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"I used to track my work hours, and it was a miserable process. With my spreadsheet, I inadvertently transformed myself into the mean-spirited, small-minded boss I imagined I was escaping through self-employment. " This NY Times article (recapped poorly in today's SMH) epitomises Foucault's concept of biopower. It's a great run down of multitude of ways constant self tracking is already part of our lives and the psychological pros and cons. Unfortunately it doesn't give a sociopolitical analysis. This is Weber's iron cage of rationalisation in the age of the self. Self employed, self actualised, self interested man. And typically, the irrationality of rationalism means we spend much of our life recording and measuring ourselves rather than living.

SMH article that put me on to the NY Times and Kevin Kelly's Quantified Self. lightweight but local

Self-googling will not sound as vain or egotistic as it may seem if it means that an individual can be aware of what information the internet holds about him or her. To me, it's a form of "damage control". 

Korean government might celebrate by themselves for making perfect panopticon in Korean online environment.

From the spreadsheet and timesheet at work to the tyranny of the scales... to the constant tracking of your iphone and social media apps. Foucault's biopower.

"The government plans to enroll its officials in a range of courses, from stress-busting to the art of speaking persuasively." It seems that Russia is realising that a such clips as their president falling down due to drunkenness is no longer a quick news byte. Rather it is a viral video that will circulate the web for years to come. As a reaction, it seems Russia is becoming more self-conscious.

Survey shows that majority of adult internet users in the US Google themselves. Just shows that more people are becoming aware of how it may be difficult to detach their online selves from their offline lives.

YouTube could be among high traffic sites given carte blanche to self-monitor under the federal government's internet censorship efforts if the recommendations of a leaked whitepaper are implemented.

Ilse Aigner, Germany's minister of food, agriculture and consumer protection, who usually concentrates on issues over rotten meat, genetically engineered corn and imitation cheese, recently took on a different kind of issue: the Internet and data privacy. Suddenly Aigner finds herself facing online giants Amazon, Facebook and, above all, Google. Soon Google plans to send cars equipped with cameras out onto Germany's roads once again for the company's Street View project. Aigner is now insisting that Google should ask permission before violating the privacy of German citizens. The minister's attack and the following discussions reveal just how divided the German government is when it comes to the online world. The debate revolves around questions of national security and individual self-determination on the Internet. But it also concerns the power of the large giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and MySpace, as well as the question of what these companies are doing with the records of our everyday data, and how they will be able to obtain information from us, influence us or perhaps even control us in the future. It seem like, once again, a German politician is exploiting the popular issue of internet privacy and censorship in a superficial way in the hope of scoring political points.

Miranda Devine (yes Miranda Devine) makes some interesting observations and points about the break up of Michael Clarke between Lara Bingle and the role that social networking tools such as Twitter played in this. Devine also touches on issues of sexism and feminism.

"Let us all renounce the harsh rhetoric about the POTUS [president of the U.S.]. Several, including myself, hv used inappropriate language. Let's remain civil! #tcot." See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/dCqW2m

Censorhip originally meant protecting the property owners from infringement. But it has been changed to deny free speech to wealthy organisations or governements they deem facist. it happens everywhere and

Defending her tweets and taking aim at the fallout, Deveny, who was sacked as a columnist for The Age over her Logies comments, likened Twitter to "passing notes in class, but suddenly these notes are being projected into the sky and taken out of context. "Twitter is online graffiti, not a news source." Wrong.

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