SB1682 and the senator who banned himself from the library

by David Lee King on February 23, 2007

senator wants to ban himself from the librarySenator Matt Murphy has a blog. That’s cool. However, read Jenny Levine’s post about the good senator. He wants to ban himself from the library. That’s not so cool.

He, of course, is the senator who introduced Illinois Senate Bill SB1682, which bans social networking sites in public libraries and public schools. And banning social networking sites means he wants to ban … blogger … where HIS OWN BLOG resides.

Hmm… Besides the complete silliness of voting to ban one’s own blog (I’m hearing the line from the movie Spinal Tap… “… but it goes to 11.”), this bill isn’t really grounded in today’s emerging digital reality. For example, think about John Edward’s campaign for a second. He has hired bloggers as part of his campaign staff. He made his major “I’m running” announcement on Youtube. Most likely, other presidential hopefuls will do the same.

With this in mind, when a bill is introduced to remove social networking sites from public libraries, in essense it actually asks for the removal of a type of public discourse. Public discussion. Public interaction and conversation.

And I don’t think that’s quite legal.

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  • http://fireon.org.ua/ FireON

    I’ve never heard about this senator, but in Ukraine there is only one deputy who keps a blog.

  • http://fireon.org.ua FireON

    I’ve never heard about this senator, but in Ukraine there is only one deputy who keps a blog.

  • Craig

    I know blogger is considered a “social network” in some categorizations.
    But common, you know it, you should know it, that this is not the kind of social network the bill is talking about.
    There’s no sense of “social” in blogger.
    It is not like myspace, and you know it.

  • Craig

    I know blogger is considered a “social network” in some categorizations.
    But common, you know it, you should know it, that this is not the kind of social network the bill is talking about.
    There’s no sense of “social” in blogger.
    It is not like myspace, and you know it.

  • davidleeking

    Craig – can you prove that the bill doesn’t mean blogger.com when it talks about social networks? The bill doesn’t actually define what is meant by “social networking websites.”

    Yes – I know blogger isn’t like Myspace. And Myspace isn’t like Digg (another social networking site). And Digg isn’t like aadl’s SOPAC (another social networking site).

    And that’s the problem.

  • davidleeking

    Craig – can you prove that the bill doesn’t mean blogger.com when it talks about social networks? The bill doesn’t actually define what is meant by “social networking websites.”

    Yes – I know blogger isn’t like Myspace. And Myspace isn’t like Digg (another social networking site). And Digg isn’t like aadl’s SOPAC (another social networking site).

    And that’s the problem.

  • http://weblog.globaladvancemeda.com/ Steve

    Thank you for taking the time to write about this, it amazes me how such a big issue is not even seen in the top headlines. It’s nice to see it in someone’s headlines in my rss reader, hopefully people will do some more thinking about this.

  • http://weblog.globaladvancemeda.com Steve

    Thank you for taking the time to write about this, it amazes me how such a big issue is not even seen in the top headlines. It’s nice to see it in someone’s headlines in my rss reader, hopefully people will do some more thinking about this.

  • http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/ Jenny Levine

    Craig, if you read the transcript, you’ll see that the police chief advising Senator Murphy very clearly lists the top 10 social networking sites, and Blogger is second on that list. So while you and I might not think of Blogger as a social network, obviously the person trying to enact this legislation – and someone he has chosen as an advisor – do. David didn’t add Blogger to the list – Detective Riordan did.

  • http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/ Jenny Levine

    Craig, if you read the transcript, you’ll see that the police chief advising Senator Murphy very clearly lists the top 10 social networking sites, and Blogger is second on that list. So while you and I might not think of Blogger as a social network, obviously the person trying to enact this legislation – and someone he has chosen as an advisor – do. David didn’t add Blogger to the list – Detective Riordan did.

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