"An enormous slate wall it’s not, but the people behind Charlottesville’s planned free-speech chalkboard say visitors to their web site from around the world are just days from being able to try the concept in a specially designed online version of the board.

Once a few technical matters are ironed out, users will be able to post anonymous messages, respond to posted messages or even remove or change others’ messages, said Josh Wheeler, associate director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the board’s sponsor.

Wheeler also announced Tuesday that the nonprofit center has raised all of the $25,000 it needs to pay the real-world board’s designers, local architects Pete O’Shea and Robert Winstead, to draw up precise designs.

Because the city government’s plans to overhaul the eastern end of the mall are still in flux, the exact location, size and cost of the wall are uncertain — though the board would be at the eastern end of the Downtown Mall, and cost estimates range from $250,000 to $425,000, a figure Wheeler said has risen recently to reflect the price of future maintenance work.

The general idea, though, is the same as the one the City Council approved in March: a large wall, on which passersby can write or erase anything in the spirit of free expression.

Waldo Jaquith, who designed the online version, said the center was trying to replicate the experience of the slate wall as closely as possible. As on the chalkboard, all posts will be anonymous.

“Most bulletin boards are all about accountability,” said Jaquith, a veteran web site designer. “In this, it’s true freedom of expression without any fear of identification.”

Moreover, in a feature that sponsors believe is unique, visitors to the site will be able to erase or alter others’ messages — just as on the real-world chalkboard.

“I could change your message from ‘Vote for Waldo Jaquith’ to ‘Vote against Waldo Jaquith,’” said Jaquith, who is running for Charlottesville’s City Council.

The chance for visitors to censor one another is among the chalkboard’s controversial elements, and on Tuesday monument critic Kevin Cox, a city resident, said the feature is a weakness in the design of both the slate and the online chalkboards.

“It’s not sending an accurate message about what free speech is,” said Cox, who is launching an e-mail campaign against the chalkboard. “Free speech isn’t about silencing someone who you don’t like what they said. … Americans look at free expression as something that embodies tolerance.”

Though Cox said he doesn’t mind the idea of a downtown chalkboard, he added: “Telling people that this is what free speech is all about, that’s what bothers me.”

Wheeler counters that even erasing others’ work is a form of expression that should be protected — though he said he hopes users will dispute ideas they don’t like, rather than destroy them. Like the chalkboard, the online board will be purged of messages weekly, Wheeler said.

Other critics contend that the chalkboard and the online board could become venues for profanity or hateful speech. Wheeler said that, in a move to avoid liability for such messages, organizers decided against archiving posts on the online board.

He added, though, that discussion online could get even more raucous than on the wall downtown.

“There’s certainly going to be greater anonymity on the virtual web site than there’s going to be on the chalkboard, and some people may view that as an excuse to be more outrageous than they would normally,” he said.

“The actual chalkboard will be for the community of Charlottesville, whereas the virtual chalkboard will be for the community of the World Wide Web,” Wheeler added. “It will be interesting to see how each community uses their respective chalkboards.”

Sponsors say the online chalkboard will be up and running by next week. The web site of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression is at www.tjcenter.org." (Jake Mooney, The Daily Progress, January 16, 2002).