Personal Democracy Plus Our premium content network. LEARN MORE You are not logged in. LOG IN NOW >

First POST: Applying the Spin

BY Miranda Neubauer | Wednesday, December 19 2012

Deciphering WCIT

  • The Global Network Initiative offers its statement on the open Internet after the WCIT conference addressing "strengths and vulnerabilities, opportunities and threats."

    GNI, through which big platform companies like Google sit down with organizations and activists hoping to enlist them developing and protecting robust human rights online, said:

    ... the deeply flawed negotiation process and resulting agreement demonstrate the worrying potential for the fragmentation of the open Internet and the ongoing vulnerabilities in the international Internet governance regime, which will continue to be contested at international conferences and gatherings in the coming year.

    GNI will continue to advocate strongly for an Internet grounded in international human rights standards, the inclusion of all voices, and transparency. In 2013 this will be a priority of our efforts to bring together companies and civil society to protect the free flow of information and privacy online.

  • Larry Downes offers his interpretation of the WCIT: "The Internet Cold War just turned hot."

    The Internet Cold War? Really? In "Net Delusion," Evgeny Morozov has a few words for people who devolve into language of the cold war to describe politics on the Internet. They are deserved. Among the signatories to the WCIT-12 treaty, which United States diplomats and others view as problematic because they may open the door to setting Internet policy through the U.N., are sometime U.S. allies Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia and Thailand. This may have more to do with the dynamics of developing countries' infrastructure needs and a desire for more national heft than it does with ideology, at least in the sense of ideology at issue in the Cold War.

Around the Web

Mayan apocalypse watch

  • Russians have been exchanging advice in online forums about what to eat after the human population is wiped out Friday, the Guardian reported.

International

  • The British Director of Public Prosecutions is issuing new guidelines under which fewer people could be prosecuted for posts on social media.

  • London police plan to set up an intellectual property crime unit.

  • The Telegraph reported that changes to the British Freedom of Information Act could make it more difficult to obtain information and hold the government accountable.

  • The Vatican will be the first entity to have its own generic Top-Level Domain name after ICANN finished a raffle for the order in which the domain names will be assigned.

  • Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, gave a speech on digital priorities for 2013-2014, which emphasize broadband:

    We are all looking for reasons for hope at the moment. If you want hope - don't spend all day looking for it in this building, go look at these entrepreneurs instead.

    They are building the future; they are growing faster than China.

    Their ideas for policy too can be excellent. France's "Les Pigeons" group told me, and rightly so, that we shouldn't be talking about cutting the Erasmus programme at Council summits - we should be adding an "entrepreneur's Erasmus programme" instead!

  • GigaOM reported on the EU's plans to remove barriers in the area of digital health.

  • The Bulgarian town of Pazardzhik wants to become the first European city to offer free WiFi to its citizens.

  • A Hungarian blogger has published a video about an "illegal" voter database used in a 2009 mayoral election, according to Global Voices.

  • An Australian Internet service provider has withdrawn from a planned copyright notice trial program being discussed in round table talks.

  • The Wall Street Journal profiled the Tor network and the case of an Austrian man who is awaiting charges regarding child pornography being distributed over the network he helped run.

  • TechinAsia writes about how China's Internet policies have "doomed Chinese soft power."

  • The New York Times highlighted how accounts of a siege in Syria differed on rebels' YouTube channels and British TV news.

  • According to a Kuwaiti court, a "tweeter" and a "retweeter" can be equally guilty of a crime.

  • The Swedish Pirate Party has filed a complaint over Swedish banks' participation in a blockade against donations to Wikileaks.

  • A Polish telecommunications company is using the likeness of Obama and his name in an ad for smartphones and tablets.

  • Urban Times reported on how the government of Singapore combines data collected from stationary and mobile sensors throughout the city, made it available on an open platform in cooperation with the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and combined it with taxi GPS data.

  • A U.N. innovation report has found that China registered the most patent applications globally last year.

News Briefs

RSS Feed today >

Top Russian Social Network VKontakte Briefly Banned "By Mistake"

The most popular social network in Russia worked its way onto a blacklist this Friday, allegedly “by mistake,” according to the state communications regulator. However, Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte, has had run-ins with the authorities in the past for allowing activists to organize protests on the platform. Some interpret this supposedly accidental blocking as a warning shot.

GO

thursday >

Anthony Weiner Launches NYC Mayoral Campaign Online With An Image of Pittsburgh

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner waxed lyrical about New York City in a YouTube video as he launched his bid to be the city's next mayor on Wednesday, but he did it against a backdrop that turned out to be the skyline for Pittsburgh, as a sharp-eyed observer on Twitter first noted Wednesday afternoon. GO

Revamped Data.gov Includes API Catalog

Federal officials are now offering a list of all APIs that have been released across the federal government as part of the Digital Government Strategy and a new data catalog that allows users to more easily search, sort and tag datasets, according to a post by Hyon Kim, deputy program director at the U.S. General Services Administration. With the announcements, the team behind Data.gov, a central public repository of machine-readable federal government data, is marking its fourth anniversary and the one year anniversary of the release of the Digital Government Strategy. GO

French Authorities Want to Tap (and Tax) Skype Calls

In spite of repeated requests from the French telecommunications authorities ARCEP, Skype has refused to classify itself as an electronic communications operator in France, which would require them to route emergency calls and allow the French police to intercept conversations. ARCEP has informed the Paris public prosecutor of Skype's refusal, and criminal charges might be brought against the company for failing to comply. This is yet another instance in recent months of France making things difficult for tech companies. Some worry that the overzealous government is discouraging technological progress in France, hindering business and economic growth.

GO

New Online Platform for Crowdsourced Videos About Human Rights Issues

Anyone with a phone and an Internet connection can be a citizen journalist, as was made clear in the hours and days after the Boston Marathon Bombings. Citizen journalism has its pros and cons, but it has popped up where most needed: after natural disasters or in war torn regions where career journalists might be barred. A new human rights initiative seeks to link citizen reporting in the form of online videos with mainstream media, governments and other policy makers. The online platform, called Irrepressible Voices, will both document human rights issues and work on solutions as a community.

GO

wednesday >

Facebook Becomes Full Member of Global Network Initiative

Facebook announced today that it has opted to become a full member of the Global Network Initiative, a group founded by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to address the challenges technology companies face when dealing with governments about issues like freedom of expression and data privacy. GO

Russia's OGP Concerns Show That Transparency Matters

Last week, Russian officials announced they have withdrawn their letter of intent to join the Open Government Partnership. The Moscow Times has a statement to the Russian paper Kommersant from a presidential spokesman, saying, "We are not talking about winding up plans to join, but corrections in timing and the scale of participation are possible." So Russia may still be in. Just not soon. And maybe never. Confused? You're not alone. I actually find it fascinating that the Kremlin acts like "openness" and transparency matter. Here's why. GO

In Denmark, Online Tracking of Citizens is an Unwieldy Failure

Six years after Denmark passed a law mandating that telecommunication companies retain and store their customers' personal data for up to two years, local advocacy groups and the telecom industry are pushing for immediate changes to the legislation. The practice of keeping records of private citizens' Internet use is an unjustifiable invasion of privacy, they say. The police, meanwhile, have concluded that requiring telecoms to store subscriber data has not helped them track criminals, which was the the ostensible purpose of the practice. But the Danish government still wants to postpone an evaluation of the law for another two years. GO

"Accidental" Blocking of Australian Websites Raises Concerns About Government Censorship

An Australian government agency admitted last week to unintentionally blocking more than 1,200 perfectly legal websites in the process of shutting down one allegedly fraudulent site. In their defense, they pointed out that they have successfully blocked a number of websites in the past nine months without such digital collateral. This assertion came as no consolation to Australian netizens concerned about Internet censorship, especially opaque and hazily legal censorship.

GO

tuesday >

Honda Campaign Rolls Out Endorsements From Asian American Stars

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) rolled out several additional endorsements from Asian American leaders and celebrities Tuesday, with one of them vouching for his high-tech bona fides. GO

Here Are The People President Obama Hopes Will Repair American Elections

The Presidential Commission on Election Administration established by President Obama after problematic 2012 elections now has a web presence at SupporttheVoter.gov. Obama established the commission by executive order on March 28 "to identify best practices in election administration and to make recommendations to improve the voting experience." GO

After Oklahoma Disaster, Neighbors Look Online for Ways To Help

In echoes of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, social media sites and small business websites in and around tornado-wracked Moore, Okla., are full of offers of help, questions about missing pets and loved ones, and evidence that neighbors are willing to reach out to help one another in a disaster. On a single Facebook group, there's a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City promising free meals to first responders or people hit by the tornado; a mother a few hours' drive from Moore offering to open her door for children who might need a place to stay; a resident sharing a picture of a found dog and contact information for the owner to get in touch. GO

Change.org Lands $15 Million From Omidyar

Change.org capped an extraordinary few years of growth Tuesday with the announcement that it has landed a $15 million investment led by the Omidyar Network. GO

What German Politicians Think of Google Glass

The German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has not had the easiest relationship with Google. The company launched a public campaign against a law backed by her coalition that would require search engines to pay to show news articles in search results, with mixed results. What's more, Google has long had to navigate the privacy waters in Germany and throughout the European Union. But that has not stopped her federal minister for economics and technology, Philipp Rösler, from giving Google Glass an enthusiastic test run as he leads a delegation of German technology companies and politicians on a trip to Silicon Valley this week as part of German Valley Week. GO

Crowdsourcing Waste Management Solutions in Montenegro

For once we aren't talking about the worldwide scarcity of toilets, just good old-fashioned household waste. Montenegro has a garbage problem so bad even the tourists are complaining about it. A new mobile app sponsored by the Agency for Environmental Protection, NGO Ozon and United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro will hopefully get citizens involved in reporting illegal garbage dumps. GO

monday >

Her Majesty's Government Wants to Monetize Open Data

A new paper from the chair of the U.K. government's Open Strategy Board outlines the best practices for the government's open data policies. The government-commissioned Shakespeare Review – after author Stephan Shakespeare – looks into ways to monetize open data, and recommends an all-encompassing National Data Strategy.

GO

Will Silicon Valley "Disrupt" Politics With a Candidate for Congress?

Sean Parker, of Napster fame and now executive general partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, has invested in political startups before. But last week, he went a step further — co-hosting a fundraising event for a candidate for Congress. Parker and SV Angel co-founder Ron Conway organized a crowd of Internet industry luminaries to support Ro Khanna, a former assistant deputy secretary in Barack Obama's Commerce Department. Khanna is preparing a challenge to Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), whose newly redrawn congressional district encompasses Silicon Valley. GO

Burma's Upcoming Telecom Revolution Will Probably Not Bring Internet Freedom

Burma (Myanmar) is on the threshold of an Internet revolution, but Human Rights Watch has warned companies to proceed with caution or risk trampling Burmese citizens' rights. GO

friday >

Chilean Anti-Corruption Resource: A Crowdsourced Database of Social and Political Connections

In countries where a small minority of social circles have a majority of the political and economic power, personal relationships can affect major decision-making, a serious concern of anti-corruption activists. A new web platform stores personal profiles of key players in Chilean business and politics, complete with biographies and personal and professional connections through family, education, social circles, employers and coworkers, to make tracking social relationships and conflict-of-interest easier. Called Poderopedia (from the Spanish word for power), the project sounds kind of like LinkedIn, but the creation and management of profiles is being crowdsourced out to journalists, activists and concerned citizens.

GO

More