ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

A Crikey article on DBCDE's proposal of mandatory filtering and the "Submissions on measures to increase accountability and transparency for Refused Classification material". The Government's courting of mandatory filtering has drawn widespread criticism from such stakeholders as Google, the Internet Industry Association and highly regarded academics such as Professors Catherine Lumby, Lelia Greean and John Hartley. One of the main concerns is that the scope of the filtering is too wide and will have major implications on what content is available online. This article also helpfully provides links to some of the submissions.

Students at a high school in Perth have been suspended for setting up a facebook page and verbally attacking one of their teachers.  Parents were "horrified" at their children's actions. 

Although many attempts have been made to regulate the trade of many types of endangered species over the internet, all have failed. It is a perfect example of the problems associated with a world-wide need for cooperation in order to achieve regulation of some kind of the internet.

This article refers to the internet as the "weapon of choice" for the Taliban. The reason the article gives for why the internet is deemed a weapon in this case is due to the distribution of misinformation. If this is the case the internet should deemed to be a weapon in the hands of any government in the world. Misleading information is a problem everywhere and this is why people need to be diligent when looking at information on the web.

South Korean government still thinks that the benefits of censorship are worth the opprobrium. They block dusscusion sites, arrest bloggers for rediculous reasons; for instance, they publish controversial opinions or propagating falsehood online. Since many popular foreign websites such as Google and Youtube decided to require its users to undergo identity verification, Korean internet users have nowhere to have the freedom of speech on the web planet.

It does not talk about email spam, but SMS spam. It is interesting that email spam is a 5,000,000% bigger problem than SMS spam, and it seems not as big problem as I am annoyed every time when I receive text spam on my mobile. SMS spam is not as big as email spam, but it is getting bigger and actually some companies have been hit with penalties for contravening the Spam Act in Brisbane. I attach the URL for more information on $16m SMS spam fine. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/16m-sms-spam-fine-20091023-hd7t.html

A California appeals court allows students to be trialled for hate crimes for posting threatening comments on a fellow student's blog after it was ruled these comments were not protected free speech. Interesting development that narrowss the gap between traditonal schoolyard bullying and cyber bullying.

An article about cyber bullying via Facebook groups. Notes that it doesn't just happen between peers, but adults can be the victim too, citing an example of a Facebook group created by students to bully a teacher. The article outlines the procedure that it taken to deal with this kind of bullying and the applicable laws on place to curb it.

A summary of the history and actors involved in the development of open source

"Australia's biggest technology companies, communications academics and many lobby groups have delivered a withering critique of the government's plans to censor the internet." (quoting smh, 23/3/10, 4.40pm)

Interesting interactive chart showing the number of Internet users in different countries from 1998 until 2008. Notice the discrepancies between developed and underdeveloped countries. Still skeptical of the digital divide?

Useful graphic created by the BBC which shows the spread of the internet from 1998-2008 across the world. Interesting to note the speed with which China and parts of South American grew. From 2001-2008 they moved from 0-5% usage - 26-30% usage.

This article discusses the rhetorical question of how the Internet culture of youths, does not have laws that adequately serve or protect. Some laws are too concrete, while others are non existent. Laws need to be redefined, as the Internet culture does not necessarily dictate the same types of culture and attitudes we experience in person. The laws at present, provide loopholes, that either are not justified persecutions, or are simply to harsh, and or simply allow the offender to walk away.

I found this article interesting as it gives a good description of user control and encouragement - a form of governance - through site architecture. Particularly interesting was the discussion around how changing one button's position increased that button's clicks by 10%.

UPDATE ON GOOGLE VS CHINA. Will redirect users to google.com.hk

More evidence presented by Morozov on how the new media can serve the purposes of radical organizations. He is been arguing for a while that new media and new technologies (in this case the wikis) are not necessarily pro-western democratic tools.

A brief review of a letter that 'some' Chinese netizens sent to Google and to the Chinese gov. The 'netizens' confirm that they "support necessary censorship of Internet content and communications", however, they give a few guidelines on how this censorship should be conducted.

Informative and sometimes humorous tips for Australians who want to protest against the Government's proposed ISP filtering, including links to local members of parliament, senators etc. Note all the paid advertising from Optus on the site - taking a political position?

Very interesting article on Hollywood vs. downloads and ISPs. 

Really enjoyed this article and its historical account of Hollywood on the defensive to any new emergence of technology is apt. Unlike the open source software movement, this industry fails to understand that the circulation of its content, whether licensed or not, eventually produces indirect benefits. Hollywood defends its position through laws created in a time when the internet was yet to be conceived. The obvious flow on discussion here is that the law simply can't stay abreast of rapid technology changes.

"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

A 'Digital Economy Bill' was passed by the House of Lords recently, and this article look at its implications for internet users whose freedom to share files will be punishable by a severing of their internet connection.