Blogs as pamphlets – take 2

John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law weighs in on my pointer to Prof. Bailyn’s discourse on pamphlets:

“Rick’s analogy rings true to me, given a recent experience testifying against the mini-DMCA proposed in Massachusetts. In a centuries-old hearing room, dozens of technologists had come to testify against a lousy bill, with one special interest lobbyist representing the other side. How did the techies know to show up in that hearing room off Nurse’s Hall? They read today’s online pamphlets, just as our forebears read paper pamphlets. The spirit, it seems to me, is precisely the same.”

Bingo.

And as for Prof. Bailyn?

“Prof. Bailyn was on the committee that reviewed my work as an undergraduate in History and Literature and grilled me at my orals. He is a so-called University Professor, which is probably Harvard’s highest honor; it means, some say, that he’s so smart that he can teach in any discipline. He is a giant of an historian and a wonderful man. To be able to claim him on our side would be quite a coup.”

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