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Mike Wesch

mobiles, human rights, and anonymity - 0 views

  • So that got me wondering: is there a mobile equivalent of Tor? For those of you who aren't familiar with it, TOR is a software project that helps Internet users remain anonymous. Running the TOR software on your computer causes your online communications to bounce through a random series of relay servers around the world. That way, there's no easy way for authorities to track you or observe who's visiting banned websites. For example, let's say you're in Beijing and you publish a blog the authorities don't like. If you just used your PC as usual and logged into your publishing platform directly, they could follow your activities and track you down. With Tor, you hop-scotch around: your PC might connect to a server in Oslo, then Buenos Aires, then Miami, then Tokyo, then Greece before it finally connects to your blogging platform. Each time you did this, it would be a different series of servers. That way, it's really difficult for authorities to trace your steps.
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    Mobile Phones, Human Rights and Anonymity I've been playing around with my new Nokia N95 for the last couple of weeks and quite amazed with its ability to stream live video from the phone to the Internet. Like last weekend when I streamed from the Smithsonian Kite Festival; for around 30 minutes I gave a tour of the festivities and took questions from users as they watched the stream over the Internet. I've also spent some time talking it up with colleagues at NPR, brainstorming the possibilities of what would happen if reporters used these phones - or if their sources did. The example that keeps coming to mind regarding the latter scenario is the rioting in Tibet. While some video has leaked out, it's been limited and often delayed. Imagine if the protestors were able to webcast their protests - and the ensuing crackdowns - live over their phones using China's GSM network? The video would stream live and get crossposted via tools like YouTube, Seesmic and Twitter, spreading the content around so it can't be snuffed. But that raises an obvious question - how long could protestors or dissidents get away with such activities before getting caught? If you were running software on your phone to send live video over a 3G network, like I've been doing on my N95, you'd think it wouldn't take too much effort on the part of the mobile provider and/or government to figure out which phone was sending the signal and its precise location. So that got me wondering: is there a mobile equivalent of Tor? For those of you who aren't familiar with it, TOR is a software project that helps Internet users remain anonymous. Running the TOR software on your computer causes your online communications to bounce through a random series of relay servers around the world. That way, there's no easy way for authorities to track you or observe who's visiting banned websites. For example, let's say you're in Beijing and you publish a blog the authorities don't like. If you just used your PC as
Yann Leroux

How Boxxy brought the web to its knees | Technology | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

  • A year ago a young, unnamed and heavily-eyelinered young woman who hung around on Gaia Online made a video. She went by the handle of Boxxy.
  • That's it. Or at least it was for nearly 12 months.At Christmas, the video - by then languishing in YouTube's vaults - got posted to i-am-bored, and from there hit 4Chan, and in particular the site's /b/ messageboard... the heartland for many memes (and definitely NSFW). Why? Nobody's sure. Was Boxxy herself behind it? Or was she simply a vehicle for fans who liked her camgirl approach, apparent ADD and weirdly excitable behaviour?Over the subsequent days and weeks, Boxxy became a topic of contention on 4Chan - with the site splitting into two groups; those who professed to love Boxxy and all she stood for and those who hated Boxxy and her fans. Every thread threaten to spill over into Boxxy spam or a flamewar, and hundreds of 4channers went hacking Boxxy's YouTube account and other websites in search of her true identity. So far they don't seem to have succeeded.
  • Things really came to a head, though, when Boxxy haters - sick of seeing so much about her on 4Chan - decided to launch a denial of service attack on the website itself, bringing it down for some hours as a protest.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • OK, yes, the whole story is extremely convoluted. But it's the sort of thing that I saw in evidence at ROFLCon earlier this year: somebody who is entirely unknown can get picked up for basically doing nothing, but doing it in public. So when our future digital archaeologists start looking back at our actions, they'll come across Boxxy and look confused. How on earth do you relate that story in a way that makes sense in 100 years, given that it makes basically no sense right now? That's partly what I love about the internet - and partly what makes my brain hurt.
  • candleja 20 Jan 09, 6:48am posting about a site that shouldn't be talked about, much less visited, is unwise enough. gaining recognition as the person who's talking about it just doesn't make sense to me. plus the article itself is about some teen nobody, hardly worth putting yourself under that kind of scrutinyeven FOX news had more sense, and we all know how irresponsible their journalism is.this entry should probably be amended in some way, to protect the site, the poster, and the general population from exposure to one of the "darker corners of the internet." there's a reason people don't encourage others to walk down dark alleys in a bad part of town
  • the majority of people posting about boxxy were neither, they were people who didnt care less either way but decided to troll the boxxy haters by posting boxxy pictures of bawksey everywhere. they did it for the lulz
  • Please note that off-topic comments will be removed from this thread. Any users posting such comments may have their posting rights withdrawn and subsequently have to move with their auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.
  • @dvdhldnPerhaps I've got too much time on my hands, but I wrote about this because I find memes fascinating, and the idea of being internet famous is really intriguing. Add that to the violent, misogynistic tendencies of /b/ and the ability of the crowd to bully someone for basically nothing... this is - if we let it happen - the future of the internet.
  • Just looked up Anonymous on Wikipedia. Their 'demotivational logo' has the catchphrase 'Because none of us are as cruel as all of us'.What an incredible and disturbing concept - frightening because it is both barbaric and intelligent. Fodder for a Neal Stephenson novel, but in the real world. Anybody with an ounce of humanity would think these fascinating aspects of networked society very worthy of discussion.
  • I just lost the game. Boxxy isn't a meme, AT ALL. EFG is a meme. Boxxy = NOT.The old Anons will let this pass, new ones will get bored and eventually boxxy will be forgotten
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    Short story about Boxxy, the latest meme to get picked up by 4chan.
Jessica Rittenhouse

Anon Vs. Anon: "Chanology is Over, Go Home." - Associated Content - 0 views

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    This is an article written by Nalia, the contact I've mentioned who's been passing me what information she was able to gather, including those sites shutting down simultaneously.
Mike Wesch

Who's Really Participating in Web 2.0 | TIME - 0 views

  • Far less than 1% of visits to most sites that thrive on user-created materials are attributable as participatory, the remaining 99% are passive visits.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      Note that this is referring to VISITS, not users.   So the 80/20 rule is really not being tested here.
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    Intepretation of the stats is flawed.  Just because less than 1% of VISITS to pages are not participatory does not mean that less than only 1% of USERS are participating.
Katie Hines

YouTube - Extreme Sheep LED Art - 0 views

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    Great clash between "old" and "new".
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