Jun 05
This is a Must Read: Drake Morton
A Must-Read For BT Wonks
by Steve Smith , Friday, June 5, 2009
The academic studies of online privacy and the technologies behind data collection are coming on strong of late. I have been covering them here in recent months because as a former egghead (I say that lovingly) in the media studies field, I have seen this movie before. As legislators and regulators turn their eye towards a commercial endeavor, scholarly research and opinion that ordinarily gets shared among a relative handful of experts suddenly becomes widely cited, misquoted, turned into gospel.
Regulators need some semblance of impartial authority when diving into complex technical matters, and, frankly, academics need funding, which usually comes from government sources. The upshot is that people in the digital media industries may as well spend some time now hitting the scholarly books, because they will meet them in the legislative and FTC hearing rooms many of them will be attending in the coming years. (more…)