copyright bill a couple years ago
here in the U.S. - -
Not Syncedand out of that came a realization, I think,
-
Not Syncedhere in the U.S. but [also] around the world,
-
Not Syncedthat we all needed to kind of talk to each other
a little bit more. -
Not Syncedthose of us who have been advocating for a free
and open internet for a long time. -
Not SyncedAnd so we started doing that:
-
Not SyncedFree Press led the development the drafting of
-
Not Syncedsomething called the
"Declaration of Internet Freedom" -
Not Syncedwhich was a simple statement of principles
about our right to access information online. -
Not SyncedAnd out of that came a really fruitful relationship
with Tim Berners-Lee's organization, -
Not Synced- the World Wide Web Foundation -
-
Not Syncedand we discussed ways in which we could move
that effort forward, -
Not Syncedthis Declaration effort,
-
Not Syncedto involve more groups around the world,
more people around the world, -
Not Syncedand to guarantee that we all have
access to information -
Not Syncedand that that access, and the principles behind it,
-
Not Syncedare not the domain of any one country,
or any one group of individuals. -
Not SyncedSo, out of that came this great project,
the Web We Want, -
Not Syncedwhich Renata's gonna tell you more about.
-
Not Syncedwhich is seeking to do just that:
-
Not Syncedto pass laws, around the world, that will protect
people's right to access the internet -
Not Syncedand to access content on the Web
without anybody getting in the way, -
Not Syncedand, uh, it's building steam very, very quickly -
-
Not Syncedwe are working with countries around the world to
develop their own set of principles -
Not Syncedregarding the web and our rights on it,
-
Not Syncedand organizing lots and lots of organizations that
are really excited about getting involved in this effort -
Not Syncedand our dream of uniting groups who are all fighting
the same fight but in different parts of the world -
Not Syncedis kind of coming to life.
-
Not SyncedSo, I'll let Renata tell you more about that.
-
Not SyncedRenata Avila: Eum, hello everyone, everybody,
-
Not Syncedit's really good to be here?
-
Not SyncedRenata: Ah, so: Web We Want.
-
Not SyncedThe Web We Want is a coalition of
[gestures as she searches for words] -
Not Syncedvery important groups of organizations
from [unintelligible] society -
Not SyncedAh, I will mention [some] of them:
-
Not SyncedAccess, that many of us are familiar with;
[AccessNow.org] -
Not SyncedAPC;
[Association for Progressive Communications] -
Not SyncedFree Press;
-
Not Synced7iber, in Jordan;
the Open Source Association, in Jordan as well; -
Not Synced[ums and ers]
-
Not SyncedConsumers International; Article 19;
Fundação Getulio Vargas, in Brazil; -
Not SyncedIT for Change, in India;
Public Knowledge, in the U.S.; -
Not Syncedand we, we have a - we got the confirmation that
Open Knowledge Foundation, -
Not Syncedwhich has affiliates all over the world,
will join as well. -
Not SyncedSo, basically, the campaign...
-
Not Synced..what we are trying to achieve here
-
Not Syncedis to move from the reactions,
-
Not Syncedthe constant reactions to the civil society we have,
-
Not Syncedto a proactive approach.
-
Not SyncedTo have a positive agenda, to have the safe [??] first, in different countries.
-
Not SyncedAnd also globally [??]
-
Not SyncedAnd what happens is usually that we come together last minute -
-
Not Syncedwe react to bad legislation being proposed,
-
Not Syncedby either specific [interest groups], or a very
creative but not so well informed legislator... -
Not SyncedAnd so, in the last, let's say, five years,
-
Not Syncedwe have seen so many mobilizations against, against, against.
-
Not SyncedSo we think that yes, it's good to have a reaction
to bad legislation, -
Not Syncedbut it's much more effective to have a proposal
coming from civil society. -
Not SyncedAnd not only - like, civil society understood as a -
-
Not Synceda more extended way [than] we usually use in [discussions of] internet governance -
-
Not Syncedbut civil society involving everyone
in a fight for our rights. -
Not SyncedAnd so we have different activities and
different actions to achieve that. -
Not SyncedThe first would be intense work in
specific countries where we [gestures] -
Not Syncedtogether, all the advisory committee,
so that there's something going on, -
Not Syncedsome movement in civil society,
and there's some action there. -
Not SyncedSo, the list of the countries that we have decided
will be like the first "grant-ees" [i.e. recipients] -
Not Syncedof um, more stronger support from the punt [???] where we want manages [???] will be:
-
Not SyncedJapan, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, the U.K., Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya...
-
Not Synced...and South Africa.
-
Not SyncedSo, as you see, it's mostly
countries of the global south. -
Not SyncedAlso the U.K., because we saw an opportunity there,
-
Not Syncedand we also saw a regression of rights.
-
Not SyncedIt is very interesting to see how the
deterioration of rights in a country - -
Not Synced- even in a democratic country -
-
Not Syncedin the last ten years, has been very extreme.
-
Not SyncedAnd this is really affecting the region.
-
Not SyncedApart from this intense work that we are planning to do, having national dialogues in these countries,
-
Not SyncedI have informed you of,
-
Not Syncedwe have also - we are launching,
on the 21st of March, a mini-grant round. -
Not SyncedThe mini-grants are for everyone to apply, so you don't need to be an NGO
-
Not Syncedso you don't need to be an NGO, you don't need to be an expert to apply for these grants.
-
Not SyncedWhat we want is normal people -
-
Not Synced- artists, musicians, everyone -
-
Not Syncedto be involved in this and [unintelligible]
to celebrate, to party for the Web! -
Not SyncedBut at the same time celebrate the Web, we
start a conversation on what is the web we want? -
Not SyncedWhat is - [struggles for words]
-
Not Synced- which values, which form we want, which way we want to protect the Web in our countries.
-
Not SyncedThe free and open Web.
-
Not SyncedAnd so it can be as simple as
a screening in a public space? -
Not SyncedIt can be more elaborate,
like a talk at your local library? -
Not SyncedIt can be anything you want,
it can be even a sculpture in the middle of a city. -
Not Syncedah, telling people what the Web
represents [means] to you. -
Not SyncedBut also, we know that we cannot abandon
those fighting "against." -
Not SyncedSo we have rapid response grants.
-
Not SyncedAnd these rapid response grants are for, ehh -
-
Not Syncedwe, we have identified that sometimes to make
something happen, you need some resources. -
Not SyncedEspecially in some countries in the global south.
-
Not SyncedSo. For example, ehh, think about
a very bad surveillance law. -
Not Syncedabout to be passed in, oh, Nicaragua.
-
Not SyncedSo, this rapid response -
-
Not Synced- which will be open during the whole year -
-
Not Synced- will allow activists to say, "Hey, listen.
This very bad thing is happening..." -
Not Synced"..and we think that if we gather a group of people
together, and we print, uh, leaflets..." -
Not Synced"..and we make a short video about it, we have
a good chance to shift the opinions to our side." -
Not Synced"The side of right."
-
Not SyncedAnd so that will be open as well, that will be open on the 21st of March, and remain open the whole year.
-
Not SyncedAnd what we will achieve at the end of the year is a
very interesting collection of experiences. -
Not SyncedWe will see that - [finds her words]
-
Not Syncedwhat is the Web people want,
in the specific countries, -
Not Syncedwith more intense follow-up
mechanism and dialogue. -
Not SyncedWe will also see which techniques are
the best for rapid response -
Not Syncedwhen there's a threat to the open internet.
-
Not Syncedby the collection of experiences from the rapid response grants.
-
Not SyncedAnd also we will learn from ways to engage the broader public in our topics and in our issues.
-
Not SyncedSo I am very hopeful that especially
artists, or very creative activists, -
Not Syncedwill find ways to engage the broader public.
-
Not SyncedBecause we need - this is ours.
-
Not SyncedThe future of [the open internet]
depends on us preserving it. -
Not SyncedAnd the more people invited to this fight,
the stronger we get. -
Not SyncedAt last, I will... I would like to invite everyone to be engaged the way that you can engage.
-
Not SyncedAnd to apply for these grants!
-
Not SyncedBut not only to apply for these grants -
to make things your own. -
Not SyncedIf you want to write an article,
if you are an expert on specific topics, -
Not Syncedplease write articles,
please share your knowledge with people, -
Not Syncedand please engage, and don't be apathetic.
-
Not SyncedBecause the Web offers us -
-
Not Synced- and the internet offers us -
-
Not Synced- this opportunity to communicate and connect beyond borders,
-
Not Syncedand I think that, slowly, we are building this platform -
-
Not Synced- which is not a website but is a platform made of [amends her description] collective –
-
Not Synced- that is ready to jump and to take actions to save
the web any moment that it is under threat. -
Not SyncedSo. Yes. That's it.
-
Not SyncedEllery [laughs]: Thanks.
-
Not SyncedEllery: It's really - I think it's great to sort of,
to have that out there, -
Not Syncedfor people to understand all the ways
that they can get involved. -
Not SyncedOne thing I - so, in thinking about how can we make a little show today that would celebrate the web,
-
Not SyncedI couldn't help but think about Global Voices,
-
Not Syncedbecause that's what brings us all together here,
-
Not Syncedand, I think that our community, in so many ways -
-
Not SyncedI mean, we couldn't exist, wouldn't exist,
without the Web, -
Not Syncedbut there are also so many particular attributes of it,
-
Not Syncedwhen it comes to access and openness,
-
Not Syncedthat allow us to do all the things that we do,
-
Not Syncedlike, including this hangout, right now.
-
Not SyncedUm. So I wanted to ask -
-
Not Synced- although we're really short on time -
-
Not SyncedJer, you, I kind of, I said, is there...
-
Not Synced...could you talk a little bit about what,
if you look at Global Voices, -
Not Syncedand sort of the way that it's grow up,
um, with the internet - -
Not Synced- you've been here since the beginning,
-
Not Syncedso you can kind of - just, just tell us a bit.
-
Not SyncedJeremy Clark: Okay, well, uh,
-
Not SyncedJeremy: I actually haven't been with
Global Voices since the very beginning, -
Not Syncedbut I joined near the start.
-
Not SyncedSo, maybe you can see on my screen -
-
Not Synced- Global Voices was started in 2005, um,
-
Not Syncedand one of the great things about the story is that it
was started quickly and easily by Ethan Zuckerman -
Not Syncedwho set up the original site, uh,
-
Not Syncedalong with Rebecca McKinnon,
who worked on the idea and the content, -
Not Syncedand so, they actually used WordPress, which
is the system we still use today, -
Not Syncedand which is very similar to the Web
in a lot of senses -
Not Syncedbecause it's a distributed project,
-
Not Syncedpeople all around the world develop it,
-
Not Syncedit's open-source, free,
-
Not Synced(and it is [free] not by convenience but very explicit philosophy and they're very active in defending that)
-
Not Syncedand also in another way: uh, originally, at the time,
-
Not Syncedthere was a very popular free software
called Movable Type -
Not Syncedand instead of starting to pay for it,
people switched to Wordpress. -
Not SyncedSo, this was our original website.
-
Not SyncedWe later redesigned it several times.
-
Not SyncedAnd over the years, we have grown with WordPress
-
Not Syncedto take advantage of the new features... um.
-
Not Synced[gestures] - keep running our site.
-
Not SyncedAnd so running our whole infrastructure on this very decentralized open-source model has been
-
Not Synceda really rewarding experience for us,
just as using the Web has. -
Not SyncedAnd obviously, the, uh, one of the most
interesting things is that -
Not SyncedGlobal Voices is all about the web.
-
Not SyncedWithout the Web,
without that decentralized authorship, -
Not Synced- anyone can write to it -
-
Not Syncedthere would be no Global Voices.
-
Not SyncedUh, the whole point of global voices was to
-
Not Syncedrecognize that people all over the world
-
Not Syncedwere taking advantage of the benefits of the Web,
-
Not Syncedand create one place where you could find it,
-
Not Syncedsort of like Archie was with the pre-Web TelNet days
-
Not Synceda archive of things happening all around -
-
Not Synced- that's what Global Voices did.
-
Not SyncedUm. So. Yeah!
-
Not SyncedAnd, y'know, we've tried a lot of different
-
Not Syncedinfrastructure based around the web over the years;
-
Not Synceduh, we've used Drupal,
-
Not Syncedwe've used a lot of different online services,
-
Not Syncedobviously, like everyone else,
-
Not Syncedthe temptation to take advantage of Google's
-
Not Syncedfree offerings has always been
part of Global Voices' DNA, -
Not Syncedwe use Google mailing lists,
-
Not Syncedwe use all the different things that they make for free
-
Not Syncedwhich is an interesting part of the web,
-
Not Syncedbecause it's not the Web, that's Google,
-
Not Syncedjust happening to give it away,
-
Not Syncedbut as a company, they have a tendency
-
Not Syncedto follow the spirit of the Web, uh,
-
Not Syncedeven though they're doing so
for commercial reasons. -
Not SyncedBut - yeah!
-
Not SyncedThat's my very brief summary
-
Not Syncedof the history of Global Voices
-
Not Syncedand how it parallels the Web!
-
Not SyncedEllery: Thank you!
-
Not SyncedEllery: I'm afraid we're gonna have to wrap up now
-
Not Syncedbut, just, to do that, I wanted to ask for
-
Not Synceda couple of, kind of, final thoughts...
-
Not Synced...from Alan, and perhaps also Josh, just -
-
Not Synced- Alan, I guess I'm especially interested in
-
Not Syncedif there are, kinda, thoughts that you have
-
Not Syncedon all of the activism and advocacy
-
Not Syncedthat's taking place around fundamental rights
on the Internet, -
Not Syncedfrom your own unique historical perspective.
-
Not SyncedAnd then I wanted to close, um,
-
Not Syncedby asking Renata to just tell us a very little bit about Bassel
-
Not Syncedsince there's also an important anniversary this weekend.
-
Not SyncedSo, I'm gonna just let you guys go,
-
Not Syncedand then we will close out!
-
Not SyncedAlan Emtage: Okay, well, y'know,
-
Not SyncedAlan: I haven't been involved as an activist
-
Not Syncedfor, uh, for quite some time now.
-
Not SyncedI sort of burnt out after a while! [laughs]
-
Not Synced- flying around the globe, and doing all the stuff that I did in the nineties.
-
Not SyncedBut I certainly pay a lot of attention to that stuff
-
Not Syncedy'know, I'm currently involved in Barbados, right now,
-
Not Syncedand it has been really interesting to try and,
-
Not Syncedfor one example,
-
Not Syncedtry and access content from the United States
-
Not Synced- entertainment content, that kind of stuff.
-
Not SyncedAnd, I mean, I knew about this stuff in theory,
-
Not Syncedbut in practice, the antiquated models
-
Not Syncedof content distribution
that we're still holding onto -
Not Syncedin this day and age,
-
Not Syncedwhere, you know, geographical boundaries
and national boundaries and that kinda stuff -
Not Syncedare still very much at the center of these
business models. -
Not SyncedY'know, things like BitTorrent
and that kinda stuff -
Not Syncedare wiping them away,
and they don't even realize it. -
Not SyncedThe music industry has seen this happen,
now, for decades - -
Not SyncedCertainly from the activist point of view,
-
Not Syncedin terms of keeping the Internet
free and available, -
Not Syncedit's gonna be a real challenge.
-
Not SyncedAnd, I mean, it's such an
important technology now. -
Not SyncedYou have things like
the Great Firewall in China... -
Not SyncedYou have, you know, Russia, who recently -
-
Not Synced- as of yesterday, today -
-
Not Synced- shutting down, using new laws to shut down access to dissent against Putin...
-
Not SyncedThey realize the power -
-
Not Synced- Egypt was a real wakeup call for a lot of people in the use of social networking
-
Not Syncedto organize and activate people and bring them out onto the streets,
-
Not Syncedso governments are scared of this technology
-
Not Syncedand it's important that we work really hard
-
Not Syncedto keep it as free as it is,
-
Not Syncedbecause they realize that, you know,
-
Not Syncedinformation - how you control the information, you control the people.
-
Not SyncedSo, um, I think it is extraordinarily important
-
Not Syncedthat people like Josh [unintelligible]
-
Not Syncedcontinue to work very hard
to stop the bad laws, -
Not Syncedto inform the legislators -
-
Not Synced- some of them are just doing it out of ignorance!
-
Not SyncedI mean, you know,
-
Not Synced"Never ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to incompetence."
-
Not SyncedAnd, uh, a lot of these people are just
-
Not Syncedincompetent, not malicious.
-
Not SyncedBut there are people who are malicious,
as well [laughing a bit] -
Not Syncedso we have to deal with them as well.
-
Not SyncedBut, um, you know, it's vitally important
-
Not Syncedbecause, uh, nowadays, these technologies
-
Not Syncedreally sit at the core of our culture
-
Not Syncedand the way that we
communicate with one another. -
Not Synced[long silence]
-
Not SyncedJosh [wondering if he should speak next]: ...Me?
-
Not Synced[Josh laughs silently]
-
Not SyncedJosh: I'll just add one thing real quickly -
-
Not Synced- I think that we're at an interesting moment
-
Not Syncedwhere so many of us acknowledge the importance of the Internet and the Web,
-
Not Syncedand the impact that it's had on every aspect of our culture,
-
Not Syncedand because of that,
-
Not SyncedI think we as the users of the Web,
and of the Internet, have a duty -
Not Syncedto hold governments around the world and companies around the world accountable
-
Not Syncedand to urge them and pressure them
-
Not Syncedto protect the openness that lies at the core of this entire thing.
-
Not SyncedAnd to protect, not just openness, but
-
Not Syncedalso this notion of a Commons.
-
Not SyncedThat's - in our opinion - quickly being lost.
-
Not SyncedThis notion that the Internet, and the Web,
are publicly owned, -
Not Syncedand that the activity that takes place on them
-
Not Syncedis activity that we undertake
-
Not Syncedand that is ours.
-
Not SyncedAnd that is not the domain of the big companies' platforms.
-
Not SyncedWe undertake the activity.
-
Not SyncedSo, for example,
-
Not SyncedGoogle has allowed us to do a lot of things.
-
Not SyncedGoogle allows us to find information extremely quickly,
-
Not Syncedto connect to each other extremely well,
-
Not Syncedto use Google Hangouts as we're doing right now,
-
Not Syncedbut Google's doing all of this at the -
-
Not Synced- while mining the data that we give it,
selling off that data - -
Not Synced- that data is also creating historical record
-
Not Synced
of everything that we search for
and say online, -
Not Syncedwhich as we know,
can be exploited by governments, -
Not Synced- but also by companies -
-
Not Syncedand I think it's time for us to think about that relationship
-
Not Syncedbetween us and these big companies,
-
Not Syncedwhich is becoming the central part of our online experience.
-
Not SyncedAnd how can we decentralize that?
-
Not SyncedHow can we decouple ourselves from these giant companies
-
Not Syncedand take back a portion of the Web
-
Not Syncedso that we own this experience in a deeper way
-
Not Syncedand it's not experienced as purely commercial,
-
Not Synceda commercial transaction between us an a big company.
-
Not SyncedSo that's a big question,
-
Not Syncedand it's going to take years to unravel it, to find solutions,
-
Not Syncedbut we're hoping that we can start that conversation now.
-
Not Synced[long silence]
-
Not SyncedRenata: Well, now I will go back to something that Jeremy said.
-
Not SyncedIt was about someone stopping him at the border, the Canadian border,
-
Not Syncedbecause of "hacker."
-
Not SyncedAnd what I want to talk about is that,
-
Not Syncedat the end of the day,
-
Not Syncedwe reduce the number of people who can actually,
-
Not Syncedin some countries, not control the internet,
-
Not Syncedbut understand the infrastructure, and use it in a way that they can increase public good.
-
Not Syncedand they can help people in extreme situations.
-
Not SyncedAnd one of these people is my friend
Bassel Khartabil - -
Not Synced[fondly] Bassel, Bassel is the internet.
Basically. -
Not SyncedBasel is Palestinian-Syrian activist,
-
Not Syncedhe's an activist of Greek culture,
-
Not Syncedand he's a global citizen.
-
Not SyncedHe's not super nationalistic, you know,
-
Not Syncedhe has traveled a lot, extensively,
-
Not Syncedhe has friends all over the world,
-
Not Syncedand he likes to spend time learning how things work, how things operate,
-
Not Syncedso he's very good with computers -
-
Not Syncedhe [taught] himself how to code,
thanks to his uncle - -
Not SyncedHe knows a lot about hardware as well,
-
Not Syncedand he knows a lot about
Greek culture and design. -
Not SyncedAnd so during his travels he saw all these wonderful things happening
-
Not Syncedand so he decided, with a group of friends,
-
Not Syncedto create a hackerspace in Damascus
-
Not SyncedI don't know how translation works,
-
Not Syncedbut apparently "hacker-space" is a very scary word for the civilian intelligence service,
-
Not Syncedand they saw it as a threat -
-
Not Syncedpeople in power saw technology as a threat
-
Not Syncedto their plan to control people.
-
Not SyncedSo on the 15th of December, two years ago,
-
Not Syncedthe hacker-space was raided...
-
Not SyncedAll the computers were taken away,
-
Not Syncedall the things were dismantled -
-
Not Synced- can you imagine one of these Syrian police looking at the 3D printer, oh my god,
-
Not Syncedthey probably thought they were like nuclear weapons, or something -
-
Not Syncedand, sadly, he has been away, he has been in prison.
-
Not SyncedHe has been in a very, very bad prison subject to torture treatment.
-
Not SyncedBut then he was - thanks to the advocacy of thousands of people,
-
Not Syncedhe was transferred back to the civilian prison.
-
Not SyncedWhich, you can imagine, if you have seen a civilian prison, how bad it looks like.
-
Not SyncedI mean, it is... the conditions get from bad to worse as time goes by,
-
Not Syncedas the Syrian government runs out of resources.
-
Not SyncedThe last people they will feed, the last people they will take care of, are the prisoners.
-
Not SyncedOn top of that, Bassel, he has a health condition...
-
Not SyncedIt is all really sad.
-
Not SyncedBut, what we have been trying to do during these two years
-
Not Syncedis to keep him peaceful.
-
Not SyncedAnd to keep reminding him that we haven't forgotten
-
Not Syncedand to keep reminding him that we embrace the values that he embrace.
-
Not SyncedAnd we support the causes that he supports.
-
Not SyncedSo, instead of, you know, just being sad,
and doing nothing, -
Not Syncedwe are a doing a Free Bassel Day.
-
Not SyncedOn the 15th of March.
-
Not SyncedWell, some things are already starting today!
-
Not SyncedAnd what we want is, ah, joint action -
-
Not Synced- doing things, doing anything you can do to remember Bassel.
-
Not SyncedAnd not only Bassel. To remember Syria.
-
Not SyncedBecause it seems that because of the news,
-
Not Syncedwe just, we don't hear about Syria anymore!
-
Not SyncedI mean, it's like, we might hear it on the [radio, while we're in] the parking lot,
-
Not Syncedand if we have some time, we go, "oh, okay, something is going badly there."
-
Not SyncedBut, uh, we seem to have forgotten about all the suffering.
-
Not SyncedAnd together with Bassel there are
-
Not Syncedlots of system administrators, computer experts, and hackers who are in prison,
-
Not Syncedand sometimes we only care about journalists!
-
Not SyncedBut, you know, there's lots of people, valuable people for the future of Syria,
-
Not Syncedwho are in prison now,
who need our solidarity. -
Not SyncedI will also - if you live in a country which has received Syrian refugees,
-
Not Syncedplease show solidarity.
-
Not SyncedI know that sharing your computer might not sound appealing,
-
Not Syncedbut maybe crowdfunding and giving a computer with internet access to this refugee camp
-
Not Syncedso they can stay in touch with their relatives abroad...?
-
Not SyncedMaybe doing a short talk or short gathering near them...?
-
Not SyncedI think that those are good ways to help Bassel.
-
Not SyncedBecause that's what Bassel probably would be doing if he was free.
-
Not SyncedSo my appeal is that - to not forget Syria, to not forget Bassel.
-
Not SyncedThe free internet is a free internet with free Bassel and free Syria!
-
Not SyncedAnd that's - the Web I want, actually!
-
Not SyncedEllery: That is the Web she wants!
-
Not SyncedEllery: The Web many of us want.
-
Not SyncedSo, there's a lot of work to do,
-
Not Syncedand there are lots of ways to get involved,
as we've heard about. -
Not SyncedThank you, everybody, so much
-
Not Syncedfor coming on today,
-
Not Syncedand we hope to see everybody here and out there on GV Face!
-
Not SyncedThanks so much!
-
Not Synced
- Title:
- GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web!
- Description:
-
It's the 25th birthday of the World Wide Web this week! In this edition of GV Face, Global Voices veterans will talk about their early experiences with the web and all it has enabled us to do in our (nearly) ten years as an organization. We'll also speak with GV community leader Renata Avila and Free Press Internet Campaign Director Josh Levy, two founding members of the Web We Want campaign, a new initiative that promotes global conversation about human rights and the Internet.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Captions Requested
- Duration:
- 46:37
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Claude Almansi commented on English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! | ||
Dove the Beta edited English subtitles for GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! |
Claude Almansi
Thank you, Dove! Your transcribing the whole video in just 7 revisions is really impressive. And you seem to have taken the move to the present editor in your stride.