Cempaka Information (Business) Technology

Wiki leaders on the rise

2012-01-31T02:45:00.001+07:00

RNW, 28January 2012, by Maike Winters

Could ournew world leaders be one of the young people who camped out as part of theOccupy movement or who fought for their lives during the Arab Spring? All theseyoung people were inspired by the idea of change. Now a new political platformwants to unite people with ideas to bring about reform in the Netherlands.Partij2030 is part of a global trend.

The manbehind the initiative, 33-year-old Joop Hazenberg, has spent years searchingfor new ways to get society ready for the future. In addition to a pro-Europeanpolicy and an alternative welfare state, his vision centres on crowdsourcing: akind of wiki government in which our leaders build on the knowledge ofcitizens, comparable to how we consult an internet encyclopaedia likeWikipedia.

Trend

As Joopexplains, he's not alone in his ambitions:

“This modelis already being used in other parts of the world. In the UK, for example,major cutbacks are taking place. The government has asked people to contributemoney-saving ideas. It’s a fairly controversial move, but it’s generated nofewer than 200,000 responses.”

Hecontinues: “That’s a list a policy officer could never have come up with. It’sall about utilising society’s collective knowledge. Thanks to internet andsocial media, that knowledge is very easy to find.”

PaulLucardie, political scientist at the University of Groningen, sees this as partof an international trend.

“Peoplewant to have more of a say; they want change. Just look at how the Pirate Partyhas become an international movement, enjoying great popularity in Sweden andGermany. The trend is to start something new that can be passed on quickly.Unfortunately, these kinds of initiatives don’t usually last long.”

Time andenergy

Lucardie isreferring to the Occupy movement. After disenchanted Americans occupied WallStreet in September last year, it wasn’t long before demonstrators had set uptent camps in over 900 cities across the world.

“Thatsounds impressive, but in the end how many people actually took part? Perhaps100,000. That’s not much out of a population of six billion. People wantchange, but unfortunately there’s only a small group with the time and energyto persevere. People are more concerned about keeping their jobs and pensionsthan genuine government reform.”

The founderof Partij2030 begs to differ. The first public brainstorming session isscheduled for next week. People from all regions and backgrounds have beeninvited to contribute their thoughts and ideas. The aim is to get a newpolitical movement off the ground.

Radicaledge

“A fineinitiative, very much geared towards the future,” says Ringo Ossewaarde,associate professor of sociology at the University of Twente. But he believesthe plans lack a radical edge. As he sees it, a wiki government is nothing new.

“It hasexisted for years under the name civic engagement. And it’s worth asking whatthe quality of a policy created by ordinary citizens will be.”

The youngergeneration needs to be able to trust in government again, believes JoopHazenberg. Time Magazine declared 2011 to be the year of the demonstrator. Will2012 be the year of wiki government?

“No, it’sstill too early for that. I hope this year will be a year of unity: unitinggroups of campaigners and people with ideas and trying to bring about changetogether. Bringing people together in this fragmented society. Partij2030 is anexperiment, to see whether we can take part in the 2014 elections with aradical reform agenda for the Netherlands.”

Agents of change in Cuba and Yemen

Across the world, people are trying to change political structures. For example, Yoani Sánchez from Cuba has devoted years to writing a blog about Generation Y.

The aim of her writing is to promote freedom of information. She was given the opportunity to interview President Obama, who praised her for giving him a unique insight into the lives of Cubans.

Yoani Sánchez has also received a Prince Claus Award and the International Press Institute’s World Press Freedom Hero Award. In an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide, she said:

“If this generation of young people gain access to social networks, all kinds of things will happen. I believe that if we can try things out in a virtual Cuba, our encounters in the real Cuba will be less violent and less traumatic.”

Yemeni journalist and politician Tawakkul Karman is another example. She founded Women Journalists Without Chains, fought for press freedom and set up a news service for mobile phones.

Tawakkul Karman led demonstrations during the Arab revolution. In 2011, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her non-violent struggle for the rights of women.

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FBI Seeking Social Media Monitoring Tool

2012-01-27T15:50:00.001+07:00

Jakarta Globe, January 27,2012

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Washington.The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a tool to mine socialmedia for intelligence tips.

The USdomestic law enforcement agency is asking information technology contractorsabout the feasibility of building a tool that would “enhance its techniques forcollecting and sharing ‘open source’ actionable intelligence.”

The Jan. 19open request was published on a Web site offering federal businessopportunities and was first reported by New Scientist magazine.

The FBIsaid it is seeking an “open source and social media alert, mapping and analysisapplication solution” for its Strategic Information and Operations Center(SIOC).

“Socialmedia has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become thepremier first response to key events and the primal alert to possibledeveloping situations,” the FBI request said.

“Intelligenceanalysts will often use social media to receive the first tip-off that a crisishas occurred,” it said.

The FBIsaid the tool “must have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open sourceinformation and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identity, andgeo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats.”

It wouldneed to be able to “instantly search and monitor key words and strings in all‘publicly available’ tweets across the Twitter site and any other ‘publiclyavailable’ social networking sites/forums.”

It wouldalso need the ability to “search the data across a myriad of parameters andview terrorist activities by location, terrorist group, and type of attack andsee trends and analytics.”

Inaddition, it would have to be able “to immediately translate into English,tweets and any other open forum publically available social media captured in aforeign language.”

Interestedparties have until Feb. 10 to respond to the FBI request.

Agence France-Presse

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Twitter may censor tweets in individual countries

2012-01-27T14:14:00.001+07:00

The Jakarta Post, Associated Press, San Francisco, Fri, 01/27/2012

Twitter hasrefined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis.

Theadditional flexibility announced Thursday is likely to raise fears thatTwitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messagingcompany expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience andmake more money.

But Twittersees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or"tweets," remain available to as many people as possible while itnavigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.

Before,when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweetcontaining content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there andstill be seen elsewhere.

Twitterwill post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That's similar towhat Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law ina country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.

LikeGoogle, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives fromgovernments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.

Thesimilarity to Google's policy isn't coincidental. Twitter's general counl isAlexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies whilehe was working at that company.

"Oneof our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user'svoice," Twitter wrote in a blog post. "We try to keep content upwherever and whenever we can, and we will be traparent with users when we can't.The tweets must continue to flow."

Twitter,which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world's most powerfulmegaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental rolesinpolitical protests throughout the world, most notably in the uprising thatoverthrew Egypt's government a year ago.

It's a rolethat Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filteringtechnology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweetsas it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expandits audience from about 100 million active uses now, to more than 1 billion.

Reachingthat goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitterwill be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to thefree-expression protctions guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.

If Twitterdefies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could bearrested. That's one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, whereits service is currently block. Google for several years agreed to censor itssearch results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population,but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdownwith Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results throughHong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.

In itsThursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn't yet used its ability to wipe outtweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored werewiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to childpornography.

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Dutch win crowdsourcing contest for emergency airdrops

2012-01-27T02:38:00.004+07:00

RNW, 26January 2012, by Robert Chesal

(Photo (montage): WFP)

The US AirForce can improve its method for dropping emergency supplies into disasterareas, thanks to crowdsourcing and a pair of Dutch engineers. If a new airdropsystem devised by Siepko Bekkering and Michiel Hagenbeek works, relief teamswill be better able to supply disaster victims with food and medicines.

How do yousafely and effectively drop relief packages after an earthquake or hurricane?The US Air Force has long struggled with that problem. Supplies have to beparachuted far from the disaster-struck population so that falling packagesdon’t kill or maim anyone. This is just one of the technical drawbacks ofairdrops, a method that saves lives but is often clumsy in practice.

Masscollaboration

The AirForce Research Lab (AFRL), which spends billions on advanced weapons systems,put this low-tech question to a huge online community by crowdsourcing. It’spart of a trend in Research and Development called Open Innovation. Instead ofsolving all problems themselves, companies and even the world’s most powerfulairforce put their problems to the crowd, so anyone who likes a challenge cangive it a shot.

Dutchengineer Siepko Bekkering was never one to enter online competitions before,until his friend and fellow engineer Michiel Hagenbeek introduced him to theworld of ‘mass collaboration.’ Together, they started looking for designchallenges. They found one on the InnoCentive website: the US Air ForceResearch Lab was looking for a better method for humanitarian airdrops. Theyentered the contest, and within two months Bekkering and Hagenbeek had come upwith a winning design.

“I thoughtit was interesting to develop something for the US military, especially becauseit can help them give emergency relief to people in trouble,” Bekkering said.“I also wanted to get involved in a crowdsourcing project because it’s a greatway to find a solution to a problem.”

Winningdesigns

As afinalist, Bekkering is $10,000 richer, but his design is now property of theAFRL. It consists of specially-devised rollers and a special chute to ejectfood packages from the aircraft, eliminating the heavy wooden pallets thatsometimes land on people who are awaiting help on the ground.

His design willnow compete with another crowdsourced solution the lab selected, fromIndonesian engineer Agung Nuswantoro from Tangerang City in Indonesia. Thatdesign uses an automated conveyor belt that receives real-time data aboutwindspeed, terrain and drop locations to prevent dangerous mishaps. Nuswantorobased the idea on his knowledge of conveyor belts in the coal industry.

Geek shortage

Now the labhas to decide which of the two finalist designs, selected from over 1,100entries, will become the standard for the Air Force. The laboratory, like manyother research bodies run by the US Defense department, is suffering from a major shortage of scientists and engineers. Advocates of crowdsourcing say OpenInnovation is the obvious solution.

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Legal battles loom as home 3D printing grows

2012-01-27T01:29:00.000+07:00

Deutsche Welle, 26 January 2012

People could soon make their own
keyboard keys

Legalbattles could soon emerge as digital sharing moves beyond copying media totaking files and transforming them into physical objects.

Thecontroversial website The Pirate Bay announced this week that it would beginhosting digital files for visitors to download and print out on their 3Dprinters. The site has coined a new word - "Physibles" - for dataobjects capable and feasible of becoming physical.

"Webelieve that things like three-dimensional printers, scanners and such are justthe first," the group wrote on its website. "We believe that in thenearby future you will print your spare parts for your vehicles."

The sitehas faced extensive legal battles in its home country of Sweden over potentialintellectual property infringement of digital content. The concern for manyintellectual property owners is that just as there is piracy in the digitalworld, so too will there be in the physical world.

The Pirate Bay has waded into
controversial territory before

3Dprinting, which has long existed in the industrial world, has started to makeit into the hobbyist community in recent years. "Fablabs" have sprungup in cities worldwide that teach people how to print physical objects, rangingfrom spare parts to art, and even edible objects.

The processis an "additive" manufacturing technique that essentially takesdigital data and, with the help of a robotic arm, forms a physical object by"printing" or releasing a hardening substance like plastic in thinlayers without a mold.

As utopianas data-to-object manufacturing may sound, it's a development rapidly gainingmomentum and one that poses unprecedented implications for intellectualproperty law, encompassing patents, copyrights and trademarks.

An unclearjudicial landscape

Last year,Dutch designer Ulrich Schwanitz developed a 3D object, called "impossibletriangle," which he sold through the 3D design company Shapeways. He laterforced Thingiverse, an open-source repository site for 3D models, to removeinstructions of how to recreate the shape, which was delivered by a formerShapeways intern.

Schwanitzmade was is believed to be the first formal attempt to apply copyright law to3D content.

In themonths and years ahead, scores of patent lawyers and open source advocates willexplore to what extent existing IP legislation impacts 3D printing and othernew technologies that digital data into objects.

'The nextgreat disruptive technology'

Some viewsare already emerging. Michael Weinberg, staff attorney at Public KnowledgeOrganization, wrote a white paper on the issue in 2010, called "It will beawesome if they don't screw it up: 3D printing, intellectual property and thefight over the next great disruptive technology."

Last year, a UK team built a
3D-printed model plane

"Oncean object has been patented, all copies, regardless of the copier's knowledgeof the patent, infringe upon that patent," he wrote. "Simply stated,if you are using a 3D printer to reproduce a patented object, you areinfringing on the patent. Even using the patented device without authorizationinfringes on the patent. Furthermore, unlike in copyright, there is no fair usein patent. There is also no exception for home use, or for copying objects forpurely personal use."

#b#But notall legal scholars agree on potential looming litigation.

Another2010 paper published by a British law professor, a British engineeringprofessor, and a German biometrics professor say that current fair use law, atleast in the United Kingdom, does allow for 3D printing.

"It isclear that – within the UK at least – personal use of 3D printing technologydoes not infringe the majority of IP rights," thy wrote. "Registereddesign and patent explicitly exempt personal use, trade mark law has beeninterpreted as doing so and UDR (Unregistered Design Right) is only applicableto commercial use."

The authorsgo on to argue that, "unlike music file-sharing, personal 3D printing doesnot produce an exact copy that can be digitally signed or protected with DRM(Digital Rights Management). It is the sharing of reverse-engineered designsthat is the issue, not the original design documents."

Author: John Blau

Editor: Cyrus Farivar

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Dutch court rules Samsung tablets don't copy iPad

2012-01-25T03:52:00.001+07:00

Deutsche Welle, 24 January 2012

Apple and Samsung are fighting each
other in the courts of 10 countries

Samsung addeda notch to its belt in ongoing legal battles with Apple as the two tech giantsjostle for share in an exploding tablet and smartphone market.

An appealscourt in The Hague ruled on Tuesday that Samsung's Galaxy Tab does not violateApple copyright.

The HagueCourt of Appeal's decision upheld a lower court's ruling from last year inrejecting Apple's request to stop Galaxy sales.

Apple,which is based in Cupertino, California, had alleged that Samsung's Galaxy Tab10.1 copies the iPad.

The Dutchcourt ruled that differences between the devices, including thickness, allowusers to differentiate between the products.

The twotech giants are locked in legal battles in 10 countries, Reuters reports. Asthe companies jostle for market share, Apple has sued Samsung over allegedGalaxy copyright violations. Seoul-based Samsung has sued back, saying Apple isviolating wireless technology patents.

LastFriday, a court in Mannheim dealt Samsung a setback by ruling that Apple hadnot violated one of three patents. Further decisions from the Mannheim court onthe patents are expected later this month, and in March.

Earlierthis year, a court in Dusseldorf temporarily banned Galaxy sales in Germany.

Reutersreported that Samsung has spent $60 million (46.2 million euros) so far inlegal costs relating to Apple.

Author: Sonya Angelica Diehn (AP, Reuters)

Editor: Nancy Isenson

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Turn Your Tablet Into a Phone, Word Processor or Remote Control

Turn Your Tablet Into a Phone, Word Processor or Remote Control

2012-01-23T21:39:00.000+07:00

Jakarta Globe, January 23, 2012

Apple's iPad and other tablets can utilize apps to function as remote
controls, word processors and phones. (AFP Photo)

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It’s a fewweeks since Christmas, and the novelty of that new iPad or Android tablet maybe fading. You’ve already watched a Netflix movie, played “Angry Birds” andmaybe even downloaded an e-book from Amazon.com or Apple’s iBooks. What next?

Here are threethings you might not be aware you can do with your new tablet:

Use it as atelephone: If you want to place a video call over a Wi-Fi connection, you’vegot a lot of options, including Microsoft’s Skype and, for iPad users, Apple’sFaceTime. But suppose you want to make and receive voice calls, and not justwith other Internet-connected devices but with traditional phones as well?

You couldset up a Google Voice account, which comes with its own phone number, anddownload its app — which in the case of the iPad means an iPhone app blown upto twice its usual size.

A moreelegant solution is Line2, an app from the cleverly named Toktumi, a SanFrancisco company. For less than $10 a month, Line2 converts your iPad orAndroid device into a fully functioning phone with its own number, voicemailand a host of advanced features.

It worksnot only over Wi-Fi, but also 3G and 4G wireless data networks — giving youvoice service any place and in any way your tablet can connect.

Evenbetter, the service is transferable from device to device. Put the app on yourphone too, and you’ve now got a second, fully-integrated line you can use forbusiness or in other situations where you don’t want to give out your personalnumber. Toktumi also provides software to let you place and receive calls onyour Line2 number from Windows PCs and Macs.

Line2 forAndroid provides a seven-day free trial before the $9.95 monthly fee kicks in.For the iPad, the company, prodded by Apple, is in the process of moving to a“freemium” model, with a no-cost level for calls with other Line2 users and apaid service for everyone else.

You’ll alsowant to invest in a Bluetooth headset. You’d look awfully silly holding an iPadto your ear.

Run Windowsand Microsoft Office: Several apps allow you to create, open and manipulateMicrosoft Office files on a tablet, such as Documents To Go from Blackberrymaker Research In Motion, Quickoffice and, for iPad users, Apple’s iWork suite.LogMeIn Ignition allows you to view and control a specific Windows PC over anInternet connection, while Citrix Receiver is aimed at enterprise users.

Now OnLive,a California-based online game service, has launched an app called OnLiveDesktop that puts a fully functional version of Windows 7, plus Microsoft Word,Excel and PowerPoint, on your iPad — all for free.

TheMicrosoft programs aren’t actually installed on your tablet. Rather, they arerunning on OnLive’s servers, to which you connect over the Internet. You’llneed a Wi-Fi connection, where the programs run smoothly; while you canoccasionally squeeze in a few minutes over 3G, don’t count on it.

Thedocuments you create are stored on OnLive’s servers; sharing them with othercomputers, or uploading documents created elsewhere, is managed via the OnLiveWeb site. The free app provides 2 gigabytes of storage, and OnLive says acoming $10-a-month service will provide 50 gigabytes, plus the ability to addand run more Windows programs. Enterprise and Android versions are also in theworks.

OnLiveDesktop uses a touch-friendly version of Windows 7; an on-screen keyboard alsois available. You’ll almost certainly, though, want to use it with a Bluetoothwireless keyboard.

Entertainmentremote control: Here’s perhaps the only area where some Android tablets areeasier to use than iPads.

Most TVsare being sold with some ability to put them onto a home network, either withbuilt-in Wi-Fi or an adapter port. Connecting your TV to a network means, amongmany other things, that you may be able to control it with an app on yourWi-Fi- connected device. Millions of TVs, though, don’t live on Wi-Fi networks.Owners rely on the infrared technology in traditional remote controls to changechannels and adjust the volume.

Unlike theiPad, some Android tablets have a built-in IR transmitter, allowing them tofunction as universal remote controls for TVs and home-entertainment gear rightout of the box. Probably the best I’ve seen is the Tablet S from Sony, whichincludes an app that mimics the functions of the company’s high-end standaloneremotes, including controlling non-Sony gear. Other Android tablets with IRblasters include Vizio’s Vtab and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

If you havean iPad, or a non-IR-equipped Android tablet, your best bet is a device thatuses a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection to your tablet and translates its commandsinto IR instructions. One that I’ve used is the Peel Fruit, which is currentlyon sale for $79; other products that perform similar functions includeLogitech’s $100 Harmony Link and Griffin Technology’s $70 Beacon.

Whateveryou use, there’s one huge advantage to using a tablet over a traditionalremote: little risk of losing it in the sofa cushions.

Bloomberg

Wiktory? Key sponsors abandon SOPA/PIPA after web blackout

2012-01-20T02:22:00.001+07:00

RT.com, 19January, 2012

AFP Photo / Stan Honda

Oppositionto the controversial SOPA/PIPA legislation has caused a major stir among USlawmakers on both sides of the house, with 18 Senators, including sevenco-sponsors, turning their backs on the legislation.

Theturnaround by Senators who had previously supported the proposed Stop OnlinePiracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), spearheaded bythe by movie and music industries, puts the total number of Senators publiclyopposing the bill at 25. Another 13 Senators are leaning toward opposition.

The numberof Senators openly supporting the bill has dropped to 33. Of the 25 Senatorsopposing the legislation, 17 are Republicans and eight are Democrats.

Thewithdrawal of support came in the wake of Wednesday’s Internet blackout.

Politicianswho abandoned SOPA as the strike hit include Republicans Marco Rubio, KellyAyotte, Roy Blunt, John Boozman, Ben Cardin and Orrin Hatch and Democrat BenCardin. Orrin Hatch of Utah announced on his Facebook page that he acknowledgesthat intellectual property theft is a “real and growing problem” that must be“combated”, but added that he cannot support the PIPA legislation as itcurrently stands.

“Rushingsomething with such potential for far-reaching consequences is something Icannot support and that is why I will not only vote against moving the billforward next week but also remove my co-sponsorship of the bill,” Orrin Hatchsaid.

He addedthat legislators should allow time for the both sides in the conflict to cometogether and “find a reasonable solution”.

SenatorMarco Rubio of Florida also posted a message on his Facebook page saying he wasin favor of combating piracy but believed doing so must not stifle innovationin a dynamic and open Internet. He urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid toabandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor and instead called on Senatorsto “take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come upwith new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free andopen access to the Internet.”

KellyAyotte of New Hampshire posted her message on Twitter: “I'm pulling my supportbc your concerns deserve consideration before Congress moves fwd.” MissouriSenator Roy Blunt also announced his change of heart via a Tweet: “We can finda solution that will protect lawful content. But this bill is flawed &that's why I'm withdrawing my support.”

The SOPAand PIPA bills are largely viewed as a means to crack down on out-of-the-USwebsites involved in violating intellectual property legislation.According tosupporters of the bills, SOPA and PIPA will help protect jobs in the film andmusic industries.

In turn,those opposing the legislation, among them Facebook CEO and founder MarkZuckerberg, believe that it will have irreversible and far-reachingconsequences, including for the economy and innovation.

“TheInternet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open andconnected world,” Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page. “We can't let poorlythought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development. Facebook opposesSOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt theInternet.”

A number ofother popular Internet resources signaled their opposition to the bills onWednesday, and many joined words and actions.

TheInternet’s largest reference tool, Wikipedia, went black for 24 hours toprotest the legislation, while Google blacked out its logo in US, directingpeople to a page where they could sign a petition against the bills. Googlesaid the initiative had gathered some 4.5 million voices.

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Wikipedia blackout: 24-hour strike against SOPA, PIPA begins

Wikipedia blackout: 24-hour strike against SOPA, PIPA begins

2012-01-18T20:51:00.005+07:00

RT.com, 18January, 2012, 09:01

Screenshot from http://en.wikipedia.org

TheInternet's largest and most popular general reference has gone dark. Wikipediahas joined a protest against something it believes is even darker: passage ofthe Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts.

SOPA andPIPA have not even made it to the Senate floor, but have already caused publicoutrage. Internet giants such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL and many othershave likened the bills to China-style censorship. The bills, which are perhapsthe most controversial pieces of proposed legislation in recent Americanhistory, were supposedly written to protect copyrighted material. But mostbelieve the bills would cripple the Internet, effectively killing all websitesallowing user-uploaded content, endangering potential whistleblowers andseverely damaging online freedom of speech. And amid fears they will lead tounprecedented censorship, many web moguls are trying to take matters into theirown digital hands.

Today’sblackout is the biggest act of defiance yet. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales saidon Twitter that the move “will be wow” and that he hopes “it will melt phonesystems in Washington,” before urging followers to spread the word. The world’s6th most visited website joins Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla, WordPress and othersin their protest – a decision that did not, according to Wikimedia FoundationExecutive Director Sue Gardner, come lightly.

Gardnersaid that “it is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both ofthese bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. Over thecourse of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together todiscuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA andPIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a communitydiscussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern thatWikipedians feel about this proposed legislation.”

The pressrelease went on to say that “the overwhelming majority of participants supportcommunity action to encourage greater public action in response to these twobills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a'blackout' of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on otherwebsites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.”

But whilethe move is most definitely a grand stand, will it do anything more than forcestudents to do their homework early – and perhaps even reintroduce printedreference sources to the digital generation?

It might.The Obama Administration responded to an anti-SOPA and PIPA petition, claimingit “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increasescybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Which wastaken by most to mean that these bills will never see life as laws, because allof the above is exactly what SOPA and PIPA do. But has that really ever stoppedthe US government from pushing through legislation deemed “important”? Look atthe Department of Homeland Security's “See something, Say something” program,under which almost any action – including paying cash, buying waterproofmatches and having discreet phone conversations in public – can be seen aspotential terrorist activity. Look at the NDAA, which allows indefinitedetention of anyone, including American citizens, suspected of terroristactivity.

So ifyou’re sitting there reading this, with some cash in your pocket and a websitewhere someone may have posted something that may lead to something else that ispotentially suspicious – expect the might of the US security and legal systemsto knock – or bust through your door. They might not even have a warrant,having convenient access to the so-called ‘sneak-and-peak’ granted by thePatriot Act. Of course, those were also created to capture terrorists, but aswe’ve established, we may all soon be branded as such because of a YouTubesearch.

Jokesaside, though – what about the arguments used to push the bill forward? Surelycopyright infringement should be battled? And shouldn't the companies losingmoney everywhere because of pirated content be protected?

Theyshould. But what SOPA and PIPA opponents are so upset about is that the billsare not specific enough; that they’re heaping all Internet users together andbranding them as one step short of evil, instead of clearly defining whatconstitutes an illegal activity and how it can realistically be battled.

For now,however, most, including www.demandprogress.org founder and executive directorAaron Swartz, believe the Acts will change the rules for the Internet not justin the United States, but around the world.

“Under thisbill, the rules totally change. It makes everyone who runs a website into apoliceman. And if they don’t do their job of making sure nobody on their siteuses it for anything that’s even potentially illegal, the entire site could getshut down – without even so much as a trial,” Swartz says.

So beforethe Acts become final, those in favor of an open information pool for thepeople are trying to make their final act count.

Katerina Azarova, RT

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Protect IP Act Breaks the Internet from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

The best Sopa protests online – in pictures

European malls track shopping patterns via mobile phone

2012-01-17T03:01:00.000+07:00

Deutsche Welle, 16 January 2012

Footpath uses mobile phone data
to track movement

PathIntelligence, a UK firm, has its services at more than ten malls in Britain andaround Europe. But its success has raised privacy concerns as well.

Most of usknow that when we surf or shop online, the pages we visit can be recorded andtracked. That's how websites like Google and Facebook are able to sell us adsostensibly targeted to our interests.

But whiletracking online movements and how that translate into sales is relatively easyonline, this level of monitoring is much harder to do offline. Britain'sbrick-and-mortar shops are having a rough time - as well-known national chainslike Woolworths have gone bust, thousands of other stores have closed, andtotal sales have stagnated in recent years.

Online it'sa different story: this Christmas the number of people shopping online wasnearly thirty percent higher than last year, with overall Internet salestripling in three years.

Enter PathIntelligence, a British company based in Portsmouth in southern England, andits new shopping monitoring product. Footpath is in operation in at least tenmalls in the UK, and has been sold to seven countries, mainly in Europe.

Path Intelligence detects what stores
people go to, and more importantly,
where they're not spending money

But, itssuccess has recently raised privacy concerns as well. In the past few months,campaign groups, online discussion boards, and even an American senator have criticizedthe way Footpath has been deployed.

"Typicallya retailer would have 20 to 30 percent of its shoppers buying something, so 70to 80 percent of shoppers in store don'tactually purchase," explained Sharon Biggar, Path Intelligence's CEO. "Andthat's the opportunity, that's what offline retailers are trying to identify,where those people went, what they looked at but what they didn't buy."

Temporaryanonymous identification

Biggar'sfirm provides that information by tracking customers – or rather their mobilephones – as they go shopping. The system uses a unique signal given out by eachphone – rather like a computer's IP address.

"It'scalled a temporary mobile subscriber identifier," Biggar told DeutscheWelle. "It's just a random number that Vodafone, Orange or O2 ascribes toyour phone. And then we're simply passively observing that number as it movesaround a particular space."

Usingaround ten receivers spread across the floor of the average shopping mall,Footpath can triangulate a person's location to within a couple of meters –revealing which shops somone has visited, and even which department.

Vodafone is one of the mobile phone
partners that provides anonymized data
to Path Intelligence

PathIntelligence charges retailers 39,000 ($49,000) to 77,000 euros ($97,000)depending on the length of time monitored and how much space is being watched.

The majorUK developer Land Securities - which has installed Footpath in some of itsmalls – said the data helps identify which shops are performing well and whicharen't, and helps improve the layout by identifying crowd bottlenecks.

However,many privacy advocates are starting to wonder about how secure this newmonitoring system is, and if this privacy-for-analytics trade-off is worth it.

"Ifconsumers can't be confident that the regulation protects their anonymous phonelocation being tracked, then how can they be confident that something far moreintrusive won't come along?" said Nick Pickles, of the London-basedcampaign group, Big Brother Watch.

"Andbefore we know it – technology moves much, much faster than the law - andconsumers are the ones who suffer, and everyone's sat going: why wasn't theprotection in place first?" he told Deutsche Welle.

Similarly,Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York state sent a letter to Biggar inNovember asking detailed questions about the service.

"Ashopper's personal cell phone should not be used by a third party as a trackingdevice by retailers who are seeking to determine holiday shoppingpatterns," he wrote.

In the US,two malls halted using Footpath after Schumer raised concerns, while twoAmerican retail giants, JCPenney and Home Depot, are still considering its use.

Fewerprivacy protections in the offline world

However,since last May, in the European Union, websites are required to give clearconsent for all cookies - the bits of computer code that track, store andtransmit this type of information online. Oddly, no similar legislationcurrently exists for the physical world in the United Kingdom or across the27-member bloc.

"Iwould say it's innocuous compared to a cookie," Biggar said. "Acookie is actually downloading something onto your device, it's actuallyphysically changing your device. We are in no way interacting with your devicewhatsoever. We make the very definite statement wherever our system is locatedthat we put up signs and we inform shoppers that this is going on."

Oneshopping mall where the Footpath system is in operation is Cardinal Place, incentral London. However, while there is a metal sign 25 centimeters (9.8inches) across, it only faces shoppers as they leave the center.

Many Britons are already subjugated
to ubiquitous CCTV cameras

An informalsurvey of shoppers suggested that few had ever actually noticed the sign. Whilemost people didn't seem to mind it, others did have some privacy concerns.

"Ifit's being used simply to get information on footfall numbers, that kind ofthing, then I don't think it's a particular issue at all," said one man,who declined to give his name. "I think if it was tracking individuals, sothey could actually work out where you were going then I might be a bitconcerned, but if it's clearly anonymous, then I don't think it's an issue atall."

There isstill concern that mobile network operators could link the temporary mobilesubscriber identifier with an actual telephone number and then, an individual.

Future usefor crowd control

Meanwhile,Path Intelligence is looking into applications beyond the shopping mall – toimprove the flow of crowds at rock concerts, and even tracking people inrefugee camps.

However,the company says it takes privacy seriously. Biggar added that her company wasasked to help find suspects after the riots last summer – which affectedshopping centers across the country.

"Themall owners in particular were keen that those criminals be brought tojustice," she said. "But however, we weren't able to help them at all, because we change all of the numbers,there's no way we could link a number back to an individual, so in that case wewere both protecting the privacy of shoppers, but also unfortunately also ofcriminals."

Author: Robin Powell, London

Editor: Cyrus Farivar

Russian internet giant hopes Twitter clone outstrips original

2012-01-17T00:22:00.002+07:00

RT.com, 16January, 2012

screenshot from http://futubra.com/

It mightsound like the name of a hi-tech underwear maker, but Futubra is the name of asocial network its owners are dubbing “the Russian Twitter.”

Designed byMail.ru – the multibillion Russian company that operates the country’s mostpopular email service and several successful social networks – the servicehopes to follow the success of non-English-language Twitter clones around theworld. In China, there are over two hundred million users of Chinese-languagemicroblogging sites.

AlthoughTwitter has been translated into Russian, it only has 2 million users, despitebeing a favorite form of communication for outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev.

Futubrasays that easier functions for posting photos and videos, not just messages,will give it an advantage over its formidable rival. All content is public, andusers can subscribe to any account without needing confirmation.

Whileregistering for Futubra is easy and the site has a clean, bright interface, asexpected, there is almost no content so far. As with any social network, thesuccess of Futubra will depend on whether Russians take to the new service insufficient numbers to create a vibrant community – but with the might ofMail.ru behind it, few in Russia are betting against the new service.

Related Article:

Guangzhou joins other Chinese cities in launching official microblog

Speak softly and carry a USB stick

2012-01-14T23:08:00.001+07:00

RNW, 14January 2012, by Robert Chesal

(Radio Netherlands Worlwide)

Westerngovernments are investing millions to keep human rights activists online incountries like Syria, Iran and China. They're giving citizen journalists thetechnology to skirt the surveillance and disruption of data traffic byrepressive regimes. But despite this aid, Europe and the US are accused ofhypocrisy on internet freedom.

The latestmoves by Iran illustrate why bloggers there need Western help. The governmenthas ordered cybercafes to log exhaustive details on the identity and internetuse of all customers. According to reformist newspaper Roozegar, Tehran maysoon introduce its own, national version of the internet and permanently blockIranians' access to the global web. Ahead of parliamentary elections in March,the government wants to ensure Iran won't see the next Facebook revolution.

ShadowInternet

To makesure pro-democracy bloggers there can keep informing each other and the outsideworld, the West has been sending aid. Not in the shape of money, buttechnology: tailor-made equipment and software that ensure internet access andprotection from spyware. It goes by names like 'The Shadow Internet' and'Internet in a Suitcase.'

Impressedby social media's role in the Arab Spring, both the US and Europe are smugglingthis technology across hostile borders and into the hands of pro-democracyactivists. "Our goal is to expand the space for free speech and tostrengthen democratic society," says Monique Doppert of HIVOS, a Dutchdevelopment aid group.

Last yearHIVOS distributed 5,000 copies of Security-in-a-Box, a software package thathelps people hide their communication activity from the authorities. Itcontains tips on issues like safe encryption of data and creating strongpasswords. "You can even fit the software on a USB stick. That's all youneed."

Cybersecurity

Copies havealso been distributed in Syria. "We don't know how many are in circulationthere. They can also download the software from the internet and we have no wayof tracing who's using it," says Doppert. And there lies a problem. It canfall into the wrong hands.

Thesophistication of aid technology for bloggers is being matched step-for-step byincreasingly cyberwise state security apparatuses, Doppert acknowledges."The regimes are learning from the technology we send. And from eachother." She believes Iran might even be helping Syria ramp up its cybersecurity.

Trackingand tracing

"It'sa kind of cat and mouse game," says European Parliament member MarietjeSchaake, who, according to the Wall Street Journal, is Europe’s most wiredpolitician. "We have to keep updating the technology used by human rightsdefenders so they can avoid tracking and tracing surveillance. "

She saysdictatorships have shown a chilling ability to catch on to the latest advances."I talked to someone who was imprisoned in Iran, who said half of those inprison with him were confronted with transcripts of their text messages, phonecalls and emails. Skype was long thought 100% secure until Egyptian activistsfound transcripts of their own Skype conversations when they raided a policeoffice in Cairo."

Corporatecomplicity

This ishardly surprising. Repressive regimes have been buying surveillance technologyfrom the West with great enthusiasm in recent years. Nokia Siemens Networkssold a mobile network to Iran prior to the 2009 crackdown, Schaake points out.

Schaakealso mentions the Italian company Area Spa, which was building a monitoringcentre to centralise all internet and mobile traffic in Syria and actually hadItalian technicians on the ground. "It's not even a matter of naming oneor two companies, this is quite a common practice." Western sales of surveillance systems to countries like Syria dwarf the amount of aid given topro-democracy supporters.

"Hypocrisy"

The spywareindustry originally supplied only Western governments and companies but nowenjoys €4 billion in sales worldwide. Only recently have Western politiciansstarted calling for the trade in surveillance software to be regulated, becausedictators are buying the technology too.

Ahypocritical stance, says Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch hacker who in 2010 became thesubject of US government scrutiny for helping Wikileaks release classifiedvideo footage of a Baghdad airstrike.

"Westerngovernments that paid for the development of repressive technology are nowcomplaining that dictators are using it. Western countries love it whencensorship is subverted in states run by adversaries, but they're far lessconcerned with freedom of expression in their own societies."

Forkedtongue

“Look atSOPA, the anti-piracy legislation being considered in the US Congress. It'scensorship. Western governments would do more for internet freedom if theydidn't speak with a forked tongue. A clear message is better than security in abox. If you want to be a beacon of freedom, put your money where your mouthis."

LastDecember, the EU freed up €125 million to support internet freedom in countrieslike China, Myanmar, Syria and Iran – the focus was largely on helpingrepressed bloggers.

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Twitter boss slams Wikipedia's 'silly' Sopa protest

Reddit admins announce January 18 blackout to protest SOPA

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NASA Produces and Promotes New LENR Video: Nuclear Power Coming Soon To Your Home

2012-01-14T06:58:00.001+07:00

MNISPEL, By Dr. MarkD. Nispel, January 12, 2012

NASA is allin and claiming to “be working on another way of producing energy withefficient nuclear power.” NASA as anorganization apparently suddenly wants to be seen as in the forefront of thisnew thing they see coming. Pretty coolactually.

NASA hasproduced and featured a video presenting LENR as a technology. The video features Dr. Joseph Zawodny, SeniorResearch Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. The video highlights the potential of havinga LENR nuclear power generation device in your home to provide all the powerneeds of your home as the “easiest” implementation, even though it couldpotentially be used even for transportation and infrastructure. The technology is “clean” producing noionizing radiation or waste.

See thevideo highlight on the right of the NASA technology gateway page here.

The videodirectly is here.

In themeantime, A. Rossi continues to move apace claiming he is working on puttinghis e-cat LENR device intoproduction. He is working with NationalInstruments to complete his design. Heclaims that the first small home units that generate electricity and can heat /cool the home will be in production by the end of 2012 for around $1500 and heplans on producing a million the first year after they get going. See here and here.

Twointeresting notes:

1. The NASAvideo avoids using the term “cold fusion.”

2. The NASAvideo interestingly right toward the end uses an image to represent LENR
somewhat abstractly which it attributes to the US Navy SPAWAR within the video(see lower left).

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - New !

BBVA banks on Google Apps

2012-01-12T02:52:00.003+07:00

Google Blog, January 11, 2012

Posted byJosé Olalla, CIO at BBVA

Editorsnote: Today, our guest blogger is José Olalla (@PepeOlalla), CIO at BBVA. BBVAis one of the largest financial institutions in the world who today haveannounced they are adopting Google Apps for Business to increase productivityand drive innovation.

BBVA is acustomer-centric global financial services group founded in Spain in 1857. Wenow have over 110,000 employees in more than 30 countries across the world.

At BBVA wesee technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage, and staying at theforefront of technology and business practices is key to our success. Todaywe’ve announced that we’re migrating our business to Google Apps to increaseefficiency and to help our teams to collaborate more easily, regardless oflocation.

We were lookingfor a technology that would transform our business operations - not just makeour workers more efficient. Integrating the Google Apps for Business suite withour own tools will allow us to introduce a new way of working where employeeshave access to all the information they need with just one click, no matterwhere they are or what kind of device they use, and can reap the benefits ofusing advanced collaboration tools.

We willmigrate our old email systems to the cloud with Gmail. Google Talk, GoogleSites and Google Docs will allow our teams to communicate and share ideas moreeasily - working in a way that they have never experienced before.

With GoogleDocs, for example, we’re excited about the real-time collaboration benefits -and we expect to increase productivity by removing the need to constantlyupdate different versions of a document. We are developing our new globalintranet (we call it High Performance Desktop) taking advantage of Google’scollaboration tools, changing it from a corporate communications and processmanagement site to a place where all employees will be able to share,contribute and manage knowledge globally.

Theroll-out of Google Apps will be staggered, with more than 35,000 BBVA workersin Spain initially using the Google Apps productivity tools. By the end of 2012we expect to have migrated 110,000 employees across our global network.

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Internet providers ordered to block Pirate Bay

2012-01-12T00:45:00.002+07:00

RNW, 11January 2012

A Dutchcourt in The Hague has ordered internet providers Ziggo and XS4ALL to blockaccess to The Pirate Bay (TPB), a Swedish website which facilitates illegaldownloading of music, films and software.

The caseagainst TPB was brought by the Brein Foundation, a group committed to theprotection of the intellectual property of writers, artists and members of theentertainment industry. An attempt last year to block access to the downloadingwebsite was rejected by a Dutch court.

Formed in1998, Brein develops anti-piracy policies and coordinates the fight againstpiracy, both in the production and distribution sectors.

The courtsaid it was satisfied there was sufficient evident proving that 30 percent ofZiggo’s customers and 4.5 percent of XS4ALL’s have recently used TPB forillegal downloads. As this constituted a breach of copyright, a ruling orderingthe website to be blocked was justified.

The twoDutch internet providers have ten days to block access to the site. After that,if the torrent site is available through other addresses, Ziggo and XS4ALL willhave to block those addresses if requested to do so by Brein. If the providersdon't comply they face a daily fine of 10,000 euros up to a maximum of 250,000.

Brein saysit intends ordering other internet providers to disallow their customers accessto TBP.

Difficultin practice

Theinternet providers say it is extremely difficult in practice to carry out thesemeasures.

Internetwatchdog Bits of Freedom agrees that blocking access to a website isn’t aneffective solution. “Bits of Freedom isin favour of a fair fee for artists and entertainers, but you don’t achievethat by blocking websites. We regard this as a rear guard reaction that putsinternet freedom further under pressure,” says spokesperson Tim Toornvliet.

Bits ofFreedom also points out the general lack of public support for such actions.MPs regard the blocking of websites as“undesirable”, adds Toornvliet. “They feel such a measure contravenes both theconstitutional right to freedom of expression and privacy rights.”

Finlandclamps down on piracy

TheNetherlands is just one of several European countries that have attempted toblock access to the site. Following a ruling by the Helsinki District Courtlast October ordering major internet provider Elisa to block access to PirateBay or face a 100,000-euro fine, the service provider announced Monday it wouldtemporarily block access to the site.

Inretaliation, cyber activist attacked the websites of the Finnish anti-piracygroups.

BREIN is anacronym for "Protection Rights Entertainment Industry Netherlands" inDutch and is also the Dutch word for "brain".

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TomTom shares surge on deal with Samsung

2012-01-10T17:14:00.000+07:00

The Jakarta Post, Associated Press, Tue, 01/10/2012

Shares inTomTom NV have surged after the company said it has struck a deal with Samsungto include the Dutch company's navigation software on a new line of smartphones.

TomTom isbest known as Europe's largest maker of portable navigation devices, though itlags Swiss-based Garmin Ltd. in North America and overall. TomTom owns one ofthe world's best map databases, and expects future revenues to comeincreasingly from incorporating its software and maps into third-party productsproduced by others, such as phones and cars.

Its dealwith Samsung Electronics Co. is for the South Korean company's upcoming"Wave3" phone.

TomTomshares were up 6.7 percent to (euro) 3.129 in early Amsterdam trading onTuesday.

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Vatican used Wikipedia for new cardinals' biographies

2012-01-10T03:42:00.001+07:00

BBC News, 9January 2012

RelatedStories

Pope Benedict (L) formally appointed
the new cardinals on 6 January

The Vaticanhas acknowledged that it used Wikipedia to produce biographies of 22 newcardinals that were sent out to journalists.

Thebiographies were copied from the Italian version of the user-edited onlineencyclopedia, word for word in some cases, and without attribution.

One cluewas that many new cardinals were described as being "Catholic".

The Vaticansays it was trying to help journalists and warned them the biographies were"unofficial".

The namesof the 22 new cardinals from around the world were announced by Pope Benedicton 6 January.

The similaritybetween the profiles of them handed out by the Vatican and their Wikipediaentries was spotted by the Italian journalist and blogger Sandro Magister.

In the kindof language not normally used by the Vatican, a Dutch archbishop, WilliamJacobus Eijk was described as being "one of the most talked aboutreligious men in the country".

This wasbecause of his "strong leaning towards conservatism, especially withregard to abortion and homosexuality," the biography said.

A Vaticanspokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said his staff had no advance notice ofthe names of the new cardinals and had been in a hurry.

Officialbiographies are now being put up on the website of the Holy See.

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God no longer toll-free

"Theangel's phone, atSt John’s Cathedral, has just one button,"

the sculptor told journalists. "Itdirectly dials God."

In a networked world, why is the geography of knowledge still uneven?

In a networked world, why is the geography of knowledge still uneven?

2012-01-10T00:42:00.001+07:00

User-generatedinternet content is weighted towards the global north; the division of digitallabour urgently needs rebalancing

guardian.co.uk,Mark Graham, 9 January 2012

Children in an internet shop in Jakarta. The distribution of online knowledge
is heavily weighted towards the global north. Photograph: Romeo Gacad/
AFP / Getty Images

Digitalinformation – photographs, blogs, videos, tweets, Wikipedia articles, reviews,descriptions, stories, and myriad other types of content – surrounds us. Theamount of (mostly unpaid) human labour behind this content is astonishing.Wikipedia alone is the result of over 100m hours of work.

Theseonline layers of content matter not just because they are an increasinglyimportant way in which we access and produce information, but also because theymaterially shape how we move through, understand, and enact our physicalenvironments.

Traditionally,information and knowledge about the world have been geographically constrained.The transmission of information required either the movement of people or theavailability of some other medium of communication. Historical maps offerperhaps the best illustration of the geographic limitations to knowledgetransmission. Take the 13th-century Carta Pisana, the world's oldest survivingnavigational chart. Produced in Italy, the chart depicts relatively accurateinformation about the Mediterranean, less accurate information about thefringes of Europe, but no information at all about the world beyond Europe.

Up untilthe late 20th century, almost all mediums of information – books, newspapers,academic journals, patents and the like – were characterised by similar huge geographic inequalities (pdf). The global north produced, consumed andcontrolled much of the world's codified knowledge, while the global south waslargely left out.

In theinternet era, however, the movement of information is no longer constrained bydistance. Very few parts of the world remain disconnected from the grid, andover 2 billion people are now online (most of them in the south). IBM,recognising this fact, has recently proclaimed the "digital divide willcease to exist" in the next five years.

Unsurprisingly,many believe we now have the potential to access what Wikipedia's founderrefers to as "the sum of all human knowledge". Theoretically, partsof the world traditionally left out of flows and representations of knowledgecan quite literally be put back on the map.

However,potential has too often been confused with actual practice. Profound digitaldivisions of labour are evident in all open platforms that rely onuser-generated content.

On Flickr,countries in the north are covered by much thicker clouds of information. Google'sdatabases contain more indexed user-generated content about the Tokyometropolitan region than the entire continent of Africa. While on Wikipedia,there is more written about Germany than South America and Africa combined. Inother words, there are massive inequalities that cannot simply be explained byuneven internet penetration rates. A range of other physical, social, politicaland economic barriers reinforce the digital divide, amplifying theinformational power of the already powerful and visible.

That's notto say the internet doesn't have important implications for the developingworld. People use it not just to connect with friends and family, but to learn,share information, trade, and represent their communities.

Consequently,it's important to be aware of the internet's highly uneven geographies ofinformation. These inequalities matter to the south, because connectivity –though a clear prerequisite for access to most 21st-century platforms ofknowledge sharing – is by no means a determinant of knowledge production anddigital participation.

How do wemove towards encouraging participation from and about parts of the world leftout of virtual representations? The first step is allowing people to see whatis, and isn't, represented. After that, there is also a clear need for planslike Kenya's strategy to boost local digital content, or Wikimedia's Arabic Catalyst project, which aims to encourage the creation of content in Arabic andprovide information about the Middle East.

It remainsto be seen how effective such strategies will be in changing the highly unevendigital division of labour. As we rely increasingly on user-generatedplatforms, there is a real possibility that we will see the widening of dividesbetween digital cores and peripheries. It is crucial to keep asking wherevisibility, voice and power reside in an increasingly networked world.

Related Article:

The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

In-car internet 'to become norm' in survey about future

2012-01-05T16:31:00.001+07:00

BBC News, byMelanie Grant, Newsbeat reporter, 5 January 2012

In-vehicle internet access is close to becoming reality,
according to the world's top car bosses.

The surveyby KPMG looking at future trends shows speech recognition and internetconnection with Wi-Fi and 3G will become the norm.

More than athird (37%) of the 200 car executives believe "infotainment" in carsis nearly as important as car safety.

Carmanufacturers will also join forces with music, telecoms and IT companies.

Over thenext five years car buyers will see in-car gadgets provided by big forms likeGoogle, Apple, Microsoft and LG, among others.

John Leechfrom KPMG says some car manufacturers are already making "connected"cars.

"Therecent collaboration between Toyota and Intel was announced at the end of lastyear," he said.

"Intelclaims that the connected car is the third-fastest growing technologicaldevice, following smartphones and tablets. For a car maker that offers hugepotential."

Audi hasdeveloped an built-in 3G wireless in its A7 and will extend it to other newmodels.

"Theconnected car concept is well and truly here," added John Leech.

Hybrid carswill also get the most investment over the next five years according to 53% ofthe car executives surveyed.

But 61%also believe developments in normal petrol and diesel engines will still beattractive offering consumers greater efficiency and C02 reduction.

Belarus puts restrictions on foreign internet sites

2012-01-04T22:08:00.001+07:00

BBC News, 4January 2012

RelatedStories

The opposition Charter 97 website was
disabled by hackers last month

A new lawin Belarus will restrict access to foreign websites and force internet clubsand cafes to report users visiting sites registered abroad.

The law,which takes effect on Friday, says anyone selling goods or services to Belaruscitizens on the web must use the .by Belarusian domain name.

That wouldmake it illegal for firms like Amazon or eBay to sell goods to customers inBelarus.

Fines forbreaking the law range as high as 1m Belarus rubles (£77; $120).

The lawsays people offering internet services to the public - whether at a cafe, clubor in their own home - will face fines if their customers visit foreignwebsites and such visits are not properly recorded and reported.

Anyonefound accessing "extremist" or "pornographic" websites willalso be fined, the law says.

PresidentAlexander Lukashenko has been in power in the ex-Soviet republic since 1994.

Hismuzzling of the opposition has been condemned by the EU and US, who haveimposed travel bans and asset freezes on him and dozens of his associates.

At the endof December the Belarus opposition website Charter 97, run from outsideBelarus, was disabled by a cyber attack.

The site'schief editor Natalya Radzina told the US-based Committee to Protect Journaliststhat the attackers had deleted archives and posted a false news story aboutopposition presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov.

Last May MrSannikov, co-founder of Charter 97, was jailed for five years for organisingmass protests during the December 2010 presidential election.

Ms Radzina,who works in exile in neighbouring Lithuania, said the hackers got into thewebsite by using a password, probably by sending malware to an editor'scomputer.

In December2010 the authorities cracked down on protests against alleged vote-rigging inthe presidential election.

More than600 people were detained, including seven of the election candidates.

Internationalmonitors said the contest, in which Mr Lukashenko officially won 80% of thevote, was deeply flawed.

Facebook removes abortion tips, then restores them

2012-01-03T21:37:00.000+07:00

RNW, 2January 2012, by Marco Hochgemuth

Rebecca Gomperts (Women on Waves)

Facebooktemporarily removed the profile picture of Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch founderof Women on Waves, an organisation that works to provide women with safe, legalabortions. The image consists of a block of text providing information on howwomen can self-induce an abortion without the assistance of a doctor. Women onWaves was furious, but media attorney Quinten Kroes said there was little theycould do.

RebeccaGomperts was shocked when she received an email from Facebook informing herthat her profile photo had been removed because it violated the website’s termsof use known as the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Apology

MeanwhileFacebook has sent her another message, apologising for the removal, andclaiming it was an error. Ms Gomperts was given permission to reinstate theimage. She assumed that the service's change of mind was prompted by the floodof protests and publicity it had created.

Describingthe contentious picture, Rebecca Gomperts said,

“It’sactually a sticker we designed to provide information on how women can safelyinduce an abortion using a medicine called Misoprostol. The text is based oninformation and research from the World Health Organisation. So it is reallyquite safe.”

TheEnglish-language text says that to induce a safe abortion women should buy 12Misoprostol tablets at a pharmacy. They are advised to say the drugs areintended for ‘their granny who has arthritis.’ When the tablets are taken a fewhours apart they will induce labour accompanied by abdominal cramps and vaginalbleeding eventually leading to a miscarriage after about 10 hours. Diarrhoea isthe most common side-effect. In case of a high fever and severe pain women areadvised to see a doctor, who should be told the patient suffered a miscarriage.

Legallyunassailable

Women onWaves says the removal of the photograph is in violation of article 19 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights - which specifically mentions ‘the rightto ... seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media’ – andthe European Convention on Human Rights. However, media and privacy lawyerQuinten Kroes says this not entirely true:

“Women onWaves refers to very basic human rights, such as the freedom of expression.These fundamental rights are primarily intended as protection from governmentinterference, which is not what this is about. Facebook has not removed theprofile photograph as a result of pressure from any government, but on its owninitiative. From that perspective, Facebook could argue its own freedom ofexpression was at stake here. Facebook cannot be made to spread ideas thecompany does not support.”

Mr Kroessays Facebook's legal right to remove the text is based on its' extensive andlegally unassailable terms of use: “They will undoubtedly include articles grantingFacebook the right to remove specific texts because the texts violate certainnorms or prompted complaints from other users.”

Men kissing

This is notthe first time Facebook has removed photographs from profile pages for allegedterms-of-use violations. Earlier, photographs of partially nude people, worksof art involving (too much) nudity and of kissing men fell victim to Facebook’scensorship.

“It reallyworries me that there should be so much censorship on the internet. Regardlessof whether it’s Google or Facebook,” says Rebecca Gomperts, “Because when youno longer know what’s going on, you can also no longer discuss it. That’s whatwe all should protest against.”

Kroes saysleaving Facebook is the only thing users can do to protest against the removalof photographs. And indeed, Ms Gomperts is considering leaving Facebook infavour of its competitor Google+. But that site has just this week become thesubject of a fierce discussion on its strict terms of use.

UScolumnist MG Siegler angrily reported that his profile photograph had beenremoved because it showed him giving the middle finger. Since then, numerouspeople in the US have expressed their support by posting photographs on theirGoogle+ profiles in which they make a similar gesture.

Related Article:

Facebook unwelcome in Vietnam, but Zuckerberg OK

EU proposals erode internet freedoms

2011-12-28T21:42:00.001+07:00

RNW, 27December 2011, by Willemien Groot

(Cartoon movement)

WhileEuropeans were busily preparing for the festive season, Brussels quietlypublished a document that will have far-reaching consequences for everyone'sability to see what they want on the internet.

The planscontained in the CleanIt Project are supposed to create a clean internetwithout any terrorists or extremists. The new blueprint for the internet is adangerous development.

The CleanItProject is a European public-private partnership that fights "the illegaluse of the internet by terrorists and extremists" from the perspective ofcounter-terrorism. Because governments, entrepreneurs and businesses cannotagree on measures to 'keep the internet clean, tidy and safe', Cleanit'sproposals are an attempt to impose an agreement on cleaning up the internet.Concerned parties can simply implement the proposals on a voluntary basis. Theproposals are not anchored in legislation but are a framework of general principlesand best practices.

Europeanpoint of view

It isdifficult to find political and cultural nuances in the proposals. CleanItcontains the well-known list of 'threats to a clean and safe internet'. Thethreats stem from a limited European idea of reality. Internet crime,discrimination, illegal software, child porn and terrorism are all trotted outand displayed as threats that ordinary, decent folk need to be protectedagainst in their everyday internet use.

Politicalthreats come from every level of society: extreme-left, extreme-right, animalrights extremists, environmental extremists, racists and religious fanatics.Governments have already prohibited the dissemination of violent images,propaganda material and training handbooks for terrorist activities.

It is anuncomfortable truth; the democratisation of the internet has led to a gradualerosion of liberties. Very few people want violent images or child pornographyon the net but banning such content is not a solution, it will only gounderground.

Murkywaters

The thinktank behind the proposals, which is partially funded by EU money, maintainsthat existing national laws prohibiting illegal use of the Internet byextremists and terrorists are more than adequate to counter the threats posedby 'dangerous individuals or organisations'. However, one can debate theveracity of that statement: should the WikiLeaks cables be consideredsubversive and a threat to national security? Should the Ku Klux Klan beallowed to have a website? Is an instructional video uploaded by a Dutch animalrights activist a call to violence? The answers all lie in the eye of thebeholder.

Westerngovernments praised the Arab Spring - the uprisings across much of the Arabworld that were driven by social media - but at the same time they demandedstrict controls over the selfsame social media in order to block 'unwanted'content. The Egyptian authorities agreed wholeheartedly and simply cut allinternet links during the first demonstrations on Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Vigilant

The CleanItdocument predicts a far from happy future; it's not easy to create a cleanworld wide web. Everybody has to be vigilant; not only governments andcompanies but also internet providers, human rights organisations, churches,social and cultural organisations... the list goes on and on.

Ordinarypeople can also join the vigilantes: according to CleanIt: “individual userscan help by warning providers and police about internet use by terrorists andextremists.” Welcome to North Korea.

Theproposals have to be viewed alongside the increasing calls for prohibitingpeople from using the internet anonymously. Chinese authorities in severalcities already force people using Weibo - the Chinese version of twitter - toregister under their own name. Google+ doesn't allow pseudonyms and Facebook isdoing its level best to get rid of people using pseudonyms as well.

Terroristor freedom fighter?

CleanItemphasises that the proposals are not anchored in law and only serve asguidelines. But as time goes on, these sorts of guidelines can sometimes assumethe authority of actual legislation.

If theEuropean Union decides that extremist views do not belong on the internet; willthen be all right for China, Indonesia and Syria to come to a similar decision?Every country will be able to ban what it decides are extremist views.Indonesia can quietly continue working on its own internal code of conduct thatevery internet user will be forced to adhere to.

Theguidelines are not only poorly thought out, they also gnaw away at theunregulated and uncontrolled access that makes the internet such a glorious,free place that users love and want to preserve. Everyone who believes that itis possible to bend the chaotic internet into a neat and tidy, well-manneredplace, falls into the same trap.

It isimpossible to promote internet access as a human right, which is high on UNSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s agenda, and at the same time try and restrictand regulate it. The best policy is no policy.

(jric/tt)

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After SOPA Flip Flop, Did GoDaddy Thwart Efforts to Drop Domains?

GoDaddy Says It Doesn't Support PIPA Either, As Domains Keep Transferring Away

Google, Facebook warn against new US piracy legislation

After SOPA Flip Flop, Did GoDaddy Thwart Efforts to Drop Domains?

2011-12-28T15:34:00.002+07:00

PC Mag, byChloe Albanesius, December 27, 2011

The dramasurrounding GoDaddy and its stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)continued this weekend, with reports of customers having difficulty droppingtheir domains from the company.

Yesterday,registrar NameCheap said in a blog post that GoDaddy was "thwartingefforts to transfer domains away from them."

"Specifically,GoDaddy appears to be returning incomplete WHOIS information to Namecheap,delaying the transfer process. This practice is against ICANN rules," thecompany said.

In astatement provided to CNET, GoDaddy said the delay was due to "the normalrate limiting," which is in place to prevent abuse. GoDaddy criticizedNameCheap for failing to contact the company about the problem, and insteadopting for a blog post. "Nevertheless, we have now proactively removed therate limit for Namecheap, as a courtesy," GoDaddy said.

Inresponse, NameCheap updated its blog post to say that "all we know on ourside is that GoDaddy was preventing us from conducting normal business with ourclients, and in turn causing harm to our reputation and at the same timeoverloading our support channels."

The blogpost, NameCheap said, was intended to "inform our clients," but thepress "decided to make this into some sort of story."

The debate,meanwhile, focuses on GoDaddy's support of a controversial online piracy billknown as SOPA. The bill would expand the ability of the Justice Department togo after Web sites overseas that traffic in fake goods like counterfeit pursesor prescription drugs. According to the bill's sponsor, Rep. Lamar Smith, theDOJ would have to get a court order against an infringing site, and if granted,could request that the site be blocked. Search engines would then have toremove links to those sites.

Critics,however—like Google, Facebook, and Twitter—are concerned that the bill is toofar-reaching and broad, and could potentially harm Web sites that don'tactually contain infringing content or were acting in good faith.

Initially,GoDaddy said it was in support of the bill, but after a Reddit member proposed a boycott of GoDaddy over its support—and high-profile domain owners joinedup—the company reversed course and said it will support SOPA "when and ifthe Internet community supports it."

Customerswho switched their domains in the last few days reported that GoDaddy called them to explain their current SOPA stance and to get them to reconsider.

There havebeen a few reports circulating about how many domains were actually droppedfrom GoDaddy after the SOPA drama. Citing info from DailyChanges.com,TheDomains.com said more than 15,000 domain names were transferred fromGodaddy.com on Thursday and over 21,000 were transferred away from GoDaddy onFriday. Domain Name Wire, however, said DailyChanges.com data can be misleadingsince domain names can take five days to transfer and DailyChanges tracksnameserver changes, not domain transfers.

"I'mnot writing this to blast the people who have used DailyChanges as a proxy.After all, I kept an eye on it during the elephant boycott and called it a'proxy' for domain transfers," Domain Name Wire said. "But looking atthe data this time I think it's actually a poor proxy."

SOPA,meanwhile, will be taken up when the House reconvenes next month. A similarSenate bill, the PROTECT IP Act, is scheduled to be addressed in late January.

For morefrom Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

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EU vows to help online dissidents speak out

CIA’s daily menu: 5 mln foreign tweets!

2011-12-27T21:47:00.002+07:00

RT.com, 27December, 2011

CIA’s daily menu: 5 mln foreign tweets!

It has beena while since the US Central Intelligence Agency admitted it keeps an eye oneverything that appears on Facebook and Twitter. A new report now says the CIA“vengeful librarians” have to follow up to 5,000,000 foreign tweets a day.

InNovember, the CIA acknowledged a full monitoring of social networks. Almosttwo-thirds of intelligence reports made by the CIA for Washington now come fromanalysts monitoring millions of individual messages sent worldwide, says theAssociated Press.

The CIA’s“vengeful librarians,” as the CIA Open Source Center (OSC) director Doug Naquinnamed them, monitor everything available regardless of its significance andlanguage. This also includes TV news channels, internet chat rooms, local radiostations, and newspapers. Social media became the focus of the group’sactivities during the unrest in the Islamic Republic of Iran, following its2009 presidential election.

The goal isto map “the mood of a region” where the US pursues interest. Such a process letWashington in on the global public reaction after the death of Al-Qaeda leaderOsama Bin Laden in Pakistan back in May.

Beforethat, the analysts saw the popular uprising coming to Egypt, but could notpredict its exact timelines, said the center’s director, Doug Naquin.

Fast-pacedriots, as the ones which took place during the Arab Spring, put social networkssuch as Facebook and Twitter on to the top among crucial intelligence tools.The two also offer a growing coverage, with Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook networkboasting over 800 million active users, while June statistics showed over 300million were singed in the Twitter microblog.

Facebook unwelcome in Vietnam, but Zuckerberg OK

2011-12-27T18:14:00.000+07:00

Associated Press, Dec 27, 2011

In thisDec. 26, 2011 photo, Facebook website founder Mark Zuckerberg

rides a waterbuffalo in northern resort town of Sapa in Lao Cai province,

Vietnam in thispicture taken. Vietnam may block its citizens from using to

Facebook, but thatdidn't stop website founder Mark Zuckerberg from spending

his vacation there.Zuckerberg spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist

destination Ha Long Bay,local official Trinh Dang Thanh says.

(AP Photo/VnExpress, Le ThanhHieu)

HANOI,Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam may block its citizens from using Facebook, but thatdidn't stop website founder Mark Zuckerberg from vacationing in the communistcountry.

Zuckerbergspent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist destination Ha Long Bay, localofficial Trinh Dang Thanh says.

State-runmedia say Zuckerberg arrived in Vietnam on Dec. 22.

Zuckerbergspent Christmas Day at an ecolodge in the northern mountain town of Sapa androde a buffalo, said Le Phuc Thien, deputy manager at Topas Ecolodge.

Zuckerberg,Facebook's 27-year-old CEO, founded the social networking site in 2004.

Vietnam'saggressive Internet censors block access to Facebook and other websites, butyoung Vietnamese easily bypass the restrictions.

'Anonymous' hackers hit US security firm Stratfor

2011-12-26T07:32:00.001+07:00

BBC News, 26December 2011

RelatedStories

Stratfor urged its members to notify
authorities about any suspicious
credit card activities

Theactivist hacker group Anonymous says it has stolen thousands of emails,passwords and credit card details from a US-based security think-tank.

The hackersclaim they were able to obtain the information because the company, Stratfor,did not encrypt it.

They sayStratfor's clients include the US defence department, law enforcement agenciesand media organisations.

TheAustin-based company says it has now suspended the operation on its servers andemail.

An allegedmember of Anonymous posted an online message, claiming that the group had usedStratfor clients' credit card details to make "over a milliondollars" in donations to different charities.

Stratforlater announced that it would keep its email and servers suspended for sometime.

It alsosaid the disclosure was "merely a list of some of the members that havepurchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entitiesthat have a relationship with Stratfor".

Anonymoushas previously claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on financialinstitutions seen as enemies of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

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Egyptian blogger free after two months' detention

2011-12-26T07:27:00.001+07:00

Deutsche Welle, 25 December 2011

Abdel-Fattah met his son for the
first time

One of thefirst online activists to protest against Egypt's former leader Hosni Mubarakhas been released from prison following two months' detention.

One ofEgypt's pioneering online activists, who was a leading figure in the Februaryprotests that ended the rule of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, wasreleased from detention on Sunday after being held for nearly two months.

AlaaAbdel-Fattah was detained at the end of October for refusing to take part in amilitary investigation into a protest rally he was a part of on October 9. Theprotests turned violent when security forces advanced on the crowd, andAbdel-Fattah and 27 others were accused - but never formally charged - ofinciting the violence.

"Weknow from the beginning that I am not the one who killed people,"Abdel-Fattah said outside of Cairo's police headquarters following his release,in remarks carried on news network Al-Jazeera. "We have not gone after thereal criminals who killed people."

Plenty of Egyptians supported
Abdel-Fattah during his detention

Whilegreeting reporters, Abdel-Fattah also met his son Khaled, who was born whilehis father was in prison.

Militaryrulers

Abdel-Fattah'scase is still open, but has been turned over to a civilian court, and he willnot be allowed to leave the country as long as the investigation is ongoing.

Hissupporters maintain that Abdel-Fattah was targeted in an effort to silence aprominent critic and absolve the military for its role in the violence atprotests that left 27 people dead. Some of the victims, according to activists,were killed when they were run over by military vehicles.

Activistslike Abdel-Fattah are putting pressure on Egypt's new military rulers becausethey say little has changed since the generals took power following Mubarak'souster.

Many accusethe military of violently crushing opposition and killing dozens of protesters.

Author:Matt Zuvela (AFP, Reuters, AP)

Editor: Ben Knight

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Volkswagen turns off Blackberry email after work hours

2011-12-23T20:17:00.002+07:00

BBC News, 23December 2011

RelatedStories

UK unions have warned that VW-style
email restrictions might not suit other
companies

Volkswagenhas agreed to stop its Blackberry servers sending emails to some of itsemployees when they are off-shift.

Thecarmaker confirmed it made the move earlier this year following complaints thatstaff's work and home lives were becoming blurred.

Therestriction covers employees in Germany working under trade union negotiatedcontracts.

Campaignerswarned that the move would not be suitable for all companies.

A spokesmanfor VW said: "We confirm that this agreement between VW and the company'swork council exists", but would not comment further.

Under thearrangement servers stop routing emails 30 minutes after the end of employees'shifts, and then start again 30 minutes before they return to work.

The staffcan still use their devices to make calls and the rule does not apply to seniormanagement.

"Theagreement was received very positively," Heinz-Joachim Thus of the VW workers council told the German newspaper Wolfsburger Allgemeine.

Spare time

The movefollows criticism of internal emails by Thierry Breton, chief executive of theFrench information technology services giant, Atos. He said workers at his firm were wasting hours of their lives on internal messages both at home and atwork. He has taken the more radical step of banning internal email altogetherfrom 2014.

Last monththe maker of Persil washing powder, Henkel, also declared an email"amnesty" for its workers between Christmas and New Year sayingmessages should only be sent out as an emergency measure.

Industrywatchers say the moves reflect growing awareness of a problem.

"It'sbad for the individual worker's performance being online and available 24-7.You do need downtime, you do need periods in which you can actually reflect onsomething without needing instantaneously to give a reaction," said WillHutton, chair of the Big Innovation Centre at The Work Foundation.

"Secondlyit has a poor impact on an individual's well-being. I think that one has topatrol quite carefully the borderline between work and non-work.

"So Ican see why some firms are taking this action, the problem is that a universalresponse is impossible... but certainly we should have the capacity to be optedout of it rather than be opted in."

Consultations

Unionofficials in the UK have also cautioned other firms against repeatingVolkswagen's move without consultation.

"Theissue of employees using Blackberrys, computers and other devices out ofworking time is a growing one that needs to be addressed as it can be a sourceof stress," Trades Union Congress (TUC) secretary general Brendan Barbertold the BBC.

"Howeverother organisations will need different solutions and what works in VW may notwork elsewhere.

"Byworking in partnership with their union, Volkswagen's policy will have thesupport of all their employees. Where employers simply introduce policies ontheir own, however well-meaning they may be, they are unlikely to besuccessful."

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Irish privacy watchdog calls for Facebook changes

2011-12-22T00:14:00.002+07:00

BBC News, 21December 2011

RelatedStories

Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg,
has said the firm can do better on
privacy

The Irishdata protection commissioner has recommended widespread changes to improveprivacy on Facebook.

Theyinclude making its terms and conditions clearer and offering users greatercontrol over how their data is used on the site.

Thefindings are particularly significant because Facebook Ireland was givenresponsibility for all non-US and Canadian data in September 2010.

Facebookhas six months to implement the changes.

CommissionerBilly Hawkes will conduct a formal review of its progress in July.

Commentingon the report, he said: "This was a challenging engagement both for myoffice and for Facebook Ireland. The audit has found a positive approach andcommitment on the part of FB-I [Facebook Ireland] to respecting the privacyrights of its users."

Transparency

Facebookwelcomed the review, saying: "We are pleased that the report demonstrateshow Facebook adheres to European data protection principles and complies withIrish law.

"Ofcourse, the report highlights some areas where we can improve and reach bestpractice."

The reportsuggested widespread changes, including:

a mechanismfor users to make an informed choice for how their information is used andshared on the site, including in relation to third party apps
an updateto its data use policy/privacy policy to take account of recommendations as towhere the information provided to users could be further improved
transparencyand control for users via the provision of all personal data held to them onrequest and as part of their everyday interaction with the site
thedeletion of information held on users and non-users via what are known associal plug-ins, and more generally the deletion of data held from userinteractions with the site much sooner than presently
increasedtransparency and controls for the use of personal data for advertising purposes
anadditional form of notification for users in relation to facialrecognition/"tag suggest" that, it is considered, will ensureFacebook Ireland is meeting best practice in this area from an Irish lawperspective
an enhancedability for users to control tagging and posting on other user profiles
an enhancedability for users to control their addition to groups by friends
The reviewis the latest in a series of privacy investigations. Last month the US FederalTrade Commission said the social network giant had engaged in "unfair anddeceptive" practices over changes made to its privacy settings in 2009.

In a blogpost at the time, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the company had made a"bunch of mistakes".

But headded that this had often overshadowed the good work that the social networkingsite, which has more than 800 million users, had done.

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Bahrain blogger Zainab al-Khawaja freed on bail

2011-12-21T18:12:00.001+07:00

BBC News, 21December 2011

BahrainProtests

Images of Zainab al-Khawaja being dragged away by
police attracted widespread coverage

Bahrainpolice have released Zainab al-Khawaja, a blogger and human rights activist,after five days in custody.

Ms Khawaja,the daughter of a jailed opposition leader, was arrested on Thursday during ananti-government demonstration.

Images ofher arrest, in which she was dragged to a police vehicle after refusing toleave a sit-in, had received widespread coverage.

She wasreleased on Tuesday night pending trial.

After her release she tweeted that the last few days had been "tough".

The28-year-old is the mother of a young child. Her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja,her husband and other male relatives have been imprisoned since April.

In Februaryand March an uprising of Bahrain's majority Shia population against the Sunnirulers began, inspired by the Arab Spring. The government crackdown left atleast 24 people dead, though some accounts put the toll as high as 40.

An inquiryby an international panel of human rights experts found police had usedexcessive force. King Hamad has put together a committee to implement therecommendations of the panel's report.

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IBM Next 5 in 5: 2011 (Video)

2011-12-19T22:46:00.002+07:00

IBM unveilsits sixth annual "Next 5 in 5" -- a list of innovations with thepotential to change the way people work, live and play over the next fiveyears. The Next 5 in 5 is based on market and societal trends expected totransform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's Labs aroundthe world that can make these innovations possible.

In thisinstallment: you will be able to power your home with the energy you createyourself; you will never need a password again; mind reading is no longerscience fiction; the digital divide will cease to exist; and junk mail willbecome priority mail.

Guangzhou joins other Chinese cities in launching official microblog

2011-12-19T21:49:00.000+07:00

English.news.cn 2011-12-19

GUANGZHOU,Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The municipal government of the southern Chinese metropolisof Guangzhou launched its official microblog Monday, joining other cities thathave used the popular social networking tool to better interact with thepublic.

Theofficial microblog "Zhongguo Guangzhou Fabu," which roughlytranslates to "China Guangzhou News Release," was launchedsimultaneously on weibo.com and t.qq.com, two of the country's popularmicroblogging websites.

Nearly 12hours after being officially launched at 9:40 a.m., the microblog hadaccumulated over 110,000 followers on both sites.

Twenty-fourmunicipal government agencies, including police and education authorities, willpost newly-released policies and regulations, work developments, andinformation about news conferences on the joint microblog account, Mayor ofGuangzhou Wan Qingliang said.

Moregovernment agencies will join the microblog account in the future, he said.

Last month,the municipal governments of Beijing and Shanghai unveiled similar news releaseplatforms, as microblogging is becoming a widely recognized platform andchannel for interactions between the government and the public.

Accordingto the latest statistics from Internet giant Sina, which operates weibo.com,nearly 10,000 government agencies had opened verified microblog accounts byearly November this year.

The lateststatistics show that China now has more than 300 million registered microblogusers among its 485 million Internet users.

Saudi prince invests $300 million in Twitter

2011-12-19T16:17:00.003+07:00

The Jakarta Post, AdamSchreck, The Associated Press, Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Mon, 12/19/2011

Saudibillionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment company said Mondaythey are investing a combined US$300 million into the microblogging siteTwitter.

The jointinvestment with Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Co. follows months of negotiationsand represents a strategic stake in Twitter, according to the Riyadh, SaudiArabia-based investment firm.

Alwaleed,who has a long history of investing in media and technology, said the dealrepresents an interest in investing "in promising, high-growth businesseswith a global impact."

Twitterallows users to send short messages of up to 140 characters. It has beeninstrumental in connecting protesters and relaying on-the-ground developmentsduring this year's Arab Spring uprisings.

"Webelieve that social media will fundamentally change the media industrylandscape in the coming years. Twitter will capture and monetize this positivetrend," Ahmed Halawani, KHC's executive director of private equity andinternational investments, said in a statement.

Alwaleed isthe main shareholder in KHC, which has a major stake in Citigroup Inc. KHC alsoholds stakes in other Western giants, including Apple Inc. and Rupert Murdoch'sNews Corp.

In February2010, Alwaleed's Rotana Group media company agreed to sell a stake of just over9 percent to News Corp. for $70 million.

Alwaleed isin the process of launching a new Arabic news channel that will challengeestablished players such as Qatar's Al-Jazeera and Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya.

Thechannel, which will be called Alarab, is expected to begin operations next yearand will feature reports from business news service Bloomberg LP. Alwaleed hassaid he hopes the new network will focus on the shifts taking place across theArab world, with an emphasis on freedom of speech and of the press.

KHC alsoowns a sizable stake in a Saudi media company that publishes the influentialArabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat and other publications.

Spendingspree: Saudi billionaire Prince
Alwaleed bin Talal has announced today
that heis investing $300 million into social
networking site Twitter

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Censored: #occupywallstreet

“... In Marchof 2011, Bloomberg news reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co., arguably thelargest corporate bank in the world, “has invested in a fund that has boughtabout $400 million in Twitter Inc. shares....”

Well connected: Prince Alwaleed leaves
Westminster Abbey after attending the wedding
of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April

Internet Explorer: Microsoft plans 'silent' updates

2011-12-17T17:50:00.002+07:00

BBC News, 16December 2011

RelatedStories

Once IE isupdated, future changes will

be applied without a user's knowledge

FromJanuary, Internet Explorer (IE) users will be automatically updated to thelatest version of the browser.

Microsoftsaid it was starting the project to update millions of machines to improvesecurity online.

Futureupdates to the browser would be applied without a user's knowledge to help beatscammers catching people out with fake updates.

Those whodid not want their browser updated could opt out or uninstall the software,said Microsoft.

"TheWeb overall is better - and safer - when more people run the most up-to-datebrowser," wrote Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's IE boss, in a blogpost explaining the plan.

He said thedata gathered by Microsoft for its security intelligence reports showed thatmany cyber criminals targeted old or outdated software when they tried to trickpeople into installing fake updates.

To beatsuch scams, Mr Gavin, said that once the latest version of the browser wasinstalled all future updates would arrive silently and be applied without auser getting involved.

ChesterWisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos, said the plan would aid thosewho did not see the importance of staying up to date.

"Microsofthas been struggling with browser stragglers for years," he said in a statement.

Demise ofIE6

The giantupgrade programme will affect IE users running Windows XP, Vista and 7, andwill first be rolled out in Australia and Brazil. Only those Windows users withautomatic updates turned on will be enrolled in the programme.

Those usingWindows XP will be upgraded to IE8, while those on Vista and 7 get bumped up toIE9. This will probably mean the demise of IE6, a 10-year-old version of thebrowser that Microsoft has been trying to kill off for a while.

Figuresgathered by Microsoft suggest IE6 is used by about 8.3% of people around theworld, with the biggest number of users in China, where almost 28% of peopleremain wedded to it.

Globally,Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser, with more than 52% ofpeople using it, according to net market research firm Net Applications.Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome are battling it out for second place.

Microsoftsaid it had made tools that would let people avoid or uninstall the moreup-to-date versions of the browsers if they wanted to stay with an older copy.

Related Article:

Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer 8

Facebook 'unfriends' coal and 'likes' clean power

2011-12-16T01:49:00.001+07:00

Agreementto power its operations using clean and renewable energy follows a two-yearcampaign by Greenpeace

guardian.co.uk,James Meikle, Thursday 15 December 2011

Facebook director of operations, Tom Furlong, announces plans to build
a 'green' datacentre in Lulea, northern Sweden. Photograph: Susanne
Lindholm/AFP/Getty Images

Facebookhas announced it will move away from coal and power its operations – includingdatacentres – with clean and renewable energy.

The movefollows a two-year campaign by environmental group Greenpeace, which arguedthat the company's massive energy consumption was contributing significantly toclimate change.

Theagreement comes after Greenpeace united 700,000 supporters behind its UnfriendFacebook campaign to lobby the company to change its energy policies."This move sets an example for the industry to follow," said TzeporahBerman, co-director of Greenpeace's international climate and energy programme."This shift to clean, safe energy choices will help fight global warmingand ensure a stronger economy and healthier communities."

In April2011, a Greenpeace report, How Dirty is your Data?, calculated that 53.2% ofFacebook's electricity was generated by coal. Energy consumption by datacentresis growing rapidly and each of Facebook's US datacentres is estimated toconsume the same electricity as 30,000 US homes.

Facebooksaid it wanted to develop its platform to work more closely with Greenpeace to"promote environmental awareness and action" after the twoorganisations published a joint statement on future collaboration.

Marcy ScottLynn, of Facebook's sustainability programme, said it looked forward "to aday when our primary energy sources are clean and renewable, and we are workingwith Greenpeace and others to help bring that day closer. As an important step,our datacentre siting policy now states a preference for access to clean andrenewable energy."

She addedthat Greenpeace had been "particularly effective" in using Facebook,saying: "We are excited to work with them to explore new ways in whichpeople can use Facebook to engage and connect on the range of energy issuesthat matter most to them – from their own energy efficiency to access tocleaner sources of energy."

Facebook'scommitment to renewable energy "raises the bar for other IT and cloudcomputing companies such as Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Twitter", saidCasey Harrell, senior IT analyst for Greenpeace International.

Theenvironmental group has argued that IT companies, by increasing theirelectricity consumption while avoiding increasing demand for coal, could becomea strong force in helping move countries to low-carbon economies.

In October,the company announced plans to build a "green" datacentre in Lulea innorthern Sweden that would handle all data processing from Europe, the MiddleEast and Africa. Powered primarily from renewables, the planned facility willcover 30,000 square metres - about the size of 11 football pitches.

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Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The internet
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Durban? What a waste of time!

(Photo: RNW)

EU vows to help online dissidents speak out

2011-12-13T00:23:00.001+07:00

Deutsche Welle, 12 Dec 2011

Online activists in parts of the
world face huge hurdles

TheEuropean Union has unveiled a strategy called 'No-Disconnect' to help onlineactivists living under oppressive regimes get their message out without fear ofstate surveillance.

Called the"No-Disconnect" strategy, the new European Union plan announcedMonday aims to enable Internet activists operating under oppressive regimes tocommunicate safely and anonymously outside the reach of governments. However,European officials yet to precisely explain how these tools will be created,distributed, or evaluated.

NeelieKroes, the EU's digital affairs commissioner outlined the four-part "No-Disconnect"plan in a speech on Monday in Brussels.

Kroes said online freedom is closely
linked to democracy

The newstrategy includes developing technology to enhance privacy, teaching activistshow to use it, developing on-the-ground intelligence to monitor the level ofsurveillance and censorship and promoting cooperation between governments, theprivate sector and activists.

"Iwant the EU to help develop and distribute those tools, in a framework thatensures the legitimacy of our action," Kroes said.

Kroes saidthe tools need to be simple and ready to use so they can be deployed quickly byactivists with minimal technical knowledge and training.

The toolsshould also be readily accessible, she said, not just from computers, but frommobile phones, social networks, and micro-blogging services, like Twitter.

ManyInternet experts believe social networking websites played a role in fomentingthe revolutions of the Arab Spring this year, helping topple authoritarianregimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

"TheArab Spring was a wake-up call for all of us," Kroes said at the FreedomOnline conference held last week, in The Hague, the Netherlands.

"[Thisis] a reminder that democracy is not just a rich world luxury – but somethingwhich people hope and struggle for everywhere," she added. "And areminder that, across the world, information and communications technology cansupport freedom of speech and enable the peaceful transition todemocracy."

Meshnetwork on the way

Egyptian blogger Wael Ghonim was a
prominent activist during the uprising

The EU'spush to support online freedom follows similar initiatives by the United Statesearlier this year to fund and develop alternate digital communications networksto help dissidents bypass state-controlled censorship.

Separately,the Dutch government has pledged one million euros ($1.3 million) to develop"mesh network" technology that can use devices like cellphones orpersonal computers to create a backup system to disseminate information in theevent governments shut down Internet and mobile phone service. Iran, Syria andZimbabwe are reported to be target countries.

Walking afine line

Though detailsof the EU digital freedom strategy remain sketchy, Internet rights advocateshave welcomed it as a step in the right direction.

"I'mglad the European Union is taking a stance on Internet freedom. It helpshighlight just how important the issue is," said Markus Beckedahl, editorof a popular German-language blog that focuses on digital issues, in aninterview with Deutsche Welle.

But at thesame time, he added, the EU is trying to walk a fine line: on the one hand it'shelping activists in repressive nations help bypass state-controlledcensorship.

On theother EU member nations impose curbs on online speech within its own borderswhen it comes to downloading music, blocking websites to fight childpornography or gathering information on its citizens to combat terrorism.

Internet activists say western governments also block web content

"It'svery hard to lecture a country like China about censoring Internet content whengovernments in Europe too are blocking access to certain things," echoedJoe McNamee, head of European Digital Rights, a Brussels-based Internetadvocacy organization. "This is the trickiest challenge for the EU – itsimply has to be consistent to be credible."

Activistshave also criticized the United States for its "Stop Online PiracyAct" proposed by Congress, which would require American telecommunicationscompanies to block access to foreign-based websites that infringe Americancopyright.

Westerntech firms complicit in Internet monitoring

Otherspoint out that any EU efforts to champion Internet freedom are undermined bythe fact that western companies export surveillance technology to authoritariangovernments. WikiLeaks recently began publishing extensive internal documentsfrom companies around the globe that engage in these types of surveillance.

StephanUrbach of Telecomix, a decentralized network of Internet freedom activists,said his group had discovered earlier this year that the Syrian government wasusing web filters developed by US technology company Blue Coat Systems. Inanother instance, a Munich company reportedly sold Internet monitoringtechnology to the Egyptian government.

Stephen Urbach and his colleagues at
Telecomix have tried to help activists
stay online

"Thisis a real problem," Urbach told Deutsche Welle. "The Western world sellsthis kind of monitoring hardware all across the Middle East."

Both theEuropean Union and the US have in recent days urged technology companies to betransparent about equipment they sell to government who might use it to represstheir citizens.

"I thinkit is high time for the industry to decide where they stand, and what they aregoing to do. If not as a moral issue, then as an issue of corporatereputation," Kroes said. "Being known for selling despots the toolsof their repression is, to say the least, bad PR."

Helpingexisting activists

Though theEU hasn't said how much it intends to invest in its "No Disconnect"strategy, experts say any funds must be targeted carefully.

Beckedahlsuggested that the 27-nation bloc should help finance groups such as Telecomix,which famously offered slow, but functional, dial-up Internet access tocircumvent state blockages of broadband networks during the uprising in Egypt.

"Ifthe EU is serious about supporting Internet freedom it should fund civil rightsgroups, open source software and groups that already do good work on the groundand are well-connected with activists in other countries so that they canimprove their initiatives," he said.

Author: Sonia Phalnikar

Editor: Cyrus Farivar

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'Tunisian Girl' blogs for freedom and democracy

2011-12-12T20:46:00.000+07:00

Deutsche Welle, 12 Dec 2011

People around the world flocked
to Ben Mhenni's blog

Lina BenMhenni's blog served as a key source of information on the crimes committed bythe Ben Ali regime in Tunisia. After the dictator's fall, the 28-year-old kepttabs on Tunisia's progress toward democracy.

Lina BenMhenni is always on the move - and always online. Whether it's at TunisUniversity, where she is an assistant professor, at international conferences,meeting with bloggers in cafes, or demonstrating in the street, she alwayscarries a phone with a camera, a laptop and a mobile Internet connection. Sheis continually updating her status on Facebook and Twitter, posting picturesand commenting on articles and videos.

Ben Mhenniis "A Tunisian Girl," a blog that won the 2011 Deutsche WelleInternational Blog Award (the BOBs) in June. A panel of jury members chose herfor her work documenting abuses by former Tunisian President Zine El AbidineBen Ali's regime and promoting democracy in the country.

Revolutionmade by people

People, not online networks, were
behind the Tunisian uprising, she
says

During theprotests that eventually ousted Ben Ali in January, the Internet was the onlysource of independent information. The protests were famously sparked when26-year-old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the town ofSidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, after police said he didn't have the rightpermits to sell his goods.

Theincident was captured on video, a piece of footage that evaded a media blackoutby being disseminated on Facebook and other Internet platforms. When hundredsof people gathered to protest at the local authority's building, the governmentreacted with a brutal repression.

During theblackout, the Internet, Facebook, Twitter and Ben Mhenni's Arabic, French andEnglish blog became one of the most important sources of information forTunisians as well as people in the rest of the world.

But BenMhenni said she doesn't believe the uprising that resulted was an "onlinerevolution."

"Therevolution was made by people," she told Deutsche Welle. "By thepeople who were brutally beaten by security forces. By the people who took tothe streets and risked their lives. And, most of all, by the people who had topay with their lives."

Documentingand remembering

Ben Mhenni used her blog to
keep the world informed

Ben Mhennirisked her own life by braving numerous roadblocks to see the bodies of thepeople murdered in faraway Tunisian towns by pro-Ben Ali forces. She publishedher pictures of the victims on her blog to make sure the rest of the world alsosaw what was happening.

"Iwill never be able to forget that moment," she said. "The picture ofbullet wounds in a young man's corpse and the sorrow of his family andfriends."

More than200 people died during the Tunisian uprising, according to the United Nations.For the 28-year-old blogger, the regime's sheer violence was the biggest reasonit needed to be toppled.

Riskingarrest and torture

Ben Mhenni joined protesters on
the streets in Tunis

"WhenI saw how people were being killed, it was clear to me that there was no goingback," Ben Mhenni said. "Somehow I had to give these people and theirfamilies a voice so that their deaths would not be in vain."

In additionto documenting the crimes committed by the regime, she joined protesters on thestreet and gave interviews, via Skype, to international media organizationsreporting on events in Tunisia. Like other activists, she risked arrest andtorture several times.

Discoveringthe Internet

BenMhenni's blogging career began in 2007 during studies in the US, after shediscovered an article about blogging. Her first entries were simply personal journals,but her blog gradually became more critical of the Tunisian government, and shesoon fell foul of the country's censors. All of her entries from 2007 tomid-2009 were blocked.

Shecountered by linking her content on as many Internet platforms as possible, inan attempt to evade state media controls. She says she was occasionallyfollowed by the secret police during that time.

Vigilancecontinues

Her workseems to have paid off, now that Ben Ali's regime has been toppled, but sheinsists that the struggle for a democratic Tunisia and a just societycontinues. She has a scathing take on mainstream media outlets.

"Thejournalists still follow the same strategy as before," she says."They are loyal to the strongest, the ones making decisions. The Tunisianpress is neither independent or unbiased to this day."

She alsocomplains that young people, who she credits as sparking and carrying therevolution, are not being allowed to participate in the new government. That iswhy her blog still documents injustices, and still publicizes new protests,when necessary.

Ben Mhenniwas one of the favorites for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, but she says shewas relieved when it was given to three other female human rights activists.

"Ispent a horrific week in the limelight. I long for my normal life," shewrite on Facebook at the time. "Now the fight can continue."

Much hashappened in Tunisia since the early days of the Jasmine Revolution. Ben Ali hasbeen sentenced to 35 years in jail, and the first free elections have takenplace. But Ben Mhenni is still blogging - about problems still lingering inTunisian society, but also about mothers who lost their sons in the revolution,and about a past that still needs to be understood.

Author: Chamselassil Ayari / sms

Editor: Stuart Tiffen

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Russia election: Medvedev Facebook promise draws ire

2011-12-12T01:43:00.001+07:00

BBC News, 11 December2011

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Kremlin redfaces after retweet

RussianFacebook users have poured scorn on a promise by Russian President DmitryMedvedev to investigate reports of electoral fraud.

At least4,000 comments appeared under his post a day after the biggest anti-governmentprotests since Soviet times.

A randomsample showed two-thirds of the comments were hostile.

MrMedvedev, who prides himself on the use of social media, recently suffered anembarrassment when an obscenity was sent from his Twitter account.

Havingalready conceded that some violations of electoral law had taken place at theparliamentary elections last Sunday, he went on Facebook to say he had issuedinstructions for all official reports on the conduct of the polls to bechecked.

But it washis comments on Saturday's election protests - some 50,000 people turned out inMoscow alone - which drew particular anger.

'Patheticliar'

"I donot agree with either the slogans or statements heard at the rallies," MrMedvedev wrote.

Facebookusers pointed out that the chief, official slogan of the rallies had been"For Honest Elections".

"Soyou're against the slogan 'For Honest Elections'?" was a typical comment.

Medvedev on social media

759,000 Twitter followers in Russian, 144,000 in English
366,900 "likes" on Facebook
1.3m followers on vKontakte

"Patheticliar", was another, while some writers peppered their observations withobscenities, visible just under the president's message.

Of the 100comments viewed by the BBC News website, roughly a third were hostile, and therest divided about equally into supportive and neutral.

Earlier inthe week, the Kremlin blamed a member of staff for an obscene message sent fromMr Medvedev's official Russian-language Twitter account.

Russianbloggers delighted in forwarding the message, circulating screenshots after ithad been deleted from Mr Medvedev's account.

Twitter,Facebook and other social media have been used extensively both by Russianopposition activists seeking to uncover electoral fraud and organise protests,and Kremlin supporters.

Russian PrimeMinister Vladimir Putin maintains a much lower profile on the internet.

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