Google, free speech, technology....

An article in today's NY Times entitled "Google's Gatekeepers" provides a good starting point for discussions about not only free speech, censorship, and new technologies, but also international business, cross-cultural concerns, privacy, and business and society. The article is focused on Nicole Wong and other key Google executives who make global public policy decisions:

"Given their clashing and sometimes self-contradictory missions — to obey local laws, repressive or not, and to ensure that information knows no bounds; to do no evil and to be everywhere in a sometimes evil world — Wong and her colleagues at Google seem to be working impressively to put the company’s long-term commitment to free expression above its short-term financial interests....."