The Boston Herald ran a nice piece this morning on Dave Winer’s fellowship to the Berkman Center and on our blogging initiative that he’s heading up. I liked that Tom Walsh, the reporter, focused on the extent to which we’re aiming to help break down barriers at the university between the schools and the research centers. But one caveat. The story left the impression that we’re actively involved in censoring what people post to the blogs that are associated with this initiative. The story says that we have a “ban on promoting products, causes or political candidates.” Some context is needed here. Our rules are meant to ensure that no one posting to sites that we host is implying that the university is supporting a product, cause or political candidate (i.e., consistent with the Provost’s “use of name” policy). To the greatest extent allowed by law and university policy, we’ll aggressively try to stay *out* of the business of limiting or censoring what people post to their blogs. Freedom of expression, within appropriate legal limits (yeah, OK, so I’m a lawyer, and I do happen to think that things like child pornography, say, is bad), is deeply important to us. And it’s central to why the Net has become what it has today.
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