Group items tagged

Am I being sued? that's the first thing that comes across our minds upon noticing legal notices or letters..This article tells us not to panic but thoroughly analyze what the document says and have an in depth understanding out of the doc. If the situations seems like you are really getting a lawsuit, the next step is to seek immediate assistance from a legal advisor or lawyers. The most important thing to bear in mind is that to ensure our rights are not infringed. I find the article sound and most useful.

In Mexico and other Latin American countries there have been some questions raised on how kidnappers can get precise information of potential victims and their spending power: friends, lifestyle, travels. If social networks like Facebook are a potential tool for criminals, should they be regulated by the government? Is it the media or the government's fault if such a use is being made? I am looking for references in English regarding this problem. 

Obama's "Organizing for America" was an attempt to channel digital political organizing toward an established candidate. It was the first time a mainstream candidate used the internet effectively to organize. But now they're using it to organize while in government... will it continue to work? Perhaps the fact this year's election is still 9 months away is the problem.

Study into the US Safe Harbor is an agreement between the European Commission and the United States Department of Commerce that enables organisations to join a Safe Harbor List to demonstrate their compliance with the European Union Data Protection Directive.

This is a clear example of a government trying to control the information flow with old techniques (only one CD for all journalists) and how the Internet comes into play to provide electoral information. Interesting to compare vs the 2008 US elections, where pundits and commentators could get info from various sites. Can the Internet change results?

A new paper on Australia's proposed mandatory filtering plan in context of Australia's broader stance on child pornography. It uses the example the consumption of "Japanese Boys Love" manga by people (mainly girls) underage to explore issues around censorship and governance

There have been a number of research programs that have investigated students' thinking and beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, including definitions of knowledge, how knowledge is constructed, and how knowledge is evaluated. However, these different research programs have pursued varying definitions and conceptual frameworks and used quite different methodologies to examine students' epistemological beliefs and thinking. In the first section of this article, we provide a critical and comprehensive review of these different research programs. In the second part of this article, we identify nine crucial theoretical and methodological issues that need to be resolved in future research on epistemological theories. As these issues are addressed in future research, there will be more consensus regarding the nature of epistemological theories, and their relation to cognition, motivation, and learning will be made more explicit.

Google announced to use SSL to secure user's data, keep it hard for hackers and government to spy on users' searches.

US court rules that tracking once in public is public information but tracking over time in public is accumulating information usually unavailable to 'the public' therefore requiring a search warrant.

A dispute between two letting agencies "Mantra Group Pty Ltd (Mantra) VS Tailly Pty Ltd (Tailly)" over a domain name of an apartment complex at Surfers Paradise. Mantra had alleged Tailly of breaching its registered domain in gaining commercial advantage since Mantra is a letting company that run on a bigger scale. The court is till in the midst of deliberation.

The Digital economy Act in all its glory. There was a LOT of debate over this Act. It was introduced by Lord Mandelson of the Labour party, tossed back and forth between houses with amendments that were argued to the minutest detail, then finally spat out for the public to revile. All ISPs are now required to monitor their subscibers use of listed sites and warn them when they enter a site that enables pirating. They must then record every such warning, giving every subscriber a number, then make the list available to the government when they get a warrant to look for excessive downloaders. Only the government like this idea, because it makes their job easier. I wandered onto one of the listed sites recently in my quest to find Dr Who episodes before they aired in Australia. The message was like driving down the highway and suddenly seeing a police car parked on the side of the road. You might know you haven't done anything wrong (yet) but you still get a scare ...

This article is a case against the FCC and the broadband plan as it doesn't support the building of an extensive network accessible to all. The author however shows how the private sector could come up with solutions to that problem. It is a very interesting point of view on the digital divide as well as on internet governance issues.

This article discusses how a simulated war game called "Cyber ShockWave" can turn any electronic item, for example, cell phone or computer can be "weapons" used to shut down the Internet during terrorist attack. The notion of privacy and civil liberties, should expect to be ceased for Americans during a crisis of that level. During this mock scenario, it was revealed that "[The United States] don't have the authority in this nation as a government to quarantine people's cellphones." Which during a state of emergency brings to question if Internet carriers should allow their networks to be monitored. How secure is online security, and who is the enemy, becomes difficult to discern, as any threat to national security arises.

This article discusses the difficulties of ensuring that cyberbullying is prevented, or monitored. It also discusses how the technology appears to supersede the school's governance of the appropriate use of technology with respect to the Internet. The article mentions an analogy to the Lord of the Flies, as children become savages when unsupervised, which contradicts the article "Cyberbullying is focus of conference," which states that children are unaware of their actions. This is a bit ironic, as the book was an actual microcosm of world war 2, and therefore the story is symbolic of war very much induced by adults.

This article argues that the best alternative to fight against the Iranian Government, is providing the country with free satellite internet access. The flow of information and the use of Internet like a democratic tool will allow the own citizens to defeat the regime

This is the Iranian government's answer to US anti-internet censorship groups who aim to undermine the regime's strict filtering rules through funding from the CIA. It brings up questions of international involvement in extreme national governance of the internet.

Interesting article on The Guardian on how the main British parties use social media. The article, though, treats social media as a fad that may eventually dissolve. The question, though, remains: do political parties know how to use social media?