ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

After the Secretary of State in the US Hillary Clinton's speech on Internet freedom, open source source code repository SourceForge.net blocked access to IP addresses originating in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Open source software provides important infrastructure to these oppressed and developing nations. I hope the American government can see what a blow this is to the infrastructure and fledgling industries in these countries.

In my final blog post, I reflect on the reasons I believe cultural protest is just as valid a type of protest as any other and why I think people participate.

No, I don't agree that Internet Explorer is dead. However, there has been a significant progress in the adoption of alternative browsers, which is a healthy way to avoid a monopoly in browsers, which are the gate to internet for end users.  The decline in the use of IE thanks to the participation of open source browsers is acknowledged here. 

Blog post #2

The text Messages other threat for the Iranian Government. With that decision some leaders from the opposition argue that this decision is the anxiety of public opinion.

Are the Social Networks a new weapon for democracy? This article gives an explanation about Obama's Government intentions of spread the free internet in these countries like a weapon for reach democracy

Since May 20, some Muslim Nations ban Facebook and You Tube after the publication of groups and videos like "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" a Facebook group that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Facebook apologized and promised to improve it's privacy control for its users, by making it more impler and more coherence for users to understand and further to take the control back.

Although not strictly a "protest" in the strictest sense of the word, the Kiss Goodbye to MS movement has similarities with protest movements - people with a unified belief acting together to facilitate change. The main action required to take part is to wear red lipstick during MS Awareness Week in Australia: 26th May to 6th June. I wondered how men could get involved - the obligatory Facebook group encourages tattoos can be used as a talking point rather than lipstick. Others can simply donate to the cause. The charity sector is incredibly crowded (for good reason) and charities have increasingly bigger marketing teams to capture the public's attention. Social media is just the latest avenue that corporations and not-for-profits are using to drive awareness.

Interesting article touching on issues of the digital divide, and how technology can affect and help development. The article also discusses the effect that technology, particularly mobiles, is having on politics in India - particularly on enfranchising and mobilising the lower castes.

This is my third blog entry on the theme of the Digital Divide. I've looked at the situation in Thailand in terms of the class divide, political divide, and digital divide that characterise the conflict.

Many people do not know that the internet in Australia is already heavily censored, even before the Rudd Government's plan for mandatory ISP filtering is implemented. In fact, Australia almost undoubtedly has the most restrictive internet censorship regime in the Western world. Under amendments made to the Broadcasting Services Act in 1999, material rated as low as MA-15+ can be prohibited.

Twitter users have been issued subpoenas from Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett due to the critical comments they've made about the politician. It's interesting how much anonymous comments can make an impact on a public figure's reputation that it forces him to take legal action.  

Twitter receives a grand jury subpoena forcing the company to reveal a user's identity. Interesting how this can be done when the stakes are high, when there is a a political subtext under it. Could this set a precedent for defamation cases?

Apple is one of several companies being sued for an alleged iTunes patent breach of an idea which is an online store for music downloads, some of Apple's other applications are also being sued for other patent breaches. Apple's operating Systems & Safari are also being sued by a Monkeymedia for breaching patents which dictate ways of displaying varying amounts of data through user control.

Blog post for reputation

This article discusses how in the state of Ohio lawmakers are looking to have schools discipline cyberbullies. Cyberbully victims have a higher chance of being depressed, and according to this article they are approximately 8 times more likely to bring weapons to school. Though the bill will help a lot of schools monitor children's conduct online, there were no clear outlines as to the means of how to schools will be able to discipline bullies. A lot of information and rules and regulations will have to be in place to inform parents of how the school will extend their boundaries beyond a physical realm, and into the online world. Though there is much work to be done on the specifics of cyberbullyin, setting school boundaries regarding cyberbullying is a good step towards, thwarting possible cases of cyberbullies, as school jurisdiction may no longer necessarily be within bounds of a school yard.

This article discusses how 42 states in the United States now have some sort anti-bullying laws. Despite these laws, and EULA agreements of social networking sites being in places, victims of cyberbullying do not often come forward for fear of not being taken seriously. One of the suggestions for combating cyberbullying is the real life "comeback", although it is warned that this may backfire, which needs to be scripted and rehearsed. Though there are no studies that indicate this is an effective method to combat cyberbullying, this should be exercise with caution. Cyberbullying appears to be one of those case-by-case situations, as the victims reactions - type of person they are - how they handle the situation - whom they come forward to tell to seek help, may be the biggest factors in how an ordeal of this nature should be considered. Sadly it appears that cyberbullies - like in the offline world - like to try and collect followers in the online world, and perhaps one of the better practices is to inform people that they should not be participating in the act of cyberbullying another, and hopefully reducing the motivation to continue.

A follow up to my first post about the protest movement to save digital-only radio station BBC6 Music. A second day of protest was held in London and royalties organisation PRS for Music publishes stats showing the station is more supportive to a wide range of musicians than other stations.

The article talks about "Access Controlled", a new book from the Open Net Initiative that examines the new second and third generation filtering techniques employed by governments such as Russia and Belarus that are far more subtle than China's 'Great Firewall' but can censor unwanted content as effectively.

Wow, there's BIG money in Farmville! Facebook and Farmville makers Zynga have come to an agreement to work together after Facebook tried to make its virtual currency the only currency that players could use.