ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

Big discussion about the permanent storage of personal data in Germany at the moment. Google and its inter-connected services is just one part of it. The government talks about the "Gläserne Bürger" (vitreous citizen) but still they seem to like it somehow - at least they haven't come to an agreement yet. Also see http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,682129,00.html @Google street view: The campus of Sydney University cannot be visited via this service. Why?

Wonder what statistics service providers such as Nielsen will think about this...

The UK Government are proposing to introduce a Digital Economy Bill.  The owners of copyright material will be able to pursue individuals who are sharing their content and take legal recourse.  Persistent offenders can eventually be blocked by their ISP. "Persistent" offenders will have received 50 notices before the Government can request that the ISP block their access to the internet. Sites that host material / content that breaches the bill will be issued with a series of take down notices. This impacts all sites - not just those whose servers are based in the UK.  If the site does not comply with the take down notice it will be possible for the site to be blocked within the UK. 

The government at the Mexican state of Sinaloa will send SMS messages to warn citizens in the event of an earthquake. 

Google launches an application to find people affected by the Chilean earthquake. Note disclaimer.  "PLEASE NOTE: All data entered will be available to the public and viewable and usable by anyone. Google does not review or verify the accuracy of this data."

Report demonstrating Microsoft Bing is filtering content in some "Arabian" (Arabic speaking?) countries. They are filtering largely sexual content but also non-sexual content relating to homosexuality and other taboo topics. 

Howard Schdmit, The Whitehouse's Cybersecurity coordinator has revealed the US Government's plans for tackling attacks on it's networks. He has promised transparency. The official announcement (this bookmark) is very vague in it's initiatives. It will be interesting to see whether their can really separate US government networks from other parts of the Internet.  Cyber attacks are definitely increasing and play a major part in conflicts between countries. China amongst others is said to have attacked & attempted to hack and launch DoS attacks on US government networks and Russia shut down the Georgian communications infrastructure during the last week between the two countries et. )

- 30% of smartphone users accessed social networks via mobile browsers - this was up from 22.5% in 2009. - Total social networking access via mobile browsers on all mobile phones rose to 11.1% - this was up from 6.5% in 2009. Most of this growth was in the uptick in smartphone usage. Big numbers. But how can content creators make money off it? Where's the profit? Are these sustainable media?

INTERNET FOR ALL Proceedings of the Third Internet Governance Forum Hyderabad, India 3-6 December 2008 - might be some interesting stuff in here

Israeli soldier posts the details of an operation on Facebook, and the operation is called off. Ironic: the Internet, originally a military tool, causes trouble in the military. Like with potential victims for kidnapping in Mexico posting personal details online: should basic media literacy education be provided for the use of social media among groups with potential risks?

OIX is a new organization that will try to provide identity credentials that can be accepted by both the private and public sectors. But, like some of this initiatives, government-wise it will only work, initially, in the U.S. Questions on privacy can also be raised? Wouldn't OIX allow for easier access to the whereabouts of an individual's online persona? 

In Mexico and other Latin American countries there have been some questions raised on how kidnappers can get precise information of potential victims and their spending power: friends, lifestyle, travels. If social networks like Facebook are a potential tool for criminals, should they be regulated by the government? Is it the media or the government's fault if such a use is being made? I am looking for references in English regarding this problem. 

A great industry site with news, discussion and features about web design, web content, Information Architecture etc.

Rudd will consider Xenaphon's idea of an online ombudsman to help in some unknown way people affected by social media issues such as cyberbullying. 

Shutdown of large torrents site in Russia for allegedly distributing illegal content. Not read in detail.

Describes how twitter is being used for citizen participation and "democracy" in various countries from Moldova, Iran and now China. The author proposes that the best way to reduce censorship and promote "democracy" is not political pressure, but to "flood the Chinese market, and those of other countries that restrict freedom of expression, with cutting-edge technology". My opinion: Although Twitter seems to be good at allowing citizens to organise and to create consensus, it does not seem to translate well to actual policy outcome. 

The US government is being encouraged by various committees and "experts" to increase regulation of the Internet. The Internet is compared industry to the car industry before regulation was introduced to make cars safer. Apparently the "Internet Wild West" is over!

Interview with Jason Lanierm, an apparent "digital guru" who has changed his view of open culture to that which promotes a "digital maoism". He proposes that we need to pay people for the brain work that they do instead of encouraging them to be labourers of sorts.