Anti-DOPA: Interviews

Technorati Tags: DOPA, Congress, Web 2.0, Social software, technology ban

An interesting interview with Henry  Jenkins and danah boyd was conducted via email by Sarah Wright of the MIT  News Office. An abbreviated version was published by the MIT News Office on 24 May 2006. You can access a printable, PDF  version of the  text.  They answer the following questions:

1. What is MySpace? Why is it   important? How big is it (and its cousins such as Facebook)?
2. What is the controversy over MySpace? Is it that site in particular or as a genre of web-based-social-networks?
3. What is the direction of your  current research on new media, and how does it relate to the controversy?
4. What do 'social networking software programs' provide participants? What's their down side?
5. What skills do students/children  learn in working in social networks? How does these contribute (or  not) to their development?
6. What is the essence of the  proposed legislation? If passed, how would it affect students? Teachers?  Librarians? Parents?                    
7. The proposed bill appears to offer protection to minors from online predators, by limiting their  mutual access. Is predation a real danger with MySpace? Are there  other issues people should be aware of in weighing this legislation?
8. You have written before on anti-electronic/anti-new media attitudes. Where does this proposedbill fit into those?
9. Most people know there is a digital divide - are the issues raised by this legislation related to the widening or narrowing of the gap or to other things?
10. You have said elsewhere (and several years ago) that virtual gaming experiences of today are analogous to the unfettered play in the backyards of the 1950s -- very core & essential experiences. Have social networking like MySpace or  games or other new media technology become core experiences now?
11. The proposed bill is a political response to a social/technological development - could you offer a   political framework for considering MySpace and laws to limit access to it?
12. What suggestions do you have for parents or other adults eager to learn more about MySpace and  to understand what's going on with it, kids and political reactions? 

Full text of the interview here.  Anti-DOPA wiki here.

Henry and danah: We welcome further questions from parents. Our feeling is that there should be more public discussion of the opportunities  and risks represented by MySpace and other social networks. Please  send your questions to [email protected] and we will do our best to respond.

Henry Jenkins is a co-director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program. His current research, commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation, seeks to identify the core social skills and cultural competencies young people need in order to become full participants in the cultural, political, economic and social life of the 21st century. His new book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, will be published this summer.

danah boyd is a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on how youth negotiate identity formation through digital publics like MySpace.  Funded by MacArthur Foundation, her work is part of a broader project on youth, informal learning and digital technology. Prior to Berkeley, danah received an AB in computer science from Brown University and an MS in sociable media from MIT Media Lab. She is also a researcher at Yahoo! and she blogs regularly at Apophenia.