Group items tagged

The National Broadband Plan has to be thought in terms of social progress, and keep in mind the true nature of the open Internet. David Stephen argues in favor of the National Broadband Plan but reminds that the FCC should not be focused in regulating only.

"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.

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.

Blog from the New Internationalist about the movement taking place in the UK to donate votes for the upcoming elections, called "Give Your Vote". The idea is for UK citizens to donate their vote to someone in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ghana. These countries were chosen due to the involvement of the UK in all these countries through various ways (ie troops, legislation that has an impact on climate change, trade). In each country they have a sister campaign called "Use a UK Vote". Effectively it is a means for citizens of these nations to voice their opinions. The movement demonstrates global democracy in a sense. A word of warning - if you want to visit the site http://www.giveyourvote.org/ it's not particularly user friendly. Under the heading there are subheadings (however they are invisible).

Interesting story about how internet fuelled media changed the global SwineFlu pandemic response. Specifically, persuading people that they probably didn't need to vaccinate, (market mechanisms) causing many countries to now be overstocked with millions of dollars worth of unwanted serums! ""It emerged that the media timescale was far shorter than the political and administrative timescale, which may have complicated national decision making," a French delegate told the panel."

This opinion piece raises interesting - and difficult - issues surrounding the NBN, and examines many key questions that involve its delivery. Key governance questions are raised, including political imperatives, taxation, and infrastructure delivery.

The initial announcement last year about the federal government's proposal of a National Broadband Network was met with a lot of scepticism. I think that despite its flaws, the network seems quite necessary considering the inequality of access experienced by thousands of Australians due to the broad geographical scope of the country.

Howard Schdmit, The Whitehouse's Cybersecurity coordinator has revealed the US Government's plans for tackling attacks on it's networks. He has promised transparency. The official announcement (this bookmark) is very vague in it's initiatives. It will be interesting to see whether their can really separate US government networks from other parts of the Internet.  Cyber attacks are definitely increasing and play a major part in conflicts between countries. China amongst others is said to have attacked & attempted to hack and launch DoS attacks on US government networks and Russia shut down the Georgian communications infrastructure during the last week between the two countries et. )

This is my blog post for the week regarding online security, in this blog I discuss who security is truly intended for when the issue of national security is presented regarding the Internet.

High school  teachers in Queensland are questioned because of their profile pictures on Facebook. The fact that they may be really outstanding educators is now overlooked due to the mistake of posting "inappropriate" photos on a very public social networking site. Another example of how Facebook can actually ruin lives. 

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.

The Mexican government approved a law that creates a national registry of mobile phone users, forcing people to provide their private information to associate mobile numbers with a registrated customer. More than 30m citizens are facing the possibility of service disruption if they don't comply with the forced registration.

Glad I am here!

Police crowdsource to find perpetrators of the Oakleigh riot, asking the public to send in mobile phone footage, and also sourcing from internet, cctv, and news crews. Changing nature of public surveillance and law enforcement.

The article looks at the growing global trend for net regulation. Our interest is where Australia, as a result of our drafted internet filtering system, fits in this global picture of regulation. Reporters Without Borders has drawn up lists which groups nations in terms of their level of regulation. Appropriately as a democracy Australia is not listed under "Enemies of the Internet" which names China, North Korea, Egypt and Cuba. Yet disconcertingly we are given the label of "Under Surveillance" which lists us alongside Turkey, Russia, South Korea and the UAE.

Listen to Radio National- Australia Talks. Presenter Paul Barclay mediates a discussion about the proposed mandatory internet filtering system. He talks with Minister Stephen Conroy and Colin Jacobs, Vice President of Electronic Frontiers Australia. Together with two experts, Mark Newton a network engineer and Andrew Graydon Chief Operations Office of Netsweeper, who both provide technical analysis on the efficiency of the filtering system.

Very interesting article about people being marked in social networks even if they are not a member - can Facebook and the like be made responsible? An Italian court recently sentenced three Google executives because of a video posted by a user. Swiss and German privacy watchdogs further discuss the matter, many other EU nations are also involved. Google asks where to draw the line between censorship (controlling users' content being an invasion of their privacy) and free speech. There could be a conflict between US Web Giants and EU authorities. Only mentioned in passing that American media companies only react very slowly to European concerns "given the close relationship between Silicon Valley and the administration of President Obama".

As mentioned in the tutorial: Sharleen spent 16 years under 24/7 house arrest in NSW. No one is actually sure what legislation she was detained under. Many other people were, and still are, doing exactly what she did. However, she broadcast the fact on national television and became a scapegoat. The intersection of media and politics, the forcing of action and then lack of transparency around the forced actions are very reminiscent of the Internet Filter and Black List debate.

Hi everyone, here is my first blog post! It discusses 'Give Your Vote', the movement in the UK asking citizens to donate thier votes to people in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ghana.

"Cyberattacks aren't confined to governmental/national boundaries and neither should cybersecurity programs." Finally a forward-thinking idea about what needs to happen in order to make an effective cybersecurity plan. This is a statement by Sen. Jay Rockefeller in which he also discussed the need to eliminate the government vs. market solutions. Neither can create a solution independent of the other..."we will only succeed if we do work together." He recognizes the importance of creating an environment in which the private sector can have the resources it needs to work within itself and with the government.

A step back- looking at censorship in Australia under the Rudd government. Going back to when the ISP filtering laws were first proposed David Marr observes an underlining level of conservatism in Australia in particular light of the governments pursuit of censorship. He looks at the governments approach to undesired content on the internet by reflecting back on the Bill Henson case.