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privatizing txt

Its official - txt space is private space. From the ny times: Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program... legal experts said private ...

Automated Targeting System

From washingtonpost.com: The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers ...

facebook

Couldn't help but notice these two stories about facebook today: Facebook investigated on child safety and Microsoft Is Said to Consider a Stake in Facebook. While I discovered social networking on friendster, moved to myspace and flirted with orkut - my favorite social networking service these days has been facebook. ...

global privacy standards

While browsing washingpost.com I came across this gem: "Google Calls for International Standards on Internet Privacy." The article discusses Peter Fleischer's (Google's global privacy counsel) recent call for the development of international privacy standards. The article does a fairly good job at presenting the nuance of the privacy debate - ...

faq :: i want a website!

Q: "I would like to know what steps I should take to get a website of my own. I know I need to visit godaddy.com and buy my domain name. But after that, I'm at a loss. What do you suggest?" A: Ask and you shall receive.... To ...

direct democracy

According to the U.S. State Department, democracies can be organized under two general categories, direct and representative. In both forms the public participates in governance yet in a representative democracy elected or appointed officials mediate this participation, whereas in a direct democracy this participation occurs "without the intermediary of elected ...

Geosniff (v.)

"To search the web by location, delivering regionally pertinent information to users and regionally pertinent users to advertisers." - Jonathon Keats, Wired 15.09 :: sent wirelessly via blackberry

global broadband

While enjoying an always delicious cafe mocha at Oslo this morning, I came across the 15.09 issue of Wired Magazine. On page 60 they included a world map indicating the price of broadband for various countries. The following is a snap shot of some of the countries profiled: South Korea - ...




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Recent Posts

Berners-Lee on the “insidious” quality of vertical integration

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, on the "insidious" quality of vertical integration: The Web's infrastructure can be thought of as composed of four horizontal layers; from bottom to top, they are the transmission medium, the computer hardware, the software, and the content. ... I am more concerned about ...

piracy as creative practice?

arts technica has an interesting summary/critique of a working paper, titled "File-Sharing and Copyright" by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. Since the genesis and intent of most copyright law is to stimulate creativity -- not to protect authors and publishers -- Oberholzer-Gee & Strumpf argue that while file-sharing might be ...
June 22nd 2009
Tags: education, governance, security No Comments

the great irony of informationalism

On May 29, 2009, Obama announced his intention to appoint a "cyber czar" to coordinate cybersecurity policy for private and government computer networks in the US. Obama also argued the importance of educating the public about cybersecurity while highlighting the dialectical reality of cyberspace: Cyberspace is real and so are ...

pirates win seat in EU parliament

According to Wired's Threat Level blog: Sweden’s Pirate Party won a seat in the European Union Parliament, swept in Sunday amid outrage over a new copyright law and the convictions of the four founders of The Pirate Bay. The party, formed to protest copyright law, took 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden ...
June 20th 2009
Tags: governance, idea/theme, quote No Comments

experience is the life of the law

from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr: The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have ...

cookie monsters published in cye

Cindi Katz and I just published an article in a special issue of Children, Youth and Environments that focuses on Children and Technological Environments. CYE is an open access journal so you can read our article for free through their website (FYI - they ask you to create an ...
February 7th 2009
Tags: CD, governance, youth No Comments

“disconnected youth”

Hat tip to Michael Oman-Reagan who brought this to my attention. Apparently, the current version of H.R.1, the stimulus bill being debated in the U.S. Senate, includes incentives for hiring "disconnected youth" which the bill defines as: ``(ii) DISCONNECTED YOUTH.--The term `disconnected youth' means any individual who is certified by the designated ...

ACLU: YouAreBeingWatched.US

You ARE being watched, US. Since 9/11 Homeland Security has pumped an enormous amount of money into public surveillance technologies (online and off). Yet, as most recent studies are showing, the presence of this surveillance does nothing to reduce crime or make people more safe. So, what is this surveillance ...
January 29th 2009
Tags: censorship, governance, surveillance, youth No Comments

good riddance COPA

F I N A L L Y. Via Daily Tech: After losing an appeals court challenge last July, proponents of 1998’s Child Online Protection Act received a final blow to their cause – this time from the United States Supreme Court, who quietly declined to review the law without comment. COPA – ...
December 16th 2008
Tags: security No Comments

stop the madness and just switch to an open-source browser

Yet another major security flaw found in Internet Explorer, Microsoft's proprietary web browser. Via the BBC: Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed. The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of ...

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