Find Out Whether AIMS is Screwing The Right Hole? «

Find Out Whether AIMS is Screwing The Right Hole?

August 20, 2008

Recently, a group of Singaporean bloggers submitted a paper to the Government, outlining proposals for internet deregulation. Along with this AIMS is also planning to make recommendations to revamp our net.

I lifted this from Magnezium’s site “Musing.” I believe, it is the most comprehensive collection of post on the subject to date and he has been very objective to include the views of ALL parties concerned. My goal is to present you all with a 360 degree sweep on the various perspectives voiced, so that you will be better placed to make an informed decision to appraise the recommendations made by AIMS.

Discussed are not only pros and cons of “community regulation,” but also the right to remain anonymous online. Along with what I can only tag as “general concerns” touching on every subject from global trends in internet regulation to the sedition act. It would seem the subject of proposing “change” whether it is AIMS, the Blogger 13 and even the recent indication by MICA to pursue a lighter touch covers an even wider area than originally anticipated. Traditionally, the official line appears to be, we have to rein in the feral net to protect kids and to safeguard the truth; but as many of the articles here point out only too clearly, this is only the tip of the iceberg; what about making the net into a more exciting and happening place? Is there a need to balance organic growth with security? How sure are we that online hate speech isn’t due to some other factors other than the net? Should we be looking somewhere else for the real smoking gun? Is the net held out as the convenient whipping boy again? Who defines “right” and “wrong?” Can we even trust fellow bloggers to lead us without abusing their trust in the absence of good and reliable systems?

Perusing many of the articles, the list of concerns just goes on and on, but one thing remains very certain. The whole discussion appears to be much larger than what AIMS, MICA, PAP, the blogger 13 are trying to accomplish; though these competing interest may push and pull no end. The real challenge as one blogger puts it can be summarized succintly as follows:

“Any idiot can fashion an online Pyongyang. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination either; all you need to do is introduce finger printing, mug shots and issue out registration cards and in no time, it will be a very “Kwai Kwai” (goody good) place - but dont be surprise if our net also looks somewhat like down town Pyongyang on air raid drill day. I believe the real challenge must be to strike a happy balance between fashioning something that successfully captures the elan and panache of Paris, New York and Hong Kong, and. Yet still manage to ensure the good currency wins over the bad when we close the accounts at the end of the day. That I believe is planning that it is very hard to top as to do that requires nothing short of imagination and hope.”

Happy Reading

Y2K

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NEW! My Singapore News: Uniqueness of space in Cyberspace

ANOTHER DISCUSSIONhttp://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/09/consider/#comments

http://singaporedaily.net/2008/09/26/daily-sg-26-sep-2008/#comment-2359

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/08/advisory-council-proposes-further-liberalisations-of-the-internet/#comments