Group items tagged

A really interesting conversation thread on Slashdot about the US Government's concern over Australian ISP filter proposals, and Conroy's denial that his office has been contacted. Posters discuss net neutrality, US and Chinese interests, ACTA, practical realities of filter implementation etc.

Andrew Keen gives his opinion about Hunch, the social recommendation engine. Keen has been named "the antichrist of internet" for his critic position against social web. Is he right on this one? As Jimmy Wales says here,  http://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/10766582402 I have the hunch that the site is not as bad as Keen claims...

New Zealand is getting ready for a potential patent reform? Predominantly this bill includes an exclusion of patents on software which is a big development in a digital commercial industry which is rife with conflict over intellectual property. Personally, I feel it is a step in the right direction? But I guess that is the point of view of an end user.

The US Federal Communications Commission has been dealt a major blow in asserting its right to regulate net neutrality with a district court ruling the FCC had "failed to demonstrate" its authority to interfer with activity undertaken by internet service provider Commcast. Comcast had been moving to restrict the internet access of customers using peer-to-peer sharing software, which uses large amounts of bandwidth and is a common mode of illegal video and music piracy.

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?

Due to it's population, I think China will still be the biggest market for the internet despite the censorsip the govornment placed.

An article on how the increasing flow of internet traffic could potentially lead to a form of 'gatekeeping' of users by providers. It has always been perceived that there was network neutrality as providers charged a flat rate for unlimited internet access. However, the article argues that this is not the case as there has aways been some form of management of traffic so that an acceptable level of service is maintained. An extreme example is the court case between BitTorrent users and the provider Comcast. Comcast blocked this service as it was effecting service. This was challenged by users who initially won. However in a challenge by Comcast, Washington found in their favour as it found that the Federal Communications Commission could not decide how Comcast should manage its network. Another interesting point made is the potential for service providers to charge content providers who attract a large amount of traffic.This way good service is guarenteed, through essentially sharing the burden of cost. Obviously this is fiercely opposed by businesses. Clearly this all has the potential to change the relationship between users, content providers and service providers.

Austin Heap, Director of the San Francisco Based Censorship Research Center, explained the development of "HAYSTACK" a software that has been distributed to Iranians since last March to beat internet censorship. "we can through technology allow people to have their basic human right of free speech without fear of retaliation." Austin Heap.

American officials are going to encounter their Chinese counterparts for a scheduled human-rights meeting in Washington next month. They are likely to broach the subject of Internet freedom when they join . This will be the first round of bilateral dialogue between the United States and China since May 2008.

The tittle seems clear. The US Library of Congress has announced plans to digitally archive all the billions of messages sent on Twitter since its launch four years ago. A lot of reactions can be observed. If interested, two others links right here: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/library-of-congress-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/ http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/15/2873163.htm

The government has decided to accede to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (the only binding international treaty on cybercrime). It will require Australia to implement legislation dealing with offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data; computer-related offences, including forgery and fraud; content-related offences, including child pornography; offences related to the infringement of copyright and other related rights. The decision could have some baring on Australia's position vis-a-vis the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement?

People who own land and have invested on having properties on Second Life have filed a demand against Linden Lab. An interesting study case that illustrate how online issues can have deep impact on offline matters.

A different kind of censorship: this critical article talks about the British government's promises of supplying every household with broadband internet. Yet 1 in 4 Britons are estimated to have an inadequate broadband connection, even more so in rural areas. Villages in rural areas are raising money to connect their communities to fast broadband access. How much is the government censoring its citizens' right to information through inadequate internet access?

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

I thought that freedom of expressions, access to information and political and social participation are universal rights, but, maybe, it is just fantasy for some conturies

On the subject of the private and public divide of our social media lives comes this news article of a debt collection bank employee found to have set up a fake facebook site for the purpose of tracking the bank's bad credit customers that had gone AWOL. This story is at the heart of the issue of ethics on the internet - do organisations have a right under any circumstances to parade as something they are not?