Looking to history to better understand the present is not very unusual, but applying Thomas Jefferson’s exploration of the New World to today’s exploration of the Internet is truly an exceptional and fascinating theory.

Last evening, Amplify Public Affairs hosted Professor David Post for a discussion of his recently released book, In Search of Jefferson’s Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace. Post began his speech the way he began each opening lecture in all three courses that I took from him as a student at Temple Law School — with the disclaimer that he does not have the answers. A humble approach for an Internet scholar so accomplished in law, technology, anthropology, music, and more.

The introduction by Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge, the discussion by the author, and even the thoughtful Q&A with the Internet policy savvy audience, all held closely to the book’s theme of scalability.
• How will the Internet sustain the increase in bandwidth heavy applications?
• How will we regulate this intangible and ever growing public territory?
• What system will best allow for future, yet-to-be discovered projects?

I look forward to reading the book for enjoyment and exploration €¦ but not necessarily for answers, per orders from the author himself.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.