Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 good yet unclear ideas September 1, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author brings up very interesting ideas, discussing how culture and technologies are inherently anarchistic, and how oligarchies are constantly trying to harness these for control & profit, which may end up damaging or destroying them in the process. The 'anything goes' trading of Napster wasn't good for artist and content produces, but the tied-down DRM world is even worse in the long run.
He definitely knows his material, but the writing just isn't that clear. He compares things to "Anarchistic Libertarianism" like I'm supposed to instantly know the ramifications of the term. I'd read a paragrah and realize I have no idea what he was trying to say.
There's a great argument to make here, I just don't think Siva Vaidhyanathan presents it very well.
 Infostructure in geopardy? March 1, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a book is on, the most unexpected subjects: Information anarchy in utopia, Information anarchy in dystopia and Information utopia?
These insights are from an expert who visualizes the effects of hacking, cracking and whacking in the world in general. And how such a scenario creates chaos in libraries. See for instance, computer filters (p. 38), effect of total acces (121-122), and terrorism (118-120, 122).
Contextually, this books sounds as a sequel to the earlier title by the same author, i.e., "Copyrights and Copywrongs." In considering structurally as a sequel, I am not in anyways special. Because, The Chronicle of Higher Education, in 2004, said it precisely in the following article: "In the Copyright Wars, This Scholar Sides With the Anarchists." (see: http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i13/13a02901.htm)
Nevertheless, Anarchist in the Library adds value to the existing literature on safety, security, and emergency preparedness.
Interestingly, The Anarchist in the Library deals with clashes and the limits of freedom in a world that continues to converge - in electronic, media and digital domains.
The Anarchist in the Library is a good reading for policy makers to consider issues in public governance in a situation that is loaded with smart-internet, as well as, friendly-access environment.
Are The Libraries Safe Anymore For Decent Folks? July 4, 2005
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
Anarchy is a governing system that eschews authority. Oligarchy governs from, through, and for authorities. These ideologies feed off each other dialectically; they are rapidly remaking our global information ecosystem: the increasing speed and amount of information and the basic paradox of the digital world onto the real world.
Libraries are never as placid as they appear. They are sources of controversy and conflict. After it was confirmed that some of the terrorists had used public computers in Virginia and Florida, the government decided they want access fo patron reading habits and Internet use. Thus, the USA Patriot Act came into existence.
The Patriot Act, signed by President Bush II, in October 2001, has turned into an intrusion in the privacy of library users and those who check out books. Anyone pretending to be FBI can check your account and no one will inform you.
The FBI is notorious for overstepping its bounds. This intrusion into patrons' privacy is against the Constitution. We are being denied our inalienable rights. The library is not just functionally important to communities all over the world, the doors should be open to everybody. Librarians are being forced to choose between their values, but they are supposed to support and protect the patrons. We are not to be intimidated by the choice of books we choose to read. I am using a diverse study among the nonfiction (simply because they are new), clearly not my choice of reading material, but folks on Amazon. com seem to prefer the newer books for their reviews.
As with Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, unclassified technical reports have disappeared from the Los Alamos National Lab web site. How is that possible? It never should have been put online in the first place.
Anarchy for thee, not for me. April 5, 2005
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
While many academics do tend to "fog" their arguments I think this book by Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan of New York University is a fresh, provocative, and extremely readable discourse on the nature of freedom and control in a world awash with technology that is often over-hyped and under-analyzed. Prof. Vaidhyanathan is a fresh voice analyzing the extremely important issue of, in his words, the "availability and accessibility of the substance of expression and thus the possibility of public discussion and creativity" (185). As a veteran of the culture wars spawned by punk rock's initial social (and later in a watered-down form) commercial success, I have seen the reliance on empty sloganeering and naive calls for anarchy from punks who couldn't organize taking out the trash if they had all week. Prof. Vaidhyanathan rejects simplistic calls for decentralization and anarchy, and instead provides a rich and nuanced historical context for why we should return to what he calls "Civic Republicanism," a return to the idea of public trust and mutual dependency that many Americans have lost sight of in the rather simplistic way most debates have been framed in the battle over public control of information. One of the virtues of Prof. Vaidhyanathan's book is that he does not provide any easy answer or EFF manifestos, just a reliance on the basic responsibility of human beings to engage in meaningful dialogue about the Faustian bargains involved in new technologies. And in an age that promises unparalleled control and unparalleled, resistance, a call for a meaningful and participatory dialogue is a breath of fresh air.
Not very original February 28, 2005
16 out of 22 found this review helpful
If you've been reading Slashdot, EFF's newsletter, or similar news sources, you have already read most of the valuable ideas that are in this book.
If you know very little about the political issues raised by recent changes in technology, the first three quarters of this book might be as good a place as any to introduce yourself to the discussions that have been floating around the net.
The last quarter of the book deals with broader political issues where the author has no more expertise than a typical reporter, and is at least as superficial as what you'd find in a typical newspaper article. For instance, he says "The World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which exercise wide-ranging influence over the lives of billions of people in developing nations, clearly work for the interests of the developed nations." I say that they work for a much narrower set of interests, and are probably somewhat harmful to developed nations as a whole.
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