Shutdown Ends - WhatWeThinkAndWhy Reopens!

As hard as it is to imagine, some of you didn't know that this site was closed yesterday, all day long. Maybe you missed the post from the previous day which announced the shutdown (it didn't make the email notification that some of you receive), or maybe you had some huge personal issue that prevented you from performing your daily ritual of checking here for new content first thing after you pour your morning coffee, but either way, you didn't miss much.

Actually, the site could still be accessed and some content on the sidebar was edited, but it's the thought that counts when you're protesting. Like the OWS camp outs that protest "not getting enough of the loot", this site engaged in a protest without an expected result. It was a "Don Quixote" moment, but all it actually accomplished was giving me a day off from my unpaid gig as editor of this mostly quixotic blog. The truth is, other than just doing nothing, I wouldn't have a clue as to how to temporarily shut down the site.

Having said that, and acknowledging that the whole thing was tongue in cheek, the issue of the SOPA/PIPA law was/is more important than many think. It was defeated yesterday (maybe because of the uproar caused by internet users who actually knew what it meant for the future), but like most bad legislation, it was more like a time out for naughty legislators than an actual long term "this is never going to happen" defeat.

Many (maybe even most) people really don't understand what the hullabaloo was all about. Many even could be misled by the title of the legislation, which makes it seem like a reasonable idea. The Stop Online Piracy Act is (like a lot of purposely misnamed legislation) not really about that issue at all and wouldn't fix the problem if it was. And who actually has the time to dig in and learn about it in the midst of all the other things we are focusing on anyway?

In order to fix the time and distraction problem, it's WWTAW to the rescue!  The Khan Academy, which was highlighted here in a post a few days ago, has put out this short educational video which explains the situation in a way that anyone can understand.

We pride ourselves in making the obvious more understandable. We are, after all, simple minded. Don't you feel so much better now that this blog has reopened?



Hat tip to Leah for suggesting this video via Face-book, which could have been shut down by SOPA if it had passed.