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It's a real shame when an expert on one topic starts to talk in public about another area they don't really know about. "Human Right" is an attribute with a lo
by calpaterson 16y ago
It's a real shame when an expert on one topic starts to talk in public about another area they don't really know about.
"Human Right" is an attribute with a lot of implications. If the web is a human right because otherwise people end up disadvantaged, then surely more basic communications technologies are human rights also? Like pens and paper? Even worse, if your logic is that things become human rights because they're simply beneficial, then you have to create loads of new human rights. Washing machines are human rights. Public transport is a human right. Five pieces of fruit a day is a human right. And then you're starting to loose a lot of the original meaning of the term.
- _delirium 16y agoThe idea's been applied to more basic information sources for a while, at least by some people. Some of the advocates for public libraries have long argued a version of "access to knowledge" or "access to information" as a right. Extending that to the internet seems to be sort of a modern version (although that could presumably also be fulfilled via libraries; it's not clear that home access to internet is specifically required).