Michael Zimmer

West Bend Library Board Rejects Restrictions

Posted by Michael Zimmeron June 2, 2009in Information Ethics, Libraries2 Comments

The West Bend Community Memorial Library board held a public meeting this evening to consider the request from the "West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries" that the library remove books they consider to be "obscene" or "child pornography" from a…

Amusing Ourselves to Death: The Comic

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 27, 2009in Academic, Values In Design1 Comment

Neil Postman is one of the primary reasons I decided to leave Milwaukee in 2001 and move to New York City to pursue my graduate education. While searching for schools, I had discovered of the department Postman founded at NYU,…

When Your Secret Questions Aren’t So Secret

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 25, 2009in Internet, Privacy

There's been a flurry of news recently about an article from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University researchers showing that secret questions used to recover forgotten passwords aren't so secret after all. As reported in Technology Review: In a study involving…

Google Continues to be Challenged on Street View

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 23, 2009in Privacy, Search Engines, Values In Design

Google's Street View product has been criticized by privacy advocates since its very inception, including various posts on this blog. Two years after its release, Google continues to face challenges over its collection and treatment of potentially personally-identifiable images of…

Registration Still Open for “Ethics of Information Organization” conference

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 14, 2009in Events, Information Ethics

Just a quick note that registration is still open for the “The Ethics of Information Organization“ conference hosted by the Center for Information Policy Research and the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ethics of Information Organization…

Stutzman: Google exposes Book Search patron records

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 13, 2009in Information Ethics, Libraries, Privacy, Search Engines

I've written frequently about how the shift from accessing information in offline spaces to online spaces has particular privacy implications. For example, strikingly different privacy norms and expectations emerge when comparing information-seeking activities in libraries vs. bookstores vs. Google Book…

Code as Law: Air-L and Twitter @Replies

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 13, 2009in Academic, Internet, Social Media, Values In Design

Speaking of Lessig, two interesting cases emerged this week that help illustrate Lessig's position that, when thinking about the architecture of cyberspace, "code is law." In Code, Lessig argues that all of the rules, tendencies, affordances, and constraints of/in cyberspace…

Lessig’s “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace” turns 10

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 12, 2009in Academic, Internet

Lawrence Lessig’s Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace turns 10 this year. In honor of this groundbreaking text, the Cato Institute hosted a "debate" about the book, including essays from Declan McCullagh, Jonathan Zittrain, Adam Thierer, and Lessig himself. Lead…

Libraries: The Original Google Project

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 1, 2009in Information Ethics, Libraries

Hannah Yale, and art student here at UW-Milwaukee, has created an amazing gurellia art project, in collaboration with the UWM Library, called "The Original Google Project." Here's the description from its Facebook page: This project was designed as a collaboration…

Update on West Bend Library Controversy: Board Members Removed, ALA and Free Speech Groups Object

Posted by Michael Zimmeron April 29, 2009in Information Ethics, Libraries2 Comments

The controversy over the status of various GLBTQ-themed books (and now, apparently, any "sexually explicit" books) in the young adult section at the West Bend Library has taken a turn for the worse. The city's common council voted against reappointing…