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)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls

German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls
Logo No Hate Speech Movement

Bundestag passes law to fine social media companies for not deleting hate speech

Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace. (Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin)

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Satellite begins beaming Internet access to rural Europe

Deutsche Welle, 31 May 2011

Ka-Sat was launched into space
in December 2010
A new Eutelsat service is aimed at serving customers in rural and remote parts of Europe. Neelie Kroes, the EU commissioner for the digital agenda, says satellite access is crucial for underserved areas.

On Tuesday, a European satellite began providing Internet access to people in underserved and remote parts of Europe. The Eutelsat satellite, known as Ka-Sat, was launched from Kazakhstan in late December 2010.

In a statement, Eutelsat said that "more than one million homes in Europe and large parts of the Mediterranean Basin," will be served by its new Internet service.

"The entry into service of Ka-Sat, the world's most powerful spotbeam satellite, turns a new page in affordable and immediately available IP solutions, and places Europe at the forefront of high-capacity satellite technologies that can serve to quickly close the broadband gap," said Michel de Rosen, the company's CEO, in a statement. "We look forward to working with our service and technology partners to unleash the huge potential of this new pan-European wireless infrastructure."

Eutelsat's Ka-Sat, whose service is sold under the brand name Tooway, will provide speeds comparable to other terrestrial broadband providers, at 10 megabits per second for downloads and four megabits per second for uploads.

Competitive with traditional broadband service

Neelie Kroes said Tuesday that satellite
access could help Europeans in remote
areas
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the basic service for consumers would cost 30 euros ($43) per month, but that households would also need to purchase a modem and satellite dish for 250 euros ($360).

On its website, Tooway added that the service would cost "virtually the same monthly fee as ADSL," adding that "Prices and sales conditions are available from service providers in each country."

EU official lauds satellite access

Also on Tuesday, the EU's commissioner for the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes, gave a speech in which she re-iterated the goal for all of the EU to have broadband access by 2013 - and that the EU is already most of the way there.

"95 percent of Europeans now have access to broadband internet infrastructure," she said. "That's a great achievement. But it still leaves a lot of people - 10 million households, in fact - who we are still to reach."

She added that these remaining 10 million households were in rural and isolated locations, and suggested that wireless and satellite connections are likely the best way to make sure that these residences get online.

"They can be the most cost-effective in such areas where more common landline solutions are not an option," she said.

Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Nicole Goebel

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Egypt: Hosni Mubarak fined for cutting internet

BBC News, 28 May 2011

Egypt's Revolution

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been fined $34m (£20m) for cutting off communications services during the uprising that ousted him.

Hosni Mubarak has been charged
over the deaths of anti-government
protesters
The fine of 200m Egyptian pounds is the first clear ruling against Mr Mubarak since he left office in February. Two other senior officials were also fined.

The 83-year-old is currently under arrest in hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh after being taken ill in detention.

He has been charged over the deaths of anti-government protesters.

Officials probed

Mr Mubarak is also being questioned over charges that he and his family made huge profits during the three decades he spent as Egyptian president.

More than 20 Mubarak-era ministers and businessmen linked to the regime have been detained since his departure.

Last week, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly was sentenced to 12 years in jail on charges of money-laundering and profiteering.

On Saturday, he was also fined over the disruption to telephone and internet services during the Egyptian revolution, along with Mr Mubarak and his former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.

Adly also faces separate charges of ordering troops to fire on demonstrators. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Mr Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal have been charged with "premeditated murder" of some participants in the protests, the country's state news agency reported.

Related Articles:


India taps IT power to woo African youth

The Economic Times, 28 MAY, 2011

RELATED ARTICLES

DAR ES SALAAM: India is reaching out to African youth here by offering to make Tanzania a "communication and IT hub of East Africa" and has unfurled new possibilities of cooperation in key high-tech areas like space cooperation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
with Tanzania President  Jakaya Mrisho
 Kikwete visiting project (Co EICT) at
 Dar-es-Salaam Institute of Technology
at Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania on
Friday. (PTI)
Drummers and dancers swayed jauntily, waving flags of India and Tanzania at the entrance to the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology where hundreds of budding engineers and young IT trainees eagerly waited for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to speak to them Friday evening.

It was a hot and humid evening in this coastal metropolis, but the torrid weather could not deter students who sat patiently and clapped spontaneously as Manmohan Singh described them as "the future of Tanzania" and offered to "create a pool of world class professionals" in East Africa's largest country.

"You represent the future of Tanzania, and from what I have seen I can say with confidence that the future of Tanzania is bright," he said to loud applause before formally launching the Indo-Tanzanian Centre for Excellence in IT which has been set up by Indian software engineers at a cost of a little over $2 million in August last year.

"India is ready to provide all the help we can within our resources to enable Tanzania to create a pool of world class IT professionals," he said.

"If we can produce a steady stream of highly trained scientists, technologists and engineers, our cooperation would be worthwhile and we would be putting our money to good use," he said.

This is the first time an Indian Prime Minister was addressing the youth in an African university, signalling New Delhi's new vision to forge a contemporary and modern partnership with the African continent where over 50 per cent of nearly 1 billion people are in the age group of 18-35.

"The scientific and technological empowerment of the youth has a direct correlation to a nation's social and economic progress," he said.

The institute also houses the Param High Speed Super Computer gifted by India to Tanzania in 2009 that is being used for weather-forecasting and high-speed computation.

This has made Tanzania only one of four African countries that also include Ghana, Egypt and South Africa which has facilities for high-tech computing facilities. India has also set up a similar IT centre for excellence in Ghana.

Raising the bar for India's diplomatic thrust in Africa, Manmohan Singh announced India's readiness to cooperate with Tanzania in the area of space technology and applications and placed it in the larger context of South-South bonding.

Cuban blogger pays price for her opinions

Deutsche Welle, May 26, 2011

Yoani Sanchez is Cuba's most
famous blogger
Cuban native Yoani Sanchez isn't known for holding her tongue, even in a country without freedom of expression. Her outspokenness has earned her the label of "mercenary of imperialism" and around-the-clock surveillance.

There are some lessons we learn without needing a teacher. They're the lessons that get passed on through whispers at home.

It's thanks to these kinds of lessons that I realized, even as a young person in the 80s, that we Cubans would only be allowed to have a voice as a state-organized group. We had to be members of an official organization or face punishment. Forming our our own groups or clubs was out of the question. It's a lesson we learned and learned well.

As children we were automatically part of the Young Pioneers and when girls turned 14 they became members of the Women's Club. The neighbors went to the meeting for the Committee to Protect the Revolution and workers were part of the national union. There was an organization for students and another for farmers.

All of our names showed up on the memberships lists for any number of state organizations. But none of them allowed us to determine how things were run, or organized. Instead, they were designed to instill order - from the top down.


Members of the Cuban dissident group "Ladies in White" demonstrate
in Havana

A desire to integrate

As a girl, I was impressed by the annual celebrations marking the Cuban revolution. All of the big organizations were called to the Plaza de la Revolución where at some point, the crowd would begin singing song with names like "Cuba, yes! Yankees, no!" and "Fidel knows how to send the Yankees to hell."

Every time you applied for a job, for a spot at a university or for the right to buy a house, you had to fill out a long form. But all the questions really boiled down to one: Which state organizations do you belong to?

The most important ones - the Communist Party and the Union of Young Communists - were at the top of the list. Now when I think back to how I automatically checked the boxes with abbreviations like OPJM, CDR and FMC, it all seems so silly. I was like a machine, a so-called "integrated citizen" – a "normal revolutionary."

The truth comes to light

I can't remember the exact moment when I suddenly felt the desire to speak my mind and let my opinions be heard, the moment when I wanted to say things that differed from the ubiquitous slogans, when I wanted to belong to groups that truly had shared interests.

Screen shot of Sanchez' blog
"Generacion Y"
But what I do remember is that my problems started as soon as I started speaking my mind. I was at university and published a magazine titled "Letter for Letter."

It was an alternative publication made up of poetry, personal essays and prose. At some point I was summoned to the university dean's office. He told me I couldn't hand out "that stuff" to students anymore.

Even after this run-in, I still believed the state's stories: "Political prisoners are in jail in Cuba because they are agents of imperialism."

The truth finally came out during the "Black Spring" in 2003. Within two weeks, 75 people who were critical of the regime were taken into custody and sentenced to between 15 and 28 years in prison - all for speaking their mind and organizing meetings not sponsored by the state.

I knew some of those people and what they had at their disposal: typewriters, tape recorders, words.

The state strikes back

It wasn't long after that I myself was labeled a "mercenary of imperialism" for having the audacity to put my blog, "Generation Y," online. I used the blog to write about everyday things I noticed in the world around me.

Sanchez in her home in Havana
The simple fact that I published my opinions and pointed out that all these organizations did more to control rather than represent us carried serious consequences. Even now, I can't leave the country. The state is seeking revenge because I contradicted it. People follow me on the street, watching my every move. My telephone has been tapped.

Opinions are not crimes

I stopped parroting the government's slogans years ago and I no longer belong to any official organizations. I am a free citizen, a free radical. My blog, my political platform, consists of a single demand: the diversity of opinion can no longer be a crime!

But we in Cuba are still far from reaching this goal. Regardless of the slight opening up that has taken place, criticism remains unwelcome - whether it's questioning a minister's management or a school's curriculum.

In Cuba, since the government makes it impossible to start something as banal as a fan club for salamanders, there's no chance anyone is going to found a new political party anytime soon.



Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez writes the blog "Generacion Y," which deals mainly with the difficult conditions Cubans face in their daily lives. The 35-year-old philologist lives in Havana.

Author: Yoani Sanchez / sms
Editor: Kyle James

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Civil servants told not to use WhatsApp

RNW, 26 May 2011

The Dutch national security service AIVD has issued a statement in which it warns government officials not to use the WhatsApp application to send sensitive or secret information. The AIVD said the app is not secure.

An AIVD spokesperson confirmed a report published on the IT news site Webwereld. The AIVD conducts tests and issues advice regarding new means of communication. Many government officials deal with sensitive information, which the AIVD has a sworn duty to protect.

Coming soon: make your phone your wallet (Google)

Google Blog, 5/26/2011

(Cross-posted on the Google Commerce Blog and Google Mobile Blog)

Today in our New York City office, along with Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint, we gave a demo of Google Wallet, an app that will make your phone your wallet. You’ll be able to tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC). We’re field testing Google Wallet now and plan to release it soon.

Google Wallet is a key part of our ongoing effort to improve shopping for both businesses and consumers. It’s aimed at making it easier for you to pay for and save on the goods you want, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to customers, as well as bridging the gap between online and offline commerce.

Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You'll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.




At first, Google Wallet will support both Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you’ll be able to fund with almost any payment card. From the outset, you’ll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Google Wallet will also sync your Google Offers, which you’ll be able to redeem via NFC at participating SingleTap™ merchants, or by showing the barcode as you check out. Many merchants are working to integrate their offers and loyalty programs with Google Wallet.

With Google Wallet, we’re building an open commerce ecosystem, and we’re planning to develop APIs that will enable integration with numerous partners. In the beginning, Google Wallet will be compatible with Nexus S 4G by Google, available on Sprint. Over time, we plan on expanding support to more phones.

To learn more please visit our Google Wallet website at www.google.com/wallet.

This is just the start of what has already been a great adventure towards the future of mobile shopping. We’re incredibly excited and hope you are, too.

Posted by Rob von Behren and Jonathan Wall, Founding Engineers on Google Wallet


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Twitter diplomacy new face of foreign relations

Associated Press, By KARL RITTER, May 26, 2011

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- When Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt couldn't reach his counterpart in Bahrain by traditional means of communication, he turned to Twitter.

"Trying to get in touch with you on an issue," Bildt tweeted to Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa early Thursday.

A shout-out on Twitter - is this the future of diplomacy?

"It shows that in the modern world you can seek contact in modern ways," Bildt told The Associated Press.

Many politicians and diplomats worldwide have already embraced social media as a tool to communicate with the public - Bildt and others tweeted prolifically Thursday about the arrest of war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.

But they don't typically communicate among each other that way.

So was Bildt's mission to find Al Khalifa on Twitter successful?

"Yep," Bildt said. Al Khalifa saw his tweet - Bildt's 1,000th - and got in touch with the Swede, who noted that social media isn't the only way he contacts his peers: "I know which ones are on Twitter."

With nearly 32,000 followers, Al Khalifa is something of a Twitter celebrity in his Persian Gulf nation. Many of his tweets during Bahrain's pro-democracy uprisings reflected the Al Khalifa monarchy's viewpoint. But others have contained shout-outs to fellow diplomats, a mother's day greeting and even the occasional travel snapshot.

His activity has also generated spoof Twitter accounts, some of which poke fun at the minister's weight. One of those parody accounts replied to Bildt's tweet to Al Khalifa on Thursday: "(at)carlbildt He's eating right now, try again later (hashmark)bahrain."

Despite the risk of such spoofs, diplomats are likely to use social media ever more frequently, even in contacting each other, if only to show that they move with the times, analysts say.

John Einar Sandvand, who blogs about media trends in Norway, suspects Bildt's Tweet was not just aimed at Al Khalifa, but at the Swedish minister's almost 30,000 other followers.

"I don't know Carl Bildt. But I'm quite sure he knows what he's doing," Sandvand said. "He wouldn't tweet private information. He does this in a way to build his brand as a politician."

Bildt, 61, may seem like an unlikely social media pioneer. He's quite formal when you meet him in person - neatly dressed in dark suits, always eloquent and with the air of a professor.

But he's eager to promote Sweden as leader in information technology and figures he must set an example. On his blog, he proudly noted that he made "IT history" when he as Swedish prime minister in 1994 sent an email to President Bill Clinton.

"It was the first email at this level and got quite a lot of attention at the time," Bildt recalled in 2007.

When it comes to social networking, Bildt has a strong challenger in Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who has a more casual tone on his Twitter and Facebook accounts and official home page. It shows the 43-year-old Stubb posing in jeans and sneakers and on a bicycle in full racing gear.

On his Twitter page Thursday, Stubb disclosed that members of his conservative party, during a break in government formation talks, quarreled over "how to spell ice cream. I lost. Wanted a hyphen. Life is unfair..."

Stubb was fast to tweet about Mladic's arrest - within an hour of the news breaking. But not as fast as Bildt.

"Was he 20 minutes before me?" Stubb asked AP. "I'm a faster runner than Carl Bildt, but he's faster tweeter."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, seen as serious and reserved in person, is an engaging figure online. In recent weeks, he's answered impromptu questions via Twitter on the Middle East peace process and Syria - he even offered a birthday greeting to a voter in his Parliamentary district.

Like Bildt and Al Khalifa, Hague has also sparred on Twitter with his counterparts - trading jokey messages about cricket with Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.

In December, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg used Twitter to exchange views on their hopes for the U.N. climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico.

Earlier this month, Rwandan President Paul Kagame attacked a British journalist after the reporter branded him "despotic and deluded" on Twitter, and raised questions over the leader's human rights record.

Kagame sent 14 messages back to Ian Birrell - formerly deputy editor of The Independent newspaper and an ex-speechwriter for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Hundreds of people read and commented about the unusually frank exchange between a foreign leader and reporter.

"Shame he doesn't allow such debate in Rwanda with his own people," Birrell noted in one of his own Twitter updates.

The jury's out on whether Twitter diplomacy will lead to more insight into what governments are up to. Given the embarrassment caused by WikiLeaks' releases of U.S. diplomatic cables, foreign affairs officials are likely to be cautious about discussing matters of state online.

Jimmy Leach, head of digital engagement at Britain's foreign ministry, said ministers messaging their counterparts on Twitter can help humanize international relations - but doubts a public forum is the place for sensitive discussions.

"What you are not going to get is high level diplomacy via Twitter," he said.

Al Khalifa eventually replied to Bildt on Twitter, but didn't divulge the topic of their conversation: "(at)carlbildt nice to hear from you to catch up on matters .. Your tweet caught the world's interest."

Neither Al Khalifa nor Bildt responded to tweets from AP reporters Thursday. Al Khalifa also couldn't be reached by email or through a government spokeswoman.

Bildt, who was in Istanbul, called AP in Stockholm after a message was left with his spokeswoman. But he wouldn't say what "issue" he brought up with Al Khalifa: "I don't want to get into that."

Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

  • Karl Ritter can be reached at http://twitter.com/Karl-Ritter
  • Adam Schreck can be reached at http://twitter.com/adamschreck
  • David Stringer can be reached at http://twitter.com/david-stringe

Dutch parliament to vote on net neutrality bill

Deutsche Welle, 26 May 2011

The Dutch bill would allow for more
Internet telephony
Under a new Dutch telecommunications bill, ISPs and mobile providers would be barred from limiting heavy-bandwidth applications, or charging users extra to use online voice applications like Skype.

Blocking or charging users for services like Skype has been standard practice for some cellular providers - but a new amendment to the Dutch telecommunications act is set to pull the plug on those policies.

The country's Minister for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Maxime Verhagen, announced the changes on Tuesday in the Dutch House of Representatives. If the bill passes, which it is expected to, the Netherlands would become the first country in Europe and the second in the world (after Chile) to enshrine the concept of net neutrality in law.

The net neutrality amendment, for example, would ensure that consumers do not have to pay extra to use certain online applications - and most controversially, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technologies when on mobile phone networks.

The concept of net neutrality dictates that all data on the Internet, regardless of whether or not it is an e-mail, a video game, or a voice call, should be treated equally by Internet providers, telecom firms, and mobile phone companies. Such companies have historically been resistant to ensuring net neutrality, as many of them say that they need to be able to "throttle" or "shape" traffic accordingly, particularly as online video and VoIP applications like Skype skyrocket.

"The government believes a tax on certain services such as Skype or WhatsApp go too far," a press release posted on the ministry's website said.

Some telecoms have placed restrictions on such programs, in hopes of safeguarding revenues derived from traditional voice and texting packages.

Economic Affairs Minister Maxime
Verhagen endorsed the new net
neutrality rules
The Netherlands: digital pioneer?

Verhagen is set to hold consultations with the European Union to ensure that the amendment does not interfere with EU regulations.

So far there are no details available on the substance of those talks, or on how the Dutch government plans to enforce the new legislation, ministry spokesman Edwin van Scherrenburg told Deutsche Welle in an e-mail.

"The minister will get in touch with Brussels/the EU, since EU law is very important in this field," he wrote.

Net neutrality has also been a key issue for the European Union in 2011. On Wednesday, new EU telecoms rules on transparency and service quality took effect.

In addition, the European Commission announced in April that it would publish the results of an investigation into whether companies engaged in "blocking or throttling (of) certain types of traffic" by the end of the year – saying evidence of any barriers would prompt the EU to mull tougher net neutrality safeguards.

VoIP technologies have changed
the way telecoms are doing business
Changing business models

The amendment came in response to a motion on net neutrality put forth by Bruno Braakhuis, a member of the House representing the Green Party (GroenLinks). Braakhuis told Deutsche Welle that the legislation would be handed over to parliamentary support staff on Thursday and be brought into voting next week.

A majority of lawmakers have already announced their support for the changes. The amendment would prevent mobile Internet operators from selectively blocking, charging for or slowing certain applications.

"That would really be a violation of net neutrality, and it would also open the way for common Internet service providers to do the same thing," Braakhuis told Deutsche Welle.

He said online mobile operators must reconfigure the way they make their money - adding that charging extra for faster Internet speed, more bandwidth or higher data volumes could prove a viable profit alternative.

"If you want to have YouTube on your phone, you can try the low bandwidth, but you will be pretty frustrated," Braakhuis quipped.

The mobile data revolution

The changes stand to alter how telecommunications companies approach fees for data access and services.

A spokesman for KPN, which has announced plans to roll out new tariffs this summer, said the company will be watching the amendment closely.

"We will of course take into consideration what the minister has said," Stefan Simons, a KPN press officer, told Deutsche Welle in an interview.

Simons acknowledged the need for KPN to switch to new fee structures focusing on digital, not analog technologies.

"Mobile data is really picking up in the Netherlands, so that's why we need to do this," he said.

The company highlighted the phenomenon in KPN's report on its first-quarter results for 2011, noting the growing popularity of smartphone applications that allow users to bypass traditional cellular communications in favor of online options.

"The usage of these 'apps' lead to decreasing SMS and voice usage, resulting in lower service revenues," the report stated, adding that the company's current approaches "are not sufficiently able to monetize on the data usage growth."

The company's future strategy includes plans to move toward a "data-centric portfolio" that varies based on speed and service quality.


Some users are opting for online instant messaging apps over traditional
text messages

A model for Europe?

Europe is also becoming more data-centric as a whole. Cisco estimates that the number of mobile-only Internet users in western Europe will nearly double in 2011 compared to 2010, and growth is also expected in central and eastern Europe.

Globally, Cisco forecasts that global mobile data traffic for VoIP applications will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 42 percent from 2010 through 2015.

However, some Internet activists are skeptical about whether net neutrality legislation similar to what has been proposed in the Netherlands could be adopted on an EU-wide level.

"As a whole, the European Union is rapidly developing a framework where such an approach would be politically impossible," said Joe McNamee, the head of European Digital Rights, in an e-mail sent to Deutsche Welle.

As recently as April, the EU has called for an expansion of powers for the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, which would broaden surveillance powers at the ISP level as a way to combat digital piracy.

"The more the Commission applauds these generally useless PR-driven initiatives now, the more politically impossible it will be for them to prevent overtly commercially-driven interferences in traffic in the future," he added.

Author: Amanda Price
Editor: Cyrus Farivar


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 channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The New Paradigm of Reality" Part I/II – Feb 12, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Google Earth demonstrates how technology benefits RI`s civil society, govt

Antara News, Thu, May 26 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Michael T. Jones, Google`s Chief Technology Advocate, participated in a panel discussion to more than one hundred guests at @america Monday ( May 23) on the topic, "Using Google Technology to Understand Our World."

Mujahid Shafiq M.A. Pontoh, head of Indonesia Berkebun, and Wahyu Widodo Pandoe, a Marine Survey Program Manager from Indonesia`s Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, also participated in the discussion, which highlighted how governments, civil society, and individuals can use Google Earth technology, the US embassy said in a press statement here Thursday.

During the discussion, Jones demonstrated different uses for Google Earth, navigating the program from the streets of San Francisco to the surface of the moon and ending in the ocean depths off Indonesia.

Although only 22 percent of the world`s population has access to computers, Michael Jones provided attendees startling statistics on Internet use.

For example, there are 1 billion Google searches every day, 300 million Internet users reading blogs, and 2 billion videos viewed daily on YouTube.

Jones emphasized the challenge for the 22 percent of the world`s population already online is to facilitate connectivity for the remaining 78 percent offline, particularly in light of the importance of an informed electorate to establishing and maintaining democracy.

During his presentation, Shafiq explained how the Indonesia Berkebun movement uses Google Earth to identify unused urban spaces for conversion into gardens, which helps protect the environment and provide revenue to the growers.

Pandoe used Google Earth to show footage from the NOAA-sponsored Okeanos Explorer research mission to Indonesia in 2010, including video of newly-discovered sea creatures in Indonesian waters.

Editor: Aditia Maruli