I have to admit, this is a dream event for me – in the sense that it has all the hallmarks of an event that ends with me looking out into the audience, realising I’m still in my pajamas, and then waking up in a cold sweat.
While I can’t exactly promise that for April 20th, if you’re in the San Francisco area, it should be a fascinating debate. There’s all kinds of subtleties to the pay-for-mail debate, including the nature of agorics, challenges to the end-to-end Net, transaction costs and the always-in-the-future future of micropayments. I’ll do my best to channel all the subtleties of the case for “free” email in as entertaining way as possible: and I’m sure Mitch Kapor and Esther Dyson will have no problem broadening my mind and yours.
“Email — Should the Sender Pay?”: EFF Fundraiser, Debate Between Esther Dyson and Danny O’Brien
In light of AOL’s adopting a “certified” email system, EFF is hosting a debate on the future of email. With distinguished entrepreneur Mitch Kapor moderating, EFF Activist Coordinator Danny O’Brien and renowned tech expert Esther Dyson will discuss the potential consequences if people have to pay to send email. Would the Internet deteriorate as a platform for free speech? Would spam or phishing decline?
WHEN:
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.WHAT:
“Email – Should the Sender Pay?”
WHO:
Danny O’Brien
Danny O’Brien is the Activist Coordinator for the EFF. His job is to help our membership in making their voice heard: in government and regulatory circles, in the marketplace, and with the wider public. Danny has documented and fought for digital rights in the UK for over a decade, where he also assisted in building tools of open democracy like Fax Your MP. He co-edits the award-winning NTK newsletter, has written and presented science and travel shows for the BBC, and has performed a solo show about the Net in the London’s West End.
Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson is editor at large at CNET Networks, where she is responsible for its monthly newsletter, Release 1.0, and its PC Forum, the high-tech market’s leading annual executive conference. As editor at large, she also contributes insight and content to CNET Networks’ other properties. She sold her business, EDventure Holdings, to CNET Networks in early 2004. Previously, she had co-owned EDventure and written/edited Release 1.0 since 1983. Recently, Esther authored a New York Times editorial called “You’ve Got Goodmail,” defending a sender-pays model for the future of email.
Mitch Kapor
Mitchell Kapor is the President and Chair of the Open Source Applications Foundation, a non-profit organization he founded in 2001 to promote the development and acceptance of high-quality application software developed and distributed using open source methods and licenses. He is widely known as the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the “killer application” which made the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980’s. In 1990, Kapor co-founded EFF.
WHERE:
Roxie Film Center
3117 16th Street, San Francisco
(between Valencia and Guerrero)
Tel: (415) 863-1087See the link below for a map: http://www.roxie.com/directions.cfm
Please RSVP to events@eff.org
To learn more about the DearAOL campaign against AOL’s planned system: DearAOL
Esther Dyson’s editorial, “You’ve Got Goodmail“.