Internet role in human rights gets spotlight

Technology titans and political activists gathered here on October 25, to map ways to ensure the Internet is used as a tool for human rights instead of as a weapon of oppression. The overarching goal of the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference was to collaborate on principles for entrepreneurs to balance pursuit of profit with making sure their creations are used for social good instead of evil.
"Silicon Valley has always been the epicentre of technological innovation," conference organiser Brett Solomon said as he opened the event. "But now it is also a digital beacon of hope," he said. "From the creation of the chip to the writing of the code... we can commit together to make sure the technologies are a force for good."
Engineers, entrepreneurs, and executives joined with political analysts, activists, and charity groups to delve into the increasingly vital role that the Internet plays in social reform.
Sponsors of the gathering include Google, Facebook, Skype, Mozilla and Yahoo!
"I view the Internet as the greatest opportunity to advance human rights in our lifetime," Facebook vice president of global communication and public policy Elliot Schrage told attendees. "The Internet gives people a voice, and we need to make sure it stays that way." Threats targeted at the conference included Western technology firms co-operating with governments to censor what is shared on the Internet or track down people disliked by authorities.
"The bottom line is: we're here because of the actions of governments," Google public policy director Bob Boorstin said in prepared remarks.
"It's not just repressive regimes, but democratic ones too," he said. "We know more than 40 regimes that are actively blocking content around the world."
LOS ANGELES: A teletype similar to one used to communicate with the Sigma 7 computer which was connected to UCLA's Interface Message Processor (IMP) in the birthplace of the Internet, at 3420 Boelter Hall, the original location of the first ARPANET node at UCLA in Los Angeles, California on May 3. UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and his team used the IMP, the packet-switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET to send the first message, the letters LO to Stanford Research Institute on October 29, 1969. The UCLA Department of Computer Science and Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have collaborated in creating the Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive (KIHSA), with the center recreating the lab at its original site in 3420 Boelter Hall, from which that first message was sent. The recreated lab opens on October 29 with a reunion of the computer scientists responsible for the first message.