Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.
Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused.
Real education is about genuine understanding and the ability to figure things out on your own; not about making sure every 7th grader has memorized all the facts some bureaucrats have put in the 7th grade curriculum.
Big stories need human stakes.
I have developed my most meaningful relationships online. None of them live within driving distance. None of them are about my own age.
Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workers' pension funds. Why do that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers?
What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book - a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.
The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it.
Being around some of the bright lights of the technology world and having them expect great things helps you sit down and do it seriously.
There's all sorts of stuff people want to publish anonymously.
The library world is set up on this model where the library is a physical building and has a number of books and serves a geographical community.
I'm not such a nuisance to the world, and the kick I get out of living can, I suppose, justify the impositions I make on it. But when life isn't so fun, well, then I start to wonder. What's the point of going on if it's just trouble for us both? My friends will miss me, I am told.
Normally, I just sit in my quiet little room and do the small things that bring me pleasures. I read my books, I answer email, I write a little bit.
At the end of the day, we have an economy that works for the rich by cheating the poor, and unequal schools are the result of that, not the cause.
We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.
Computers will be able to do all the mundane tasks in our daily lives.
Say yes to everything.
Assume nobody else has any idea what they're doing, either.
I was around computers from birth; we had one of the first Macs, which came out shortly before I was born, and my dad ran a company that wrote computer operating systems. I don't think I have any particular technical skills; I just got a really large head start.
When I go to a library and I see the librarian at her desk reading, I'm afraid to interrupt her, even though she sits there specifically so that she may be interrupted, even though being interrupted for reasons like this by people like me is her very job.
