ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

An interesting article that surrounds the current political unrest in Iran as the anniversary of the 2009 'election' comes around. It's interesting to see how a computer game can be used in political games...

When it comes to keeping kids and teens safe online is it up to parents and schools to educate them about online safety or is censorship the answer?

D.Net, a not-for-profit research organisation has set up a program in Bangladesh called InfoLadies which involves women armed with netbooks, mobile phones to provide information gathered from the internet to villagers who would otherwise lack access to this information. The types of information provided typically cover hygiene, farming and childbirth. The program is an extension of the MobileLadies program which came before it. Another, more detailed article here: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=99804 Can programs like this contribute to a decrease in the digital divide?

Increasing "probes" on US military networks has led to the appointment of a senior general to Cyber Command operations and approximately 30,000 troops have been re-assigned from IT support to "the frontlines of cyberwarfare". The US is increasingly anxious about the vulnerability of its networks to attack. Chinese, Russian and Korean hackers have been targeted as alleged attackers so far. There is concern that cyberwarfare techniques being used by the US are outpacing the ability to develop policy surrounding their use.

Yelp is a website that allows users to rate, review and talk about businesses - regardless if the feedback is good or bad. Many business owners, specially small-scale operators, value the reviews they receive on this site since it's a way of building their reputation for free. Recently, Yelp has been slapped with a number of lawsuits from different business owners. They claim that when they declined to purchase advertising in the website, their ratings suddenly went down.  

Adam Wheeler was able to get into Harvard with fake documents and lying about his credentials. It is said that one of the possible reasons for the succes of his deception is not having a Facebook profile. Just proves that a non-existent online profile can do wonders to your real life reputation.  

Google announced to use SSL to secure user's data, keep it hard for hackers and government to spy on users' searches.

Argues that a large portion of malicious code circulating (malware) is created from several regions in South America - Honduras and Argentina.

There has been some controversy about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments in an online chat from 2006 that surfaced recently. He told a friend that Facebook users were dumb for trusting him and submitting private, personal information on his then-fledgling website. An initiative by four young programmers to counteract the negative effects that Facebook has had on privacy and the ability of users to control the data they put online is Diaspora. It is a decentralised, open source social network that wants to compete with centralised social networks that allow "spying for free". It will be interesting to see whether the initiative really takes off as a viable alternative to Facebook.

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?

The first domain names using the Cyrillic script are now available after Russia was assigned a new Cyrillic domain by ICANN. Ealier that month Arabic script was introduced in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. ICANN regards the new native-script domain names as a tool to make the web more global but critics fear that Russian authorities could be encouraged to follow China's example and introduce Internet censorship.

The Acadamey of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are suing domain registration giant (under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act) 'godaddy' disputing over 100 domain names they have 'parked' such as 2011oscars.com, academyawardz.com and oscarsunplugged.com. The lawsuit is 134 pages long and worth up to $10 million dollars in damages. GoDaddy run 'cashparking' offering customers the chance to earn cash when they buy a domain and park the page collecting funds when godaddy's advertising partners receive revenue based on a cost per click model.

Social media's role in the organisation and communication of the protests in Thailand is still small compared to the role traditional forms of media have played. This article however is a good primer on the details of how social media has been used - citizen journalism, regular journalism that is now "on the fly", amplification of messages via social media channels. Censorship by the government has also been a factor in the unrest.

Watch the live debate from Intelligence squared -Governments should not Censor the Internet? Intelligence Squared uniquely provides a forum for debate on crucial issues within Australia. On the Affirmative Antony Loewnstein- freelance journalist, author and blogger Ross LaJeunesse-head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Google David Marr- reporter for Fairfax, broadcaster ABC On the Negative ELizabeth Handsley- specialist in media law as it affects children Kaiser Kuo- Beijing-based columnist and commentator on tech and politics. Alastair MacGibbon- founder of the Internet Safety Institute and Manageing Partner of internet consultancy the Surete Group.

Following a Facebook user's invitation for people to submit drawings of Prophet Mohammed and the ensuing condemnation from individual Muslim's and Muslim groups, The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has extended a ban on Facebook until May 31, and has also applied the ban to popular video sharing website YouTube and restricted Wikipedia. Depicting the prophet in a perceived blasphemous manner is considered sacrilegious. Over 100,000 people had become fans of the page on Facebook. Thousands of protesters have held multiple public rallies against Facebook, with anti-America and anti-European sentiment high.

An interesting article on the dangers of 'digital detoxing' in the upcoming digital detox week. Don't take your kid's xbox away!

The conference on cybersecurity in Dallas, Texas has brought forward the fears of cybersecurity experts in which they still recognize the potential for "nightmare" scenarios. All the experts at this conference agree that the only way to protect against the "nightmare scenario" is for global cooperation.

blog entry about some thoughts after reading the readers for borders.

Blog entry about Facebook and the relation between the real social network.

The Thai government is increasing censorship over the Internet, with a special focus on political websites due to the uprising in the country.  What is interesting is that this has been going on for a few years, but it has not received that much media attention compared to Internet censorship in China. It is possible that the websites being banned are not that widely accessed by Thai people in the first place.