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Fairfax, News to charge for online Tom Hyland August 9, 2009 THE loyalty of readers accustomed to getting their news online free is about to be tested, as Australia's largest newspaper groups prepare to charge for access to their websites.Fairfax Media is considering two levels of access, one free and the other incurring a charge, as newspapers move to protect declining revenues.Last week, News Limited chief executive Rupert Murdoch announced that sites featuring the news content of his stable of papers would no longer be free.The plan to erect pay-walls around their online sites comes as newspaper companies confront a decline in the advertising revenue that has financed print production.

Monetisation will have to happen, because without monetisation of the online sites that the newspaper industries have operated very successfully, we can't afford to keep the big newsroom staffs we have,'' he said.Fairfax was looking at a number of pay models, including offering readers two levels of access - free entry for a mass audience, with a charge for ''more upmarket, high quality data''.

The move is a risk for both publishers, which are gambling on readers being prepared to pay for news they have been receiving free - and will remain free on sources such as the ABC.While newspaper websites carry advertising, they do not finance the news content, most of which comes from the papers

This year more than a thousand Web sites have been shut down for “vulgar” content, although some critics complain that academic or public service sites that deal with sexually transmitted diseases have also been swept up in the juggernaut.

Industry experts say that at least 90 percent of all online games in China have some form of violence, whether they involve homicidal kung-fu masters, sword-wielding hobbits or monsters with a taste for human flesh

There are summer camps for teenagers who spend too much online,

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that has increasingly drawn some decidedly juvenile pranks, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of articles.

The latest changes come as Wikipedia continues trying to balance a need for credibility and a desire for openness.

The idea is to block the kind of high-profile vandalism that has marred some pages.

more than one in four Europeans had never used a PC

People above the age of 65 and the unemployed were the least active online

Nearly 70% of people under the age of 24 use the internet every day, compared to the EU average of 43%. But this same group is reluctant to pay to download or use online content, such as music or video, with 33% saying that they would not pay anything at all.

Yes. It's all about attention. That is the most valuable commodity. If you have attention and reputation, you can figure out how to monetize it. However, money is not the No. 1 factor anymore.

maybe the media is going to be a part time job. Maybe media won't be a job at all, but will instead be a hobby

The question is can people get the information they want, the way they want it?

Tech giants unite against Google By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley Not everyone in the coalition wants the deal blocked, some want revisions Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library.Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works. "Google is trying to monopolise the library system," the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle told BBC News.

Critics have claimed the settlement will transform the future of the book industry and of public access to the cultural heritage of mankind embodied in books. The Internet Archive scans around 1000 books a day at 10 cents a page "The techniques we have built up since the enlightenment of having open access, public support for libraries, lots of different organisational structures, lots of distributed ownership of books that can be exchanged, resold and repackaged in different ways - all of that is being thrown out in this particular approach," warned Mr Kahle. The non-profit Internet Archive has long been a vocal opponent of this agreement. It is also in the business of scanning books and has digitised over half a million of them to date. All are available free. As the 4 September deadline approaches, the number of groups and organisations voicing their opposition is growing. But with three of the world's best-known technology companies joining the chorus, the Open Book Alliance can expect to make headlines the world over.

In its defence, Google has argued that the deal brings great benefits to authors and will make millions of out-of-print books widely available online and in libraries. In a statement, the company said: "The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition."

A comment thread attached to a report about the announcement contained about 140 replies from readers – most of then opposed to the move and many of them threatening to quit News Corp websites when charges are applied.

"'Quality reporting does not come cheap.' I agree," reads a comment posted by Dean of Brisbane. "But we are talking about News Corp here - not quality reporting. I currently pay exactly what I think it is worth - FREE."

over 30 types of China's online games worth 71.78 million USD were exported to overseas markets. Revenue from overseas markets has become a new profit growth point for China's online game enterprises

If China's cultural industry seeks to "go global," Chinese enterprises must improve their "skills" to establish their own brands

the introduction of traditional theatrical repertoire and performances, toy manufacturing and other sectors to overseas markets have also had a rich "Chinese flavor."

And so, to the surprise of buyers, Amazon erased the two books -- which had been paid for and delivered -- from the electronic reader.

In the age of networked digital devices, it seems that values such as the sanctity of the private sphere, the protection of our private property and the inviolability of our correspondence no longer count for very much

All of these devices can be remotely modified at any time through software updates. So you could say that an iPhone doesn't really belong to you -- at least not in quite the same way that your refrigerator or bicycle does.

new kinds of social media are challenging those traditional levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around the restrictions.

But it appears they are finding ways around Big Brother.

Germany Is World's Third Largest Defense Exporter

Once one of the world's most aggressive powers, Germany today likes to project a pacifist image

a report released yesterday by the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), a German think tank, reveals a different side of Germany's relationship to war.

The forms are harmless, containing standard information such as a client's name, age, address and marital status, and they were all stamped to indicate that they had been received by the judicial authority.

It will probably take some time before we have liberated ourselves from thousands of years of tradition.

And he must have believed the promises of his government and the Olympic family, the promises that the time had finally come when he could speak his mind freely, for all the world to hear, and with no fear of repercussions. On the morning of his arrest, on Aug. 11, 2008, he said: "There are great powers that oppose me. But I am not alone. We are many.

Charter 08

He feels a deep bond with people who are treated unjustly, he says, and he advocates on their behalf on the Internet, in police stations and in courtrooms, for which he has earned a reputation with the powers that be.

It revolves around his fifth, and most prominent, client in Fujian, the man who disappeared during the Olympic Games in Beijing almost a year ago, all because he had applied for a permit to protest in one of the "protest parks" the government had designated for that purpose.

Instructions educating Chinese citizens on how to sabotage the Melbourne International Film Festival are being circulated around the world, organisers say.

Hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans soon after the launch of the 2009 festival.

Six Chinese-language movies have also been pulled out of the festival, leaving organisers with a logistical headache and the fear that Chinese film-makers will boycott the festival in future.

Sorry, I don't use the word media. I don't use the word news. I don't think that those words mean anything anymore

But the problem is not that the traditional way of writing articles isn't valuable anymore. The problem is that this is now in the minority. It used to be a monopoly, it used to be the only way to distribute news

Newspapers are not important. It may be that their physical, printed form no longer works.

Students to dump textbooks for e-books Carmel EganAugust 16, 2009 HEAVY book-filled school bags could soon be a thing of the past, with the e-book industry claiming most of students' textbooks will be contained in light hand-held portable devices within three years. The internet-linked reading devices will store hundreds of e-textbooks bought online or borrowed from school libraries. ''E-textbooks will be mainstream within three years,'' the executive director of DA Direct, Australia's largest distributor of portable reading devices and e-books, Richard Siegersma, predicted. Mr Siegersma said digital technology would lead to the costs of e-textbooks falling in a year to 18 months. ''There will be just-in-time and customised delivery to flexible, full-colour screens; textbooks with audio and video components; touch screens for handwriting and margin note-taking and text highlighting,'' he said.

HEAVY book-filled school bags could soon be a thing of the past, with the e-book industry claiming most of students' textbooks will be contained in light hand-held portable devices within three years.

''E-textbooks will be mainstream within three years,''

QQ is China’s largest instant messenger service; in 2008 it owned 86% of the market, with MSN owning 5%, and a bunch of others owning less. QQ dominates the market – but the money made seems not to be from its instant messenger; rather its leveraging and channeling that huge audience through a gauntlet of micro-payments.

How is this achieved? It’s very smart – QQ doesn’t aim for the brain, it aims for the heart using QQshow – which is very similar to Yahoo Avatars, but with a  “billion’s of RMB from China youth market” twist.

QQ is head and shoulder’s above its competition, of this there is no doubt. Why? QQ is more than an instant messenger service, it’s a portal to a vast array of entertainment services in China; ie: while MSN, skype, etc, focus solely on instant messages, QQ IM is just the first step in a long sale.

mulling an Internet filtering system similar to China’s controversial “Green Dam” project

Government has called for a tender for a system that could block “undesirable websites.”

The MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees specifies that the Internet will not be censored to ensure the success of the MSC Malaysia initiative