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Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

He was an early investor in Six Apart and Technorati, was one of the top 100 bloggers, and was one of the first to clearly articulate the ability of the Internet to change society. He was also on the board of Creative Commons, ICANN, Mozilla, etc.

Also his sister is one of the top Internet researchers, and iirc she has said that she became interested in the field because of his early entrepreneurial career.

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>and was one of the first to clearly articulate the ability of the Internet to change society.

A few years ago, it would have been considered a given that the Internet’s ability to change society was a good thing. I don’t think people take that position as unequivocally as before.

So in judging Ito, you have “Hypes the Internet” vs “helps normalize the reputation a child rapist”

I am not so sure that the good outweighs the bad

These are nice achievements. Impressive, even. But that's a very low bar for a "hero" imo.

If playing a key role in connecting everyone on earth doesn’t make someone a hero, what does? IMHO that seems like just about the greatest possible human accomplishment.

What? He was a VC who made some investments. He had a role in CC, which is actually above and beyond his job description, sure. But he doesn't hold a candle to Jon Postel or Vint Cerf or even John Perry Barlow.

He's another greedhead who got caught doing what he clearly did not want others to see him doing. He didn't even have the honor to get ahead of things; he tried to hang on until after he made the news.

That's an accomplishment he'll be remembered for.

Weird that of all the institutions of the 2000s tech scene, only BoingBoing.net comes out looking good.

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