ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

One of the Acts under which the exact laws are outlined in regards to telecommunications providers and their responsibility towards the consumer and state. Dry and very 'Legal' but useful.

For anyone interested.... Tues 11 May @ 6:45-8:30pm The City Recital Hall Angel Place (2 Angel Place, Sydney)

Article discusses a new "panic button" which can be used to report on safety issues or sexual behaviour onlne. A click takes users to a website where they get advice or get directly in contact with the police. The British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP) has invented this button and wants facebook to integrate it. Facebook wants to refer users to its own Safety Center.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association disclosed a report revealing the value of industries dependent on copyright limitations. The report claims that it accounts for US$4.7 trillion and 23% of the US' real economic growth from 2002-2007.

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/

Interesting article based on survey that give details and updated information about Facebook stressing privacy issues. The survey has been made by F-Secure, an internet security firm with a sample of 450 Facebook users This article has been published three days after another one titled: "Facebook in new privacy row". See the link below: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7623492/Facebook-in-new-privacy-row.html

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

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 cybersecurity threat in India is demonstrated in Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report that outlined the latest threat for computers which involves the Trojan viruses sending confidential data to a host server. This information is then used by cyber mafia to carry out financial transactions in various countries resulting in identity theft.

The founder and Chief Executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced at a recent conference that Facebook's Open Graph project will soon enable an even greater degree of personalisation as people surf the net. I think this probably has implications for user experience, in terms of viewing popular sites through the prism of social networking - and it gives sites more authority to store data about individuals. Because Facebook seems to be so pervasive nowadays, it seems like we won't have much say in the matter...

Allison, that's a great point, I've tried to quit using the site but I stop when I realise that I won't know about upcoming social events - unfortunately its the primary means of communication used by some friends!

Yes and I think Facebook take full advantage! A lot of my friends have been posting notes on FB about changing privacy settings now that the new features have come in. So, people are trying to resist but in a more subtle way than dropping out of FB altogether.

South Korean government started invervention to game addiction among the country's youth. it mgiht be pretty sad news for gamers but I agree with this. Too much violent and adult content computer games are indsicriminately exposed to anybody including chidlren. I am always surprised by the language and behaviour of the kids when they play computer games in internet cafes. As game addiction has been on the social issues for many years, it is time for the authorities to do the action.

The Rudd government's proposal will be completely ineffective as far as keeping children safe goes, it will capture much more material than the government implies - including sites such as this one, euthanasia, abortion, safe drug use and porn sites - and the cost will be borne entirely by the ISP's, who will inevitably pass their costs on to their users.

Facebook alters functionality and gets more personal, raising increasing concerns about user privacy.

It is the first time in North America that assisted suicide laws have been applied to the Internet. William Melchert-Dinkel has been charged with assisting in 2 suicides, where he posed under several aliases and made suggestions of suicides from medication to advice on how to tie nooses. Though the argument was that suicide is the behaviour done unto oneself, and suggestion is freedom of speech, this is no different than cyberbullies who also suggest the same thing, however this heinous individual offered information to those that were indanger of commiting suicide. Based on the wording in the state of Minnesota, assisted suicides do not require the actual physical presence of the person, hence the prosecution stands.

This looks at the new atmosphere of sharing all the mundane details about our lives, facilitated by sites such as Blippy, which broadcasts details about shopping habits, and Foursquare, that uses GPS to alert contacts to your location. A fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union said, "People are not necessarily thinking about how long this information will stick around, or how it could be used and exploited by marketers." Concerns are also raised about potential identity theft and whether accessing every scrap of data left behind by users is actually valuable.

A Brazilian judge has fined Google in Brazil over a comment posted by an anonymous user stating that a priest is a paedophile. Raises the question of who is responsible for defamatory comments - the publisher (in this case Google) or the poster. Reminds me of a similar case of one of my fave blogs, Kitsune Noir - a music and design blog from the US. A poster made a critical comment about a design that the blogger had written about and the designer threatened legal action against Kitsune Noir.