“don’t be evil” an albatross around Google’s neck?

I blogged about the vast spread of the internet in this post A tremendous new burst of creativity on the web and I've explored the advent of some really basic building materials – I don't jump to any conculsions about what the world will build on top of this technological marvel that is materializing.

So this post “don’t be evil” an albatross around Google’s neck, plus a great discussion of Web censorship in China comes at an interesting moment to follow on from what I wrote:

Google’s wise and experienced senior policy counsel, said at today’s Computers Freedom and Privacy conference roundtable on China, that Google’s slogan — “don’t be evil” — was developed as a lighthearted slogan to help geeks at Google express their corporate values, has now become an albatross around Google’s neck. In all seriousness, the panel discussion that followed was fascinating and underscored the deep importance of evolving a global support for the free flow of information on the Web.

I thought Google's slogan was pretty good and perhaps one of the reasons why they seem to have so much community support and why the company is so "lucky". (As a Christian I don't think it's luck, but you know what I mean)

That post ends with a curious thought:

the actions of China reveal a significant weakness in the global regulatory framework of the Internet and the Web. During the first decade of the global use of the Internet, we saw the Net spread and prosper largely through a deregulatory, hands-off model pushed by the United States through the work of Ira Magaziner. While this worked of a while, it left the Internet without any affirmative, globally recognized protections for the free flow of information. I believe we are coming to a point where we need more affirmative and binding international agreements in support of the free flow of information as a fundamental value for the Web around the world.

Regulating openness? It's like regulating morality. I wish we could, but people keep breaking the laws we make! hehehe.

I hope Google doesn't back away from their committment to be a shining light. The power of this new web is insidious in the extreme. By design it circumvents control and broken nodes… China really can't stop the flow of good and bad into their country, they can only try.

Oh drat, did I just get banned from being read in China? hehehe.