Volti, Unit 4 information, c.16-18:Shaping & Controlling Technology

• Technology and its Creators: Who’s in Charge of Whom?

• Organizations and Technological Change• Governing Technology

Governing Technology• “Even if technological development has produced more good

than bad, it has proceeded in a fashion that has put it beyond our individual control. It seems as though we have struck a bargain where-by we consume the fruits of technological advance in return for delegating to others the power to determine the technologies that shape the basic contours of our lives -- everything from what we eat, to how we work, to the way we are entertained.” (351)

Governing Technology: Congress• “If an industry has a strong interest in a

particular technology, it may exert a great deal of influence so Congress and the relevant government agencies will lend support to that technology.” (349)

Who controls the Internet?

© 2009, RegainDomain.com

UDRP

(Domain Disputes)

April 10, 2023

Example: Dennis Miller

April 10, 2023

April 10, 2023

More Examples• Benedict XVI• Michael Rowe

April 10, 2023

Michael Rowe

Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe Soft

mikerowesoft.com

microsoft.com

More Examples• iTunes.com vs. iTunes.co.u

k• Zunior.com• DisneyWorldShopping.com

© 2005, Apple

© 2005, Zunior

.tv

.tv

April 10, 2023

.tv

April 10, 2023

.XXX

© 2003, WSIS

WSIS Questions• Should ICANN or U.S. gov control the Internet?• Freedom of expression?• Separate funding pool for the technology gap

[digital divide] between richer and poorer nations?

Governing Technology• No easy solutions for governing any technology

system• “No system of guiding technology will produce a

utopia.” (316)• “We will always have to reconcile ourselves to the

fact that even the most advanced and responsive technologies will not solve many of our basic problems.” (316)

Questions• Should essentially Western technologies be

managed / controlled by non-Western organizations?

• What role should technologically advanced countries have in easing diffusion of technologies in countries that exhibit cultural lag?