Access to Information - Is it an Inalienable Right?
POSTED BY: Razza
UPDATED: Friday, May 15, 2009 23:56
VIEWED: 3486
PAGE 2 of 2
Frem:
To quote Bartles & James and date myself..."Thanks for your support!" I love the librarian tatoos....think I'll get a book and bring it to the Christmas party this year.
I tend to lean toward Rue and Sig and agree that it should be a right, but I have the same reservations that Sarge mentions. Can you make what is essentially a service a right? I think we have to get away from the concept that access to the internet is just a service, because our world is slowly gravitating from a desire for access to an absolute need for it.
Some services are only available through the web these days, and I think that trend will only expand, not contract. We often have folks coming in to use the public internet stations to fill out job applications. There are more and more companies that refuse to take a written application for job openings. I'm not talking about professional jobs for skilled educated workers, I'm talking about entry level minimum wage jobs like running a cash register. I understand that these companies are using this as a mechanism to prescreen applicants, afterall if you don't have the motivation or skills to fill out a simple web application, chances are you won't have the skills to run a cash register. As more and more companies move toward this trend, however, it will only make it more pressing to declare access a right. Even some government services are only available through the internet these days. The state of Virginia no longer prints and distributes state income tax forms to libraries throughout the state, they encourage citizens to "go to the web" and print tax forms. This kind of scenario is sure to become the norm, not the exception.
I agree with everyone about the need for privacy. I did not mean to imply that we have a right to that kind of government generated information.
I would have thought in addition to the "Freedom of the Press" issues, folks might have latched onto the "..freedom of speech.." and the "...right of the people to peacaeably assemble". Afterall, this very forum could be considered a peaceful assembly of folks expressing their freedom to speak. I think that coupled with the freedom of the press would be the most logical strategies for establishing an "access right".
I want to thank everyone for their thoughts, and hope the discussion continues because I think this is a great topic.
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"Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly."
---Roger Ebert
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