Mama told me not to come

摘要

In April I got a chance to be Alice in Digital Wonderland when I was invited to the 10th Annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference, held this year in Toronto, to accept an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of "librarians everywhere"--a well-earned salute for the many librarians who have walked the very tough walk to support free expression online (AL, May, p. 27). CFP, as it is known, gathers together about 500 of the world's geekiest folks to discuss intellectual freedom and privacy issues--increasingly Internet-related--from a distinctly technical perspective. When I walked into the hotel, the first thing I noticed was that I was dressed inappropriately. ALA-style, I had donned a nice new suit and sensible heels, plus a little makeup. Wrong! The pret-a-porter for CFP is a pair of worn jeans, Birkenstocks, and a T-shirt with an obscure reference to Internet privacy or software; the coiffures are long ponytails and beards for the men and luxurious, untamed manes for the women. Needless to say, I was stopped and closely questioned at the gate and had to flag down my conference escort, Karen Coyle, from the day's luncheon. She vouched that despite my bizarre attire, I am not a CIA agent and was, in fact, an invited guest. Karen, a digital-library type who is active in ALA's Library and Information Technology Association as well as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, kept a firm grip on my elbow for most of the conference from then on. AND THE PHRASE IN ENGLISH IS ... I scooped up whatever conference freebies I could find. There were no canvas bags, sadly, but someone did give me a CD filled with encryption software and guaranteed to run under most versions of Unix. I started to ask if there was a Windows NT version, but thought better of it.