ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

China is looking to strengthen already tough laws on telco and internet companies, forcing them to inform the Government about customers who discuss state secrets. A pertinent article for those who believe that mandatory internet filtering in Australia will only ever be just that. This shows how the reins can so easily get tighter and tighter...

This article argues that the best alternative to fight against the Iranian Government, is providing the country with free satellite internet access. The flow of information and the use of Internet like a democratic tool will allow the own citizens to defeat the regime

Following on from ICANN's approval 6 months ago to start using non-Latin scripts for domain names, Egypst has introduced .misr (the Arabic name for Egypt). Depending on the browser and language packs installed, if a user mouses over a .misr link on a web page, they may see this in Arabic script. Will be interesting to see how this and forthcoming addtional non-Latin domain names impact on the language barrier aspect of the digital divide. Saudi Arabia and UAE have also set up their own new domain names - ".Al-Saudiah" and ".Emarat".

Six Months after the ICANN, approved the use of non-Latin domain names, Egypt launched "Misr" domain (the Arabic name for Egypt). A new perspective of Internet in the Arabic world.

This article examines Facebook and provides a satirical comparison of Facebook's privacy snafus to natural disasters.

A really interesting article on the use of social networking platforms during and after protests in Kyrgyzstan. Twitter, Facebook and local forum, Diesel are important sites for citizens to report, share information and discuss issues in a relatively impartial environment as the media has increasingly come under the power of the President. In April protests took place in the captial Bishkek against President Bakiyev. The social networking sites allowed poeple to hear what was going on. It also facilitated groups forming to attempt curbing the violence that was taking place. The downside to this form of communication in this situation was the inflammatory comments that was essentially fear - mongering were posted. Some were found to be untrue, and some believe that it was the Russians attempting to influence the situation in Kyrgyzstan.

Twitter feeds that reported the results of the recent UK election could serve as a starting point on election coverage. I would not be surprised if preliminary reports eventually leak ahead of the polls closing. Do you think twitter will be regulated in elections? Maybe not all electoral officials are discrete... 

Social networking sites are serving as a new breeding ground for sex offenders who use popular sites such as Facebook and Skype to prey upon minors. Is tougher legislation the answer or does more need to be done to keep children safe online.

My most recent blog entry, looking at the implications of the increasing digital literacy among younger generations.

Government and industry leaders in the US call for international cooperation on internet security. The three-day conference discussed issues ranging from cyberterrorism to organised cybercrime. Measures suggested included "cyber defense exercises" and enlisting the support of the private sector.

The US regulator for the communications industry is expected to announce it will extend the rules currently governing telephone service provision to apply to ISPs in a bid to set net-neutrality rules that would bar companies from favoring their own Web content and services.

This is a blog that deals with everything to do with games. This post talks about Australian classification laws applying to international games companies when they choose to allow Refused Classification games into Australia. The question of borders comes to mind when reading this somewhat long and unedited post, but it certainly gets us thinking about the scope of Australia's antiquated classification laws...

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.

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.

A really interesting piece from Matt Yglesias, who points out that a bunch of private corporations are advising on a policy agency, which could possibly be behind the Gizmodo raid. Fascinating to see the way public governance can be shaped by private corporations- and rather scary!

Your actions now may affect your reputation later...

Four US senators express concern about Facebook's recent changes which enable a user's friends to follow them to websites they've visited and know how they rated them. This is also enabling third parties to gain access to user data which was once private.

According to Peter Tippett, Vice President, Verizon, we will see far fewer cyber attacks by 2020, with the majority of them becoming targetted attacks instead. This will be aided by increased use of reputation systems and automation that will help users avoid sites and emails with malicious content.

It seems that New York Police Department has somehow linked the failed terrorist attack in Times Square to all this fuss around the 'drawing Mohammed' thing. There is a Facebook group and some Youtube videos have been taken down. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113257775375783#!