Group items tagged

Developers are not thrilled with Apple's new rules. The restrictions imposed affect the work of developers like Jack Freeman, who here declares himself as a "former loyal developer"

We tend to think of the digital divide in geographical terms (developed vs developing nations). But what does it mean for citizens of developed nations to be on the wrong side of this divide? This article gives a brief insight into the subject in Britain.

The Whitehouse released the code of the open platform developed for whitehouse.org, to encourage reviews and improvements to the platform

India's government is planning to develop its own OS due to security reasons. They do not want to rely on foreign operating systems as they believe this makes them more susceptible to cyber attacks. 

Interesting article applicable to the issues with the digital divide. Most notable is the way that many developing countries are 'skipping' over technology-steps: ie, going straight to mobiles without any landline infrastructure or going straight to tablet computers without ever having desktops.

A transcript of a presentation given by Richard Stallman at the WSIS. He introduces in a fairly clear way the concept of free/open source software? He proceeds by explaining the concepts of freedom it relates to and how important this concept is in the developement of countries.

Google in the articulation of a 'foreign policy'??? Could Internet companies develop these kinds of policies?? 

Google's position about internet filtering on China reveals the need for internet companies to develop their own foreign policies. Clay Shirky is interviewed on the topic and he shares his view about how the social effects of internet and how different are the mentalities behind microsoft and google

The author puts forward that giving access to computer to children from developing countries is a remarkable opportunity for them but could alsobe a threat as they are not being familiarised with the dangers of the Internet.

Can gamers make a better world? Game developer Jane McGonigal seems to think that all gamers possess the skills needed to save the world. Overall it is a pretty good speech with some very valid points and, at the very least, it'll make you feel better about being a gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=dE1DuBesGYM&feature=player_embedded

A concise timeline of the World Wide Web. From the first domain right through to Twitter, it highlights major innovations and events in the development of the internet.

Skype has put the SILK codec, the backbone of its software, freely available to the developers community in order to receive feedback to improve the codec.

A summary of the history and actors involved in the development of open source

"A national review of computer game classification laws is currently in progress and work is also under way to develop proposals to improve compliance by retailers."" The article also leads with the factlet that Aust is one of only Western nations WITHOUT an R18+. On this front, the current internet governance proposals looks like a lay down misere.

A short and sweet introduction in to the developing cyber security threat and the vision behind Barack Obamas Cyber security plan launched in May 2009.

This article introduces another 'body' called auDA the Australian domain name administrator. The article discusses a complaint from the president of the Australian Web Site Developers Association after 500 sites he had set up, and $100K later were just switched off by the auDA bases on their assessment of use. Perhaps the auDA needs its own audit and regulation over policy approval!

This article argues that reputation - such as in Apple's iPad - can be more important than need and functionality when it comes to technology. The phenomena of 'the fad' is not new, but is especially relevant with technological products and innovation. It will be interesting to see whether items such as the iPad do fill gaps in a market or are simply fad toys. The iPad's claimed 'killer function' - that of reading and subscriptions - will prove interesting when we look at how the publishing industry repsponds and whether standards much develop for newspapers/books/magazines.

The digital divide is't expressed only in terms of rural and urbans areas, or developed or not countries, a UK study reveals that children in UK are stille greatly deprived of broadband Internet access.

ONE, the NGO led by, among others, Bono, has been an influential voice in international lobbying for some years now. As the British election comes close, the organization has launched a campaign to incite voting and, once the new government is elected, pressure the winner to support issues concerning Africa and other development issues. It all sounds good, but.... how and why can an international NGO influence internal politics in a country, when does it cease to be intervensionism? 

There has been an underlying shift in the way we live our lives, as a result of technological developments.

Licenses in open software have a double purpose: set conditions of use for end users and reflect the values of the community of developers working on open source model.