Reputation on the Internet

Daniel J. Solove of the George Washington University Law School is the author of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, the full text of which is available online. The 205-page book was published in October 2007 by Yale University Press.

Solove likens the present state of the Internet to a teenager: "brash, uninhibited, unruly, fearless, experimental, and often not mindful of the consequences of its behavior. And as with a teenager, the Net's greater freedom can be both a blessing and a curse."

In the concluding chapter, "The Future of Reputation," he writes:

Will people be blogging and using social network websites a decade from now? Who knows? . . . The technologies may change, but human nature will remain the same.

Although the Internet poses new and difficult issues, they are variations on some timeless problems: the tension between privacy and free speech, the nature of privacy, the virtues and vices of gossip and shaming, the effect of new technologies on the spread of information, and the ways in which law, technology, and norms interact. New technologies do not just enhance freedom but also alter the matrix of freedom and control in new and challenging ways.

The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Yale University Press, October 2007)

Wiki governance

The Berkman Blog of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School (HLS) has a post on "Wiki-Government: How open-source technology can make government decision-making more expert and more democratic," an article by Professor Beth Noveck of New York Law School that appears in the Winter 2008 issue of Democracy, A Journal of Ideas. Prof. Noveck believes that new technology that makes possible "communal pooling of knowledge," such as Wikipedia, can also enable "governance by a professional elite" to evolve into one of greater public participation. She writes:

Our institutions of governance are characterized by a longstanding culture of professionalism in which bureaucrats--not citizens--are the experts. Until recently, we have viewed this arrangement as legitimate because we have not practically been able to argue otherwise. Now we have a chance to do government differently. We have the know-how to create "civic software" that will help us form groups and communities who, working together, can be more effective at informing decision-making than individuals working alone.

Prof. Noveck concludes:

Technology will not, by itself, make complex regulatory problems any more tractable, or eliminate partisan disputes about values. What this next generation of civic software can do, however, is introduce better information by enabling the expert public to contribute targeted information. In doing so, it can make possible practices of governance that are, at once, more expert and more democratic.

Curbing Internet gambling

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently reported on proposed regulations to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), Title VIII of the SAFE Port Act, PL 109-347 (pdf, 80pp/228kB), 120 Stat. 1952. The regs identify five payment systems in which to interdict the flow of illegal Internet gambling proceeds: cards systems, money transmission systems, wire transfer systems, check collection systems, and the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system. The report notes that except for financial institutions that deal directly with illegal Internet gamblers, tracking revenues in wire transfer, check collection, and ACH systems is not currently feasible.

CRS cites three bills introduced in the 110th Congress to augment UIGEA: the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007, HR 2046 (pdf, 26pp), Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2007, HR 2607 (pdf, 4pp), and the Skill Game Protection Act, HR 2610 (pdf, 6pp).

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and Regulations Proposed for Its Implementation, CRS Report RS22749 (pdf, 6pp/72kB, from Open CRS), November 1, 2007