[LCA2011-Chat] Some Anti-Harassment Policies considered harmful

From: Jason White <jason>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 21:37:04 +1100

Bede Mudge <bane02 at gmail.com> wrote:
 
> Although I felt some interesting points were raised in this talk, I was
> disappointed that Mark resorted to scare tactics and shock value to convey
> his message. His discussion of peer impacts and how this can be manipulated
> began very effectively, but the need to visually and verbally assault the
> audience did nothing but deaden the impact for me.

I also think his central argument could have been strengthened by providing
persuasive examples of how a service provider that has access to a person's
social graph could exploit this knowledge to wield undue influence.
Advertising is the obvious case in point, but it surely isn't the only one.

For example, if you're a human rights advocate, a service provider in
collusion with a government could use your list of contacts (and other
peoples' lists) to identify suspects to be targeted - even without
intercepting the content of your communication. Of course, large providers are
excellent targets for such interception of content as well.
>
> That said, there have been some very relevant points raised regarding
> censorship (which DID NOT occur, only an apology), and I feel the handling
> of this matter by the LCA2011 team cannot be faulted.

Next time, with an anti-harassment policy in place well before the conference,
it might be a good idea to mention it on the submission form for
presentations, to ensure that all speakers are aware of it.

I know that almost all LCA presentations comply with the policy; the point,
though, is to bring into line those which otherwise wouldn't comply before
they are presented, and to give a message to all attendees regarding how
seriously inclusiveness is taken - in my experience, very seriously, at LCA. I
have nothing but praise for LCA organizers and volunteers with respect to the
support that I've personally received.
Received on Tue Feb 01 2011 - 21:37:04 GMT