Author, tech expert to address Rockford students during NIU visit

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother focuses on a group of techie teens who are held as suspected terrorists after an attack is perpetrated on San Francisco. When the teens are released, they hack their Xboxes to access the Internet without being tracked and begin protesting the government’s attempts to strip them of their civil liberties. (Photo provided)

Staff Report

DEKALB, Ill. — Tech-savvy teens use the Internet to do everything from chatting with friends to posting original artwork to collaborating with open-source software. But many Internet users don’t really understand how copyright and online piracy legislation or anti-terrorist surveillance might affect them.

Thursday, Feb. 9, a group of students from Rockford Jefferson High School, Rockford East High School, Belvidere High School, Belvidere North High School and Machesney Park Harlem High School will have the unique opportunity to learn more about freedom of information and the underlying science and technology that make online interactions possible when they attend Northern Illinois University’s (NIU) event, “The Day of Doctorow.”

The students are traveling to DeKalb with support from Rock Valley College’s Upward Bound Program, NIU STEM Outreach and the Friends of the NIU Libraries. During their visit, students will participate in a live discussion with author and technology activist Cory Doctorow and experience a day of interactive learning and discourse.

Rockford students will learn more about the science behind the fiction in Doctorow’s best-selling book, Little Brother, by participating in interactive mini labs on numerous topics, including video-game design, hacking the Internet, cell phone forensics and the very fiber and light that bring the Internet to life.

Doctorow’s Little Brother focuses on a group of techie teens who are held as suspected terrorists after an attack is perpetrated on San Francisco. When the teens are released, they hack their Xboxes to access the Internet without being tracked and begin protesting the government’s attempts to strip them of their civil liberties.

The novel describes new and emerging technology and raises interesting questions such as whether American citizens should sacrifice personal freedoms for national security and whether it is ethical to participate in hacking as a form of social protest.

Doctorow also is the author of several other novels, including For the Win and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

Additionally, he is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and a contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly director of European affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a nonprofit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He serves as a visiting lecturer (real and virtual) at universities in Canada and Britain. Additional information about him can be found on his website, craphound.com.

NIU’s Day of Doctorow also offers free afternoon activities including a presentation and discussion led by Doctorow and an interdisciplinary panel discussion with NIU experts. School groups and others interested are welcome to attend Doctorow’s talk at noon and the 1 p.m. panel discussion. Both events will be in NIU’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium at the Holmes Student Center.

Events can also be viewed via a live stream (http://www.livestream.com/niulive). For additional information, go to www.niu.edu/stem/sfteenread.shtml or contact Gillian King-Cargile at (815) 753-6784 or gkingcargile@niu.edu.

From the Feb. 8-14, 2012, issue