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Home/ ITGS News/ TOPIC: Net Neutrality-Issues of censorship or equality of access and the digital divide
Madeline Brownstone

TOPIC: Net Neutrality-Issues of censorship or equality of access and the digital divide - 20 views

started by Madeline Brownstone on 21 Oct 10
  • Madeline Brownstone
    #1 Madeline Brownstone on 21 Oct 10
     
    What have you learned about these topics from bookmarks your classmates have left?
  • Noreen C
    #2 Noreen C on 21 Oct 10
     
    Elisavet's post had to do with the censorship of China. Personally, I think that being in America has had a great effect on what we think is fair and unfair in relation to freedom. We have never had censorship to the extent that it is in China, even if we are faced with some in school or other places. Information has always been on our finger tips, even some that criticizes the government or other events that occur in America. It is very interesting to see all of the sides of the story, and to make our own opinions of it, rather than to just believe the one and only source of information that the government provides us. This is a very important right that we have in our society, what would we do if we didn't have it anymore?
  • Baris T
    #3 Baris T on 21 Oct 10
     
    Mohammed's post was about the election problem in Iran. This seems like an extremely controversial topic and i think evidence can be provided for both the point of views. i like the way people used twitter to spread information.However i do not understand why people in iran who were trying to raise awareness about what the government has done, chose to use twitter instead of other larger social networks like facebook. According to wikipedia, twitter has over a 100 million users while facebook has over 500 million users. Not only that but i believe that spreading awareness on facebook would seem more efficient because you can not only have blogs but also pictures, videos and groups of the situation itself.
  • Lenny H
    #4 Lenny H on 21 Oct 10
     
    Ariel posted up an article called "Social Networks Could Help Community Colleges". I learned that social networks like twitter and facebook are being used for educational purposes. This is very similar to the article we read in class about cell phones and new policies that were being constructed around these cell phones in schools. Now, social networks like twitter and facebook are helping students with news and other different aspects of education. I was wondering if these social networks could be potentially distracting to students? What policies are being taken so students do not abuse their social networking freedoms? These are all questions that came up when I look at his article. I also thought about the benefits that these new policies probably had on students. Besides being entertaining and providing the students with alternative ways of learning, the use of social networks is probably a great way to stay updated with news and gathering information quicker and easier for classes.
  • Daniell S
    #5 Daniell S on 21 Oct 10
     
    When I was looking at Kimberly's post on Diigo, i thought it was interesting what Obama said about the internet. In the article i saw that Obama said this "I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear." This tells me that he is forced to listen to the views of people who do not agree with what he is doing to keep our democracy, and country strong. By letting others state their opinions he can do what he thinks needs to be done. A question i have about this is whether or not the Chinese Government will listen to what Obama has said.
  • Kim T
    #6 Kim T on 21 Oct 10
     
    Saida's post focused around the ability of companies to partner up through the internet without having to work together in person. Trust is not necessarily made over the internet. It should be more like to form when people and businesses meet face to face. When one business owner wants to interact with another business, they have to know more about them beforehand and find if they are trustworthy. As convenient as it may be to partner over the internet, it is hard to read the other person and find out whether or not their partnership is a good asset to your business. Document-wise you can see what they are doing and the transactions they are making but if they are using the information for something else, it hard to find out yourself. However, finding more information online about that person can help such as their personal profiles or other corporations, organization or people who have mentioned their work.
  • Michael M
    #7 Michael M on 21 Oct 10
     
    According to Elisavet's post, China is censoring its peoples lives online completely, by blocking out many websites that they deem "inappropriate". This is very unfair for people in China because, even though many websites blocked could be deemed as inappropriate, that doesn't mean that everything they censor is correct. It takes away Human rights, because,for example, there is no such censorship in America. I wonder if there were, what would we think and would it be the same? And I wonder if people in China realize that they should definitely make a change, because places like the USA are free of the censorship web they are caught in.
  • Rubayeth M
    #8 Rubayeth M on 21 Oct 10
     
    Daniell's post was about the idea of how Facebook was ruining the study habits of growing teens. Some ideas that I learned from his post was how interactively Facebook was used throughout a day. I myself have a Facebook but do not use it as frequently as many of my other friends do. Doctors are also saying to get off of Facebook because it is very addicting some teens can do it but some cannot which concludes that Facebook cannot help you through your studies throughout school.(Not most of the time.)
  • Jialin C
    #9 Jialin C on 21 Oct 10
     
    Replying to Kimberly's response on how leaders are using the internet today to improve their leadership and actions: I think that is a great way for leaders today to engage themselves in our modern world. There are more propaganda on the internet and better ways to advertise then just what we read on the news. China censors many things, first of for all: because the government is extremely careful of what people see and how it will affect them. The reason that censorship is to a greater extent then most countries is that the civilians should not "know" more then the government does and take matters into their own hands and take action. And this could disrupt the whole country.
  • Joel Lubi
    #10 Joel Lubi on 21 Oct 10
     
    From Noreen's post, I learned that in many cases, social networks such as facebook can be used for much more than simply connecting with friends. In times of emergency, social networks can be used for getting important information to large amounts of people quickly. This is especially effective due to the fact that most people are part of social networks, leaving only a small group of people to be informed by other means.
  • Mariam B
    #11 Mariam B on 21 Oct 10
     
    I read Elisavet's post on an article regarding the censorship of certain internet sites by the Chinese government. I agree with the concept of internet censorship limiting human rights and freedom of expression. Not only are the people limited in terms of what information they are exposed to and have knowledge about, but are unable to express themselves. The internet is supposed to be a network with no central control, so preventing access to certain web pages or specific information, creates unnecessary control implemented and given to government officials. If the same information is available upon request in other countries, it should be allowed to be seen to people in China as well.
  • Carmen M
    #13 Carmen M on 21 Oct 10
     
    I read Elisavet's post on censorship of China. The article said how censorship originally started out with the intention to block pornography and other "harmful" sites. However, many critics claim that this was just an excuse and that the real reason for censorship was because the ruling political party wanted to maintain its authority over society. Liu, the person that was interviewed and is in charge of internet affairs, claims that the U.S does something similar with the NY Times. Like Noreen stated "information has always been on our finger tips", and we haven't faced serious censorship problems like other countries have. For the most part we are able to obtain information about anything.
  • Elisavet M
    #14 Elisavet M on 21 Oct 10
     
    After having read "Military Taps Social Networking Skills" (Rubayeth's post), I came to realize that engaging and connecting through the medium of social networking reveals as an advantageous benefactor; for instance, the youth composing the army, such as lieutenants as well as soldiers, enter the military already knowledgeable about working digital networks and use the skills acquired from prior experiences with the internet to assist the process of important operations. Although the social networking skills come in handy, there is also another rising problem that surfaces: the overall procedure of sending messages through established networks to soldiers on missions, can become misinterpreted or flawed, thus leading to the failure of an operation. I believe the most essential component embedded within this entire process, need to be proper communication via social networking; if the data sent is not received properly, there are high consequences to pay, especially when in the case of controlling and securing people's lives. Although the process of using social networking as a vital military mechanism indicates the beneficial impact of using social networking (skills acquired make humanity "computer literate"), it is the way in which we conduct this system that leads to a pivotal point of success.
  • Ram Bhadra
    #15 Ram Bhadra on 21 Oct 10
     
    The article posted by Elisavet was about the government of Chine censoring the data that is on the internet. The government does not limit it's censorship to pornography and other inappropriate media but it also extends to censorship to freedom of speech and expression. Even though the daily internet users may not realize it but are unable to view many news posts, and other forms of information that may be helpful. This takes away their freedom as internet users. This is however not the case in the US and the internet users here have much more freedom and this creates a divide in the access to internet and the basic concept of net neutrality is lost.
  • nicholas n
    #16 nicholas n on 21 Oct 10
     
    On Mohammad post I learned how the people in Iran used Twitter in the Election of the President to bring information out to the rest of the world and organize rallies within the country. This is an example of how social networking sites such as twitter can be used and how powerful this new potential is. This way of spreading the news is however still imperfect, there is no way one can check the validity of the information being spread, and the government can block access to sites such as these

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