Greetings
With this episode, we conclude the trial phase of the policy bloggers network.
With the next episode, we commence the live phase.
The objectives of the Policy bloggers network fortnightly episodes are:
- To identify emerging / under the radar trends in Digital policy discussion
- To cater primarily for the audience of policy makers
- To bring out unheard voices/opinions for Digital policy
- To present results in a visual format (ex mindmap)
For this episode, the top major policy developments are
1) SOPA – lots of discussion about SOPA and it’s implications – More Collateral Damage From SOPA: People With Print Disabilities And Human Rights Groups | Techdirtwww.techdirt.com
2) India’s decision to ‘censor’ Google and Facebook content – India Asks Google, Facebook to Screen User Content – Ytimes.comindia.blogs.nytimes.com
3) Comcast and others sell $3.6 billion spectrum to Verizon – Dec. 2, 2011money.cnn.com – Verizon Wireless has bought wireless spectrum licenses covering 259 million Americans for $3.6 billion from a consortium of cable companies, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. As part of the deal, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House can become wholesale providers using Verizon’s network.
4) EU eyes big fines for privacy breaches – FT.comwww.ft.com Businesses breaching European Union privacy rules will face fines of up to 5 per cent of their global turnover under sweeping proposals to be unveiled next month. Here are some
Other very interesting developments we watch
1) Crystal Cox, Oregon Blogger, Isn’t a Journalist, Concludes U.S. Court–Imposes $2.5 Million Judgement on Her – Seattle News – The Daily Weeklyblogs.seattleweekly.com – A U.S. District Court judge in Portland has drawn a line in the sand between “journalist” and “blogger.” Crystal Cox runs several law-centric blogs and was sued for defamation. Based on Oregon’s media shield laws, she claimed that she should not be required to disclose her insider source on which her blog post was based. However, the judge claimed that media shield laws did not apply to the blogger because her site was not affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. The case thus questions the formal definition of a ‘journalist’ and does not include ‘bloggers’ in that definition
2) Citizen Scientists Take On the Health Establishment – WSJ.comonline.wsj.com Ms. Terry is part of a growing movement to unlock medical secrets by empowering patients to gather, control and even analyze their own health data. (health hackers)
3) Examples of EU companies using open data? At lod2.okfn.orglod2.okfn.org – A great list of EU companies using open data
4) US opposition to ICANN’s domain names policy could lead to a fractured Internet | ZDNetm.zdnet.com Peter Dengate-Thrush, the recent chairman of ICANN, the Internet regulatory body, warned that opposition to ICANN’s new top level domain names (TLDs) could encourage some countries to split from the Internet.
Over the next week, we will also represent these results in a mindmap format
The calendar for the next quarter is: Jan 2, Jan 16, Jan 30, Feb 13, Feb 27, March 12, 26
A full list of links for this episode are as below:
Kind rgds
Ajit
The internet and open society
Internet Access and the New Divide – NYTimes.comwww.nytimes.com – A NY times article proposes that the real Digital divide is amoung Americans who do not have access to high speed broadband.
10 Historical Events Affected by Social Mediamashable.com – Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Princess Diana’s death — these three events might have played out differently had social media been as strong as it is now.
How the Internet Is Ruining Everything – NYTimes.combits.blogs.nytimes.com - David Weinberger, one of the earliest and most perceptive analysts of the Internet, thinks we are looking at the wrong thing. It is not the content itself, but the structure of the Internet, that is the important thing.
India Asks Google, Facebook to Screen User Content – Ytimes.comindia.blogs.nytimes.com
US opposition to ICANN’s domain names policy could lead to a fractured Internet | ZDNetm.zdnet.com Peter Dengate-Thrush, the recent chairman of ICANN, the Internet regulatory body, warned that opposition to ICANN’s new top level domain names (TLDs) could encourage some countries to split from the Internet.
Setting smart Internet policy requires data we don’t have, aren’t gettingarstechnica.com Researchers argue that we are moving from a phase of “cyber-libertarianism” to a phase where countries are seeking more control over the Internet. Palfrey and Zittrain argue that a regulatory vacuum can be risky and that we lack the data to set smart Internet policy.
Self-Regulation: Should Online Companies Police The Internet? | Techdirtwww.techdirt.com
Some Data On How Much The Big Media Firms Are Donating To SOPA/PIPA Sponsors | Techdirtwww.techdirt.com – The Sunlight Foundation decided to take a look at donations from big media companies to politicians supporting SOPA and PIPA…
Crystal Cox, Oregon Blogger, Isn’t a Journalist, Concludes U.S. Court–Imposes $2.5 Million Judgement on Her – Seattle News – The Daily Weeklyblogs.seattleweekly.com – A U.S. District Court judge in Portland has drawn a line in the sand between “journalist” and “blogger.” Crystal Cox runs several law-centric blogs and was sued for defamation. Based on Oregon’s media shield laws, she claimed that her should not be required to disclose her insider source on which her blog post was based. However, the judge claimed that media shield laws did not apply to the blogger because she was not affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system.
12/7 – What’s Wrong with SOPA? | Stanford Center for Internet and Societycyberlaw.stanford.edu
The Internet, innovation and learning – Joi Ito’s Webjoi.ito.com
Charting the evolution of phishing
A petition advocating the governments should require a warrant before they read our emails
Telecoms and Mobile
Comcast and others sell $3.6 billion spectrum to Verizon Verizon Wireless has bought wireless spectrum licenses covering 259 million Americans for $3.6 billion from a consortium of cable companies, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. As part of the deal, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House can become wholesale providers using Verizon’s network.
Zittrain in Technology Review: The personal computer is deadwww.law.harvard.edu
One in Four Starbucks Transactions Now Done Via Mobilemashable.com
Mostly Mobile: How the Internet is Consumed in India [INFOGRAPHIC]mashableom
Spanish regulator to cut mobile termination rates by 80% – Telecompaperwww.telecompaper.com
US operators demand LTE handsets from Apple and Microsoft
Open data
Citizen Scientists Take On the Health Establishment – WSJ.comonline.wsj.com Ms. Terry is part of a growing movement to unlock medical secrets by empowering patients to gather, control and even analyze their own health data. (health hackers)
Examples of EU companies using open data? At lod2.okfn.orglod2.okfn.org – A great list of EU companies using open data
Bavaria Opens Data Portal | European Public Sector Information Platformepsiplatform.eu – The German State of Bavaria has launched a data portal today. With some 125 data sets from various policy areas, the Bavarian government delivers on their plan for such a portal that was announced last summer. Licenses and re-use conditions are specified on the level of individual data sets, with CC BY 3.0 being common.
EU and USA to negotiate new agreement on data protection
The library of congress is to receive the entire Twitter archive
Government moves to make data “commercially advantageous” –
The rise of ‘health hackers and citizen scientists’
Privacy
EU eyes big fines for privacy breaches – FT.comwww.ft.com Businesses breaching European Union privacy rules will face fines of up to 5 per cent of their global turnover under sweeping proposals to be unveiled next month.
Internet firms warn about EU’s data privacy proposals | EurActivwww.euractiv.com – The European Commission‘s intentions to force Internet social networks to seek consent from users every time they log on to websites will damage e-business and set Europe‘s digital innovation strategy back, says the largest consortium of on-line industry in Europe.
Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live | Berkman Centercyber.law.harvard.edu – A review of the book Public parts by Jeff Jarvis. Jarvis travels back in time to show the amazing parallels of fear and resistance that met the advent of other innovations such as the camera and the printing press. The internet, he argues, will change business, society, and life as profoundly as Gutenberg’s invention, shifting power from old institutions to us all.
Five Solutions To The Privacy Problem: Why They Work And Why They Don’t | paidContentpaidcontent.org ( Class Actions and the Courts, Technology To Control Our Own Data, Leave Privacy Issues to the Market, Industry Self Regulation)
Courts Grapple with Concept of “Harm” in Online Privacy Suits – Forbeswww.forbes.com
Innovation
A List Of Startups Goldman Sachs Thinks Will Most Likely IPO | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com –
Programming is “the new Latin” – Programming should take pride of place in our schools | Technology | The Observerwww.guardian.co.uk
The Numbers That Lure Telecom Firms to Africa | Mobile Money Africamobilemoneyafrica.com In 2000, there were just 17 million cellphone connections in Africa used by just over two per cent of the population. Now, the figure has grown to 620 million, corresponding to six out of 10 of the continent’s inhabitants.
Netflix will stream more than 1 billion hours in Q4 — Online Video Newsgigaom.com
Apple is Hiring Siri Engineers, Hints at API Coming – The Next Webthenextweb.com
Foursquare Reaches 15M Users, Triples Audience in a Year | ClickZwww.clickz.com
With Government Aid, London’s East End Embraces Tech Industry – NYTimes.comdealbook.nytimes.com
The Text Message Turns 19 Years Old Todaythenextweb.com -
12 Themes for 2012: what we can expect in the year ahead | Trends in the Living Networksrossdawsonblog.com – It’s that time of the year again and a time for predictions for the next year ..
BOMBSHELL: Huge Company Bans Internal Email, Switches Totally To Facebook-Type-Stuff And Instant Messagingwww.businessinsider.com. The company is Atos.
The Kindle Fire is on fire | Econsultancyeconsultancy.com
Designing for ageing urban communities
Interoperability, IPR and Standards
Industry group aims to provide smart meter interoperability » telecoms.com – telecoms industry news, analysis and opinionwww.telecoms.com – A host of smart meter solutions providers in the UK have teamed up to create an interoperability group that they claim could allow households in the country see combined savings of £938m ($1.47bn) per year.
New study on Open source total cost of ownership
A researcher in Sweden claims that a standard is open, only when implemented in open source
Standards for Web Applications on Mobile: November 2011 current state and roadmapwww.w3.org A document that summarizes the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the power of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context. It covers – Graphics, Multimedia, Device Adaptation, Forms, User interactions, Data storage, Personal Information Management, Sensors and hardware integration, Network, Communication, Packaging, Performance & Optimization
Media and content
Swiss gov’t study: downloading leads to sales, so we’re keeping it legal – Boing Boingboingboing.net – The Swiss government commissioned a study on the impact of copyright-infringing downloading. The independent study concluded that downloaders use the money they spend to buy more legitimate entertainment products. So they’ve concluded to maintain Switzerland’s extant copyright law, which makes downloading for personal use legal.
How much money do musicians really get paid in the digital marketplace?
