Group items tagged

There has been some controversy about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments in an online chat from 2006 that surfaced recently. He told a friend that Facebook users were dumb for trusting him and submitting private, personal information on his then-fledgling website. An initiative by four young programmers to counteract the negative effects that Facebook has had on privacy and the ability of users to control the data they put online is Diaspora. It is a decentralised, open source social network that wants to compete with centralised social networks that allow "spying for free". It will be interesting to see whether the initiative really takes off as a viable alternative to Facebook.

The Acadamey of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are suing domain registration giant (under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act) 'godaddy' disputing over 100 domain names they have 'parked' such as 2011oscars.com, academyawardz.com and oscarsunplugged.com. The lawsuit is 134 pages long and worth up to $10 million dollars in damages. GoDaddy run 'cashparking' offering customers the chance to earn cash when they buy a domain and park the page collecting funds when godaddy's advertising partners receive revenue based on a cost per click model.

Social media's role in the organisation and communication of the protests in Thailand is still small compared to the role traditional forms of media have played. This article however is a good primer on the details of how social media has been used - citizen journalism, regular journalism that is now "on the fly", amplification of messages via social media channels. Censorship by the government has also been a factor in the unrest.

Following a Facebook user's invitation for people to submit drawings of Prophet Mohammed and the ensuing condemnation from individual Muslim's and Muslim groups, The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has extended a ban on Facebook until May 31, and has also applied the ban to popular video sharing website YouTube and restricted Wikipedia. Depicting the prophet in a perceived blasphemous manner is considered sacrilegious. Over 100,000 people had become fans of the page on Facebook. Thousands of protesters have held multiple public rallies against Facebook, with anti-America and anti-European sentiment high.

The conference on cybersecurity in Dallas, Texas has brought forward the fears of cybersecurity experts in which they still recognize the potential for "nightmare" scenarios. All the experts at this conference agree that the only way to protect against the "nightmare scenario" is for global cooperation.

Blog entry about Facebook and the relation between the real social network.

We've talked about the ip address in first half of the semeseter, IPv6 summit meeting at 19, May pointed out the essential need for IPv6 and the possible issue afterwards.

Perfect for this week's topic on privacy.

don't forget the tooltip

My blog post on the new social networking site, Togetherville, that's specifically aimed at 6-10-year-olds. Looks at the reception from the media so far, and whether or not it can be an effective tool against cyberbullying as it effects kids in this very young demographic.

In my final blog post, I reflect on the reasons I believe cultural protest is just as valid a type of protest as any other and why I think people participate.

Collecting web data, who is it helping and who is it hurting. Google Analytics is a prominent free to use service that allows everyone from micro bloggers to corporations to record the statistics for visitors to their sites. Analytics can tell you where visitors are from, what they searched for, and what time they visited. They receive this information from your IP address, and ultimately your visit could potentially be traced directly back to your comptuer. Google has created an add-on to help hid your IP address identity, in a likely effort to protect the company from privacy concerns.

The spat continues between Google and Stephen Conroy with their arguments looking to be ongoing ad infinitum in a bid to get back at the other. Although the Greens also pipe up with saying Conroy looks as though his vehement criticisms of Google do appear to be consequence to their outspoken criticisms of the mandatory filter.

Although not strictly a "protest" in the strictest sense of the word, the Kiss Goodbye to MS movement has similarities with protest movements - people with a unified belief acting together to facilitate change. The main action required to take part is to wear red lipstick during MS Awareness Week in Australia: 26th May to 6th June. I wondered how men could get involved - the obligatory Facebook group encourages tattoos can be used as a talking point rather than lipstick. Others can simply donate to the cause. The charity sector is incredibly crowded (for good reason) and charities have increasingly bigger marketing teams to capture the public's attention. Social media is just the latest avenue that corporations and not-for-profits are using to drive awareness.

Apple's market value has overtaken Microsoft's for the first time ever. Article looks at the impact of Apple and Google on Microsoft in the areas of search, online advertising and music in particular.

Recent press release from the European Union Digital Agenda to improve Europe's digital elements.

My New Blog Post is about the EU and their digital agenda. How the WTO might be able to influence a worldwide censorship regime.

Following my Diana Gabaldon post, I have an earlier post regarding the take down of the much parodied Hitler clip from the Movie 'Downfall' Again conflicting ideas of ownership of content once it's in the public domain

This is an interesting article about the presence of a digital divide in the recent political unrest in Thailand.\n\nI used this article as the basis for my fourth blog entry in terms of the importance of access to media when it comes to the efficacy of political action - it is hard to gain popular support for a movement when the use of twitter is more pervasive than broadcasts through old media like the radio.