Google Lost Its Soul Today

In Tech Time, 2007 was ages ago.  A lifetime ago even.

In that Time, Google has changed quite a bit.  So has the neighborhood that I grew up in.

In certain circles, my neighborhood, my town is famous.  It is one of the few neighborhoods in the United States where the school district is more than half empty.  That’s not to say there are no children.  There are a lot of children.  The neighborhood has unseen gates: It is probably more than half Orthodox Jewish now, maybe even two-thirds.  Everyone looks like me, everyone sounds like me, there is even a unique sort of English subdialect in this area.

There are other people who live here though, I wish I knew them better.  Probably, like most people who lived here, if I knew them better, if I could relate to them better, Google would never had been dragged into a lawsuit here.  Thank God, then, Google stood up tall.

In 2007, this area had a religous, we think stay at home mother, from my neighborhood, who blogged as the Orthomom.  She blogged about a number of topics, but her best writing (of course), was about the School Board Elections in this area, SD15, in Nassau County, NY.  They were extremely acrimonious, to the point where our assembly-people were coming down and speaking about how little, as they say “derech eretz,” or respect, either side had for the other.  Orthomom reported, and people commented.  Some people as themselves, some as Anonymous.  It was, and in some ways, still is, a horrible time for this district.

The district was performing poorly as the neighborhood was changing.  The local high school was ranked in the bottom 15% for average and below average students pulling up test scores under NCLB.  Editorials were bitter, and the townspeople, angry.  Comments on her blog appeared about one Pamela Greenbaum, a parent in the public school, and a School Board official, saying that she was a bigot and an anti-Semite, among other rancorous terms.  People here were and are afraid, there were afraid of high property taxes, of bad schools, of a ghetto, of many things.

The Orthomom and her commentators got sued for defamation of a Public Official in an election year.  Everyone involved though, was anonymous, on Google Blogger blog.  No one knew precisely who to sue, so the suit went to Google.

One of the pre-emtive strikes was to unveil the Orthomom before the case went forward.  That was turned down.  Eventually the case was thrown out of court, as an uncitable case, due to the realization that a large amount of the commenting had to do with this neighborhood in upheaval and its school board election.  To allow the case to go forward would potentially damage the rights of free political speech.  Of course, this was immediately directed at Google, not the Orthomom.  For who is the Orthomom, just a woman with some children, in neighborhood that is changing.

Below, are the memos and the final decision.  Although they are publicly available on the Internet elsewhere, I uploaded them on Scribd in the hopes that more people would find them and read them.  Reading these, is a stark reminder that today, Google failed.

Google wants to be steward of all information.  It is a wonderful goal.  Unfortunately, today Google became a corporation.  An acrimonious school board election in a small town and a lawsuit surrounding it in some ways is just as silly as revealing who called who a skank on the Internet.  By handing over the information, Google cowed.  Google decided we are stupid with what we know, what we want to do, what are feelings are, and how we should express them, and when.  Google decided that because they have much more knowledge than I as an individual, it should decide.

Because it has gotten so big, Google lost its soul.  May they be lucky enough to find it again.  After all, some knowledge only comes from the wisdom of being human and living the human experience.

Due to the way the blog is organized (messily), I’m trying to include as many searches to give an overall look for those who decide to take a closer peek at what was happening.  If I forgot anything, I apologize. If it seems repetitive, that’s also due to the bad organization and the fact that I am not sure of the best way to search this blog.

And on this blog, I support things like the Citizens Media Law Project.  You should know what counts as what.  And you should know that at least in the US, you have the right to free speech.  Don’t abuse the privilege!

Searching for SD 15.

Searching for Lawrence.

Searching for Woodmere

Searching for Atlantic Beach

Searching for Inwood

Searching for Yeshiva

Searching for Budget

Searching for Lawsuit

Searching for Greenbaum.

Original archive of materials found here and here.

Greenbaum to Quash

<a title=”View Greenbaum Memo to Quash (Google V Greenbaum) on Scribd” href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/18946218/Greenbaum-Memo-to-Quash-Google-V-Greenbaum” style=”margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;”>Greenbaum Memo to Quash (Google V Greenbaum)</a> <object codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0″ id=”doc_739986219058648″ name=”doc_739986219058648″ classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ align=”middle”    height=”500″ width=”100%” >        <param name=”movie”    value=”http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18946218&access_key=key-1m62ity0aag04bsflr0x&page=1&version=1&viewMode=”>         <param name=”quality” value=”high”>         <param name=”play” value=”true”>        <param name=”loop” value=”true”>         <param name=”scale” value=”showall”>        <param name=”wmode” value=”opaque”>         <param name=”devicefont” value=”false”>        <param name=”bgcolor” value=”#ffffff”>         <param name=”menu” value=”true”>        <param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”>         <param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”>         <param name=”salign” value=”">                    <embed src=”http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18946218&access_key=key-1m62ity0aag04bsflr0x&page=1&version=1&viewMode=” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” play=”true” loop=”true” scale=”showall” wmode=”opaque” devicefont=”false” bgcolor=”#ffffff” name=”doc_739986219058648_object” menu=”true” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” salign=”" type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” align=”middle”  height=”500″ width=”100%”></embed>    </object>

Orthomom’s Reply

<a title=”View OrthoMom Reply Memo (Google V Greenbaum) on Scribd” href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/18946220/OrthoMom-Reply-Memo-Google-V-Greenbaum” style=”margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;”>OrthoMom Reply Memo (Google V Greenbaum)</a> <object codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0″ id=”doc_277845918933593″ name=”doc_277845918933593″ classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ align=”middle”    height=”500″ width=”100%” >        <param name=”movie”    value=”http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18946220&access_key=key-271rzvs5dcssqa4kyjl9&page=1&version=1&viewMode=”>         <param name=”quality” value=”high”>         <param name=”play” value=”true”>        <param name=”loop” value=”true”>         <param name=”scale” value=”showall”>        <param name=”wmode” value=”opaque”>         <param name=”devicefont” value=”false”>        <param name=”bgcolor” value=”#ffffff”>         <param name=”menu” value=”true”>        <param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”>         <param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”>         <param name=”salign” value=”">                    <embed src=”http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18946220&access_key=key-271rzvs5dcssqa4kyjl9&page=1&version=1&viewMode=” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” play=”true” loop=”true” scale=”showall” wmode=”opaque” devicefont=”false” bgcolor=”#ffffff” name=”doc_277845918933593_object” menu=”true” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” salign=”" type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” align=”middle”  height=”500″ width=”100%”></embed>    </object>

The NY State’s Supreme Court’s Decision

<a title=”View Google/Blogger(Orthomom) V Greenbaum Decision NYSTATE on Scribd” href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/18945928/GoogleBloggerOrthomom-V-Greenbaum-Decision-NYSTATE” style=”margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;”>Google/Blogger(Orthomom) V Greenbaum Decision NYSTATE</a> <object codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0″ id=”doc_262087933078225″ name=”doc_262087933078225″ classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ align=”middle”    height=”500″ width=”100%” >        <param name=”movie”    value=”http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18945928&access_key=key-138zi1netida7oj9ii1p&page=1&version=1&viewMode=”>         <param name=”quality” value=”high”>         <param name=”play” value=”true”>        <param name=”loop” value=”true”>         <param name=”scale” value=”showall”>        <param name=”wmode” value=”opaque”>         <param name=”devicefont” value=”false”>        <param name=”bgcolor” value=”#ffffff”>         <param name=”menu” value=”true”>        <param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”>         <param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”>         <param name=”salign” value=”">                    <embed src=”http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18945928&access_key=key-138zi1netida7oj9ii1p&page=1&version=1&viewMode=” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” play=”true” loop=”true” scale=”showall” wmode=”opaque” devicefont=”false” bgcolor=”#ffffff” name=”doc_262087933078225_object” menu=”true” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” salign=”" type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” align=”middle”  height=”500″ width=”100%”></embed>    </object>

Shame on Google for not remembering this.