This article at Wired provides a look at Howard Rheingold’s recent keynote speech at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, in which he emphasized that “vested interests, flexing their political and economic muscle, are stifling technological innovation.”

Rheingold certainly is not alone in his fears; the same theme dominates a great deal of Larry Lessig’s work as well. I see these concerns as a genuine threat to freedom.

Innovation is being stiffled to protect profits. This is bad for society. Change is good—and it is inevitable, so erecting artificial barriers to innovation is both wrong and immoral.

Excerpt:

After the talk, Rheingold said, “An era is coming to an end. Geeks and consumers are under assault. We really have to organize to protect our rights.”


Esther Dyson, former chair of ICANN and a noted technology impresario, said she agreed with Rheingold’s thesis “in spades.”


“Technologists always say they just code, they don’t make laws,” she said. “But they should be going to Congress. Our rights are in jeopardy.”

I hope other geeks will begin to look a politics as I do, as a vast Open Source project aimed at creating the best possible legal code. If we continue to let the Microsofts and RIAAs of the world craft our laws, we will soon be left with only the right to consume—and nothing else.