Dennis Dunleavy

Can free speech go to far?

When Dutch filmmaker and political conservative, Geert Wilders, launched his anti-islamist film, Fitna on the Internet last week,  a storm of controversy ensued, and not just in the Muslim world. More than 2 million people watched the film in just the first three hours. Soon after a flood of criticism, Network Solutions and LiveLeak, the domain server and the site hosting the film removed it fearing backlash. Now the film is up again on Google and You Tube.
Wilder's film, like the Danish cartoons that sparked international concerns in 2005, challenges not only the value of free speech, but also the use of the Internet to exploit fear and spread hate. Without the Internet, the response to Fitna would be limited by its distribution to smaller audiences in the Netherland. Not only would it take viewers energy to attend a screening, but they would also risk being identified in public as individuals interested in the content of the film. The Internet makes it easy for people to become exposed to views on all sides of the political spectrum.

Should Google and YouTube be held responsible for removing potentially offensive content? Peter Hoekstra in the Wall Street Journal observes:

Reasonable men in free societies regard Geert Wilders's anti-Muslim rhetoric, and films like "Fitna," as disrespectful of the religious sensitivities of members of the Islamic faith. But free societies also hold freedom of speech to be a fundamental human right. We don't silence, jail or kill people with whom we disagree just because their ideas are offensive or disturbing. We believe that when such ideas are openly debated, they sink of their own weight and attract few followers.

Despite all of the things I detest about the film, and there are many, I do not believe that censorship will spare the world from such divisiveness and  hatred.  Those of us that believe in the freedom of expression must defend even the hate-mongers such as Wilders. We must defend his right to express himself, because if we retreat from our values out of fear, we risk living in a society of absolutists -- where there is only one truth -- the truth of those holding the purse strings or the gun.

As Hoekstra notes, "I defend the right of Mr. Wilders and the media to air this film because free speech is a fundamental right that is the foundation of modern society." But free speech has always come at price. 

Library of Congress uses Web 2.0 to build awareness of historical images

Matt Raymond, Director of Communications at the Library of Congress, had a brilliant idea. Instead of making the public come to the LOC Web site to look at historical images, why not make the pictures go to where people who love photography live -- on Flickr.

Recently, the LOC posted more than 3,000 of its images on to a Flickr site called The Commons. Raymond hopes that traffic to the site will generate interest and information for the LOC collection, which now holds 14 million images.

LOC caption reads: Color guard of Negro engineers, Ft. Belvoir(?), [Va.]

Although anyone can view the pictures, Flickr members have access to post comments and add tags that will help make identifying the images better. 

According to Flickr:

There are two main aims to The Commons project, starting with the pilot: firstly, to increase exposure to the amazing content currently held in the public collections of civic institutions around the world, and secondly, to facilitate the collection of general knowledge about these collections, with the hope that this information can feed back into the catalogues, making them richer and easier to search.

The idea of taking this collection to the Web 2.0 is not only good for the LOC is a terrific public relations strategy.  As Raymond notes:

The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

Caption Reads: Delano, Jack (1914-1997)
Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Schools do not open until the potatoes are harvested. Oct. 1940.

There are more than 40 comments for the image above, which suggests that niche communities as Flickr become unified around images that share commonalities or historical significance. Many of the comments share life experiences related to rural American life and having to work as children.

Just by looking at several of the images and the comments they generate suggests that the LOC objectives in posting the images is very effective.

 

The Mexican Suitcase: Exploring Capa's legacy

Zone Zero has published a terrific essay and presentation by Trisha Ziff about a suitcase of lost negatives belonging to Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and Chim Seymour. This is well worth the time reading. Ziff's essay sheds light on not only the value of the images, but also the relationships between friends in a time of war.