Shift in Internet control is next lecture topic

The President’s Lecture Series at Bowling Green State University continues with “The Social Transformation of Networks,” presented by Dr. David L. Passmore of Pennsylvania State University.

Passmore will speak at 3 p.m. Feb. 3 in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Theater. His lecture is free and open to the public. The theme of this year’s lecture series is Technology, Society and Humanity.
According to Passmore, the Internet, especially the World-Wide Web, has become largely a "read only" resource because control over content is held by an increasingly narrow band of content providers.
However, the peer-to-peer computing movement, most commonly identified in products like Napster, is challenging the technologies, structure, control, and ethos of the "consumer" Internet. He will discuss the revolution brought about by the peer-to-peer computing movement, which has brought about a social transformation of the Internet through which such technologies as file sharing, distributed computing, instant messaging, resource load balancing, and collaboration are seizing control over content from a few content providers and are allocating control back to individual Internet users. The result is increased collaboration and cooperation, but other consequences include threats to authority, individual integrity, identity, and control are evident.

Passmore received a master’s of education degree in industrial technology and education from BGSU in 1970. A professor of education in the Workforce Education and Development Program at Penn State, he holds joint appointments as professor of operations research in the interuniversity Operations Research Program, and as professor of mineral engineering management in the Department of Energy and GeoEnvironmental Sciences in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.