Group items tagged

This article show how companies like Google, Facebook, are facing judgments from the public that blame them for the latest cases of Cyber-bulling. They defend themselves arguing that the number of users has grow fast and is impossible to control all the contents. However social networks are using auto regulating mechanism like reporting abuse. The preoccupation raises in how the main idea of free expression that internet provides could be destroyed by the "freedom abuse".

A GROUP of Google's partners in China have sent an impassioned plea to the internet giant, saying their businesses are in jeopardy if Google closes its Chinese search engine, and demanding to know how they will be compensated.

The deal has been done, it's only the matter of how Googld deal with those partners and its financial problem accordingly.

The Internet is changing every seconds and obviously getting to be worriyng in some aspects. However, free access to information, free expression and participation, and thus free access to the world is now becoming narrowed due to govermental regulations and censorship. And who is going to decide which websites should be banned or not? It seems to be worried that increasingly soficiticated leak could be created by computer geeks to retrieve the freedom of the internet.

A Crikey article on DBCDE's proposal of mandatory filtering and the "Submissions on measures to increase accountability and transparency for Refused Classification material". The Government's courting of mandatory filtering has drawn widespread criticism from such stakeholders as Google, the Internet Industry Association and highly regarded academics such as Professors Catherine Lumby, Lelia Greean and John Hartley. One of the main concerns is that the scope of the filtering is too wide and will have major implications on what content is available online. This article also helpfully provides links to some of the submissions.

A coalition of internet companies are pushing for the US federal regulator responsible for communication industries to reassert control over ISPs by seeking to have internet services re-classified under the same rules as telephone services.

I know this is a piece of fluff, but it raises some questions for me: 1. Was Twitter the only medium through which this event was advertised? Could there not have been other ways to advertise the cancellation of the signing? 2. Is private Twitter usage able to be publically regulated? If so, to what extent? 3. To what extent is the shopping mall responsible? OHS and Fire codes would have mandated the number of people allowed in an area - should they not have made provision for that? 4. Was the failure to tweet reckless endangerment on the part of the manager, or have the law enforcement agencies taken social networking and used it to increase the level of responsibility a person owes to the general public (at least in this instance)? I'm not saying that the manager is in the right, I'm just wary of the level of importance placed on one aspect of this event. Has the way we operate changed to such an extent as to warrant this sort of police interference?

Here is the wikipedia synthesis about the French law Hadopi. After a lot of reboudings and disagreements, the law which tends to bring a better control and regulation on the Internet has been adopted last october. If you are interesting, you can also find some further information on this blog: http://connectedresearch.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/france-approves-hadopi-2-law-on-illegal-downloading/

And as you can see, the effects expected are not immediate... http://connectedresearch.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/hadopi-leads-to-increased-illegal-downloading/

Canada, alongside France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom have issued a warning to Google on the grounds that the company is ignoring privacy and legislation with respect to launching their products (Google Buzz). This is a clear example of when a company, may appear to attempt to protect their users (Google vs. China) while, in the company's own interest, these rules and regulations may be ignored. How much trust should we put into any company that offers services free to the public, and exactly what liberties do we give up when we sign up for that service?

This article gives a closer look at the controversial study that suggests regulating the Net will cost millions. You can even dowload the 23-page of PDF report In interested in Net neutrality the following reading titled "Net Neutrality rules would damage business, says industry-funded study" (26 April 2010) provides complementary information: http://news.techworld.com/sme/3221610/net-neutrality-rules-would-damage-business-says-industry-funded-study/

Good article on the social and political uses of social media (sic.) in Indonesia. There have been attempts to filter/censor content, but so far they have been avoided. Uses of Twitter, Facebook by politicians is also described. 

The increasing use of 'free' webmail services, and indeed full office suites, from online providers by business and governments means an increasing amount of funding for encryption and ad free internets. This potentially leads to a new digital divide. The corporate or private internet of the wealthy, and the hyper surveilled commercial internet of the many.

The penetration of political forums and blogs in South Korea has been seen as positive effects of technology on politics and, in some way, democratic development for citizen participation in political issues. A number of politicians and authorities have opened their homepages and promised the public to use them to listen more voices.

This article discusses how in the state of Ohio lawmakers are looking to have schools discipline cyberbullies. Cyberbully victims have a higher chance of being depressed, and according to this article they are approximately 8 times more likely to bring weapons to school. Though the bill will help a lot of schools monitor children's conduct online, there were no clear outlines as to the means of how to schools will be able to discipline bullies. A lot of information and rules and regulations will have to be in place to inform parents of how the school will extend their boundaries beyond a physical realm, and into the online world. Though there is much work to be done on the specifics of cyberbullyin, setting school boundaries regarding cyberbullying is a good step towards, thwarting possible cases of cyberbullies, as school jurisdiction may no longer necessarily be within bounds of a school yard.

The Australian Government under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has released a draft Form of a new copyright protection/regulation which affects the internet providers to be under a more strict copyright laws.

Article sums up the news around Facebook and Google Street View of the last weeks. The sleeping issue of privacy is said to have woken up. The U.S. Congress as well as the Federal Communications Commission and a Federal Trade Commission are asked to take action.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is really into his digital persona. Now he has a blog. Interesting how he has taken social media communications seriously. 

The news gives some information about the relationship between Chinese censorship regulations and foreign companies. International companies have to make essential adjustment to enter Chinese market.

This report typically reflect the western view of China Internet censoship. Even though the regulation is difficult for foreign companies to accept, they have to follow the guideline of Chinese government to ensure the market share in China.