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Throughout this year I've devoted substantial attention to WikiLeaks, particularly in the last four weeks as calls for its destruction intensified.  To understand why I've done so, and to see what motivates the increasing devotion of the U.S. Government and those influenced by it to destroying that organization, it's well worth reviewing exactly what WikiLeaks exposed to the world just in the last year:  the breadth of the corruption, deceit, brutality and criminality on the part of the world's most powerful factions.

The U.S. Special Operations Command's spending since 2001 has quadrupled, with an almost fivefold increase in revenue for its four largest defense contractors, according to a Bloomberg Government study.

Pop quiz: where did a government agency shut down cell service yesterday to disrupt a political protest? Syria? London? Nope. San Francisco. The answer may seem surprising, but that's exactly what happened yesterday evening. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) asked wireless providers to halt service in four stations in San Francisco to prevent protestors from communicating with each other. The action came after BART notified riders that there might be demonstrations in the city. All over the world people are using mobile devices to organize protests against repressive regimes, and we rightly criticize governments that respond by shutting down cell service, calling their actions anti-democratic and a violation of the rights to free expression and assembly. Are we really willing to tolerate the same silencing of protest here in the United States? BART's actions were glaringly small-minded as technology and the ability to be connected have many uses. Imagine if someone had a heart attack on the train when the phones were blocked and no one could call 911. And where do we draw the line? These protestors were using public transportation to get to the demonstration - should the government be able to shut that down too? Shutting down access to mobile phones is the wrong response to political protests, whether it's halfway around the world or right here at home. The First Amendment protects everybody's right to free expression, and when the government responds to people protesting against it by silencing them, it's dangerous to democracy.

US universities and colleges could end unlawful US wars and stop banksters' rigged-casino fraud if they taught the central facts of these issues. This four-part series of articles is an open proposal for their action. Feel free to share it.

Of course, the radio stations were absolutely correct on all their points except one. Compared to the data about what the market wanted, the song was too long. It was too complex. It was too confusing, and it didn't fit into any best-selling genre. But even though it was a massive outlier compared to the data, somehow it worked. Bohemian Rhapsody went on to become the only song to reach number one in four different years. But even better than that fleeting data-point of success, it went on to change what popular music could be, and made countless people happy.

TOJET (The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology) is an online international electronic journal, published four times a year (January, April, July, and October). Articles may be contributed at any time for publication consideration. Potential articles are reviewed by members of an editorial review committee, and those published in TOJET are referenced in such indexing services as SSCI, ERIC, EBSCO ONLINE, and EBSCO CD ROM Database, DOAJ and AERA SEG.

JIKS-Studie eventuell als Artikel, bei der Konferenz selbst ist die Deadline erst Mai 2011.

Design Principles of Open Data

The eGovMon project is developing methodology and software for quality evaluation of web services, in particular eGovernment services, concerning four areas: Accessibility / Transparency / Efficiency / Impact