Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Municipal Wireless for New Orleans
Washington Post: Big Easy Launches Free Wireless System
Mayor Ray Nagin has announced that New Orleans will be a hot spot once more--a wireless hot spot. The City of New Orleans is not waiting for the private sector to provide high speed wireless for the devastated city. It has built its own wireless network.
Attempts by other cities and rural areas to set up muni wifi have met with opposition from corporate internet providers:
Hundreds of similar projects in other cities have met with stiff opposition from phone and cable TV companies, which have poured money into legislative bills aimed at blocking competition from government agencies _ including a state law in Louisiana that needed to be sidestepped for the New Orleans project.According to the Post, Corporate opponents of municipal ownership argue that "competition from government-run Internet service stymies their incentive to invest in upgrading their networks and services." Hundreds of municipalities across the nation are considering building publicly owned and operated wifi networks on their own or in partnership with corporate internet providers.
Wireless Dead Zone: Life on the Farm
Money Is There to Aid Rural Internet, but Loans Are Hard to Get - New York Times
Vikas Bajaj reports that some rural areas are "wireless dead zones" left off the broadband network. Rural areas without enough population density are not attractive to private internet providers. There is just not enough profit. The federal government has stepped in with a loan program to provide money to "extend high-speed Internet service to rural areas."
This is a good illustration of the government's attempt to make up for the failure of the market to provide digital infrastructure to everyone, not just the profitable communities. The federal government did the same to make sure that everyone had access to electricity and telephone service. This program is limited and has not solved the problem.
In Iowa an internet provider, Prairie iNet, was turned down for a federal loan that would have provided the capital it needed to extend its rural wireless service. It wanted to invest in a system of towers that would provide wifi service:
Such an investment, which could serve several dozen farms and rural homes, would have been far more affordable had the company received the federal loan. But with its private funds, Prairie iNet is better off spending that cash in the fast-spreading suburban office parks outside Des Moines.
Daniel Hawkins, a loan officer at a community bank, said he understood Prairie iNet's position but was not sure why the government did not step in to fill the void as it had in the past.
"This is no different than back in the 30's when farms didn't have electricity - people used to have kerosene lights," Mr. Hawkins said. "This is just a matter of keeping you in touch with the world. I think it would be a huge economic benefit for rural areas."
Who will rule the net?
Washington Post: The Internet at Risk
The Washington Post has an editorial supporting continued U.S. control over domain names and internet governance in general. Their argument is based on the efficiency of a centrally controlled system. They also argue that nations that wish to limit internet access can do so already through other means than the control over domain names. Sovereignty is important but a working, open internet is more important according to the Post. They fear that international politics and the attempts to censor the web by authoritarian regimes would be risky for the freedom and efficiency of the internet.
The Washington Post has an editorial supporting continued U.S. control over domain names and internet governance in general. Their argument is based on the efficiency of a centrally controlled system. They also argue that nations that wish to limit internet access can do so already through other means than the control over domain names. Sovereignty is important but a working, open internet is more important according to the Post. They fear that international politics and the attempts to censor the web by authoritarian regimes would be risky for the freedom and efficiency of the internet.
The reformers' argument is attractive in theory and dangerous in practice. In an ideal world, unilateralism should be avoided. But in an imperfect world, unilateral solutions that run efficiently can be better than multilateral ones that don't. It may be theoretically undesirable that the United States provides most of the security in global shipping lanes, but in practice this allows commerce to get done. Scrapping the U.S. Navy in favor of a naval police led by the United Nations would be unlikely to help anyone.The Post has a healthy fear of the disorder of international governance. But the U.S.'s preference for unilateral control will not last forever. Can the U.S. remain the world's policeman enforcing order and stability in cyberspace as it has tried to do in the middle east? It is time to start a slow transition towards a more democratic control while still emphasizing the priority of efficiency, cost and civil liberties.
The same is true of the Internet. The job of assigning domain names offers huge opportunities for abuse. Whoever controls this function can decide to keep certain types of individuals or organizations offline (dissidents or opposition political groups, for example). Or it can allow them on in exchange for large fees.
The striking feature of U.S. oversight of the Internet is that such abuses have not occurred. Any organization that wants to register a domain name can do so, provided that the name hasn't already been claimed. Opportunistic cyber-squatting has been brought under control. The cost of registering a Web address has fallen.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Digital Divide: Does your second grader have a laptop?
Los Angeles Times: O.C. School Laptop Decree Draws Flak
An Orange County school district's efforts to integrate technology into students' lives by urging families to purchase laptop computers is creating a furor among parents who say the pricey obligation is segregating their children into the haves and have-nots.The Los Angeles Times has an article about the controversy in an O.C. school district about whether parents should be required to buy $1500 laptops for their children. Some wealthier school districts across the country are starting to mandate the purchase of laptops, of course not all school districts or parents can afford this and there is some debate over whether this mandate has clear educational benefits.
Friday, November 25, 2005
"I am a dance girl, and I am a party member."
A Party Girl Leads China's Online Revolution - New York Times
Howard French has written an article in the Times about blogging in China. It is an interesting survey of the types of blogs that are opening up Chinese culture and politics. The article opens with a quote from one of the most popular bloggers in China:
The contradiction between the staid image the party member and the "web cam dance girl" is an example of the friction in China over acceptable images, identities, and ideas. The blogosphere has opened up a world of overt and subtle subversion of Chinese cultural and political norms and practices. Fear of repression transforms harsh criticism into humorous jabs and jibes dancing around the lines of what is acceptable to the authorities.
French's article includes a good short summary of Chinese blogging and the attempts by the authorities to squash these bloggers:
There is no "free-spoken civil society" in China at the moment. But the repression has not shut down the discussion online, only forced it into euphemisms, humor, and witty end runs around the censors. There is a constant pushing at the limits of what is acceptable and a mixing of political criticism and the cultural content. French describes Mu Mu's blog as posting "highly ironic commentary about sexuality, intellect and political identity."
These bloggers open up the authorities to a powerful weapon of criticism: ridicule. The role of bloggers in subjecting the government to ridicule is hopeful sign that a public sphere, a "free civil society" is indeed emerging. If you can't speak truth to power, then make fun of it:
Howard French has written an article in the Times about blogging in China. It is an interesting survey of the types of blogs that are opening up Chinese culture and politics. The article opens with a quote from one of the most popular bloggers in China:
"I don't know if I can be counted as a successful Web cam dance girl," that early post continued. "But I'm sure that looking around the world, if I am not the one with the highest diploma, I am definitely the dance babe who reads the most and thinks the deepest, and I'm most likely the only party member among them.""Mu Mu" is the pseudonym of a self-described female party member from Shanghai. French describes her blog as witty and charming; she offers her readers "provocative" photos of herself and has thousands of readers.
The contradiction between the staid image the party member and the "web cam dance girl" is an example of the friction in China over acceptable images, identities, and ideas. The blogosphere has opened up a world of overt and subtle subversion of Chinese cultural and political norms and practices. Fear of repression transforms harsh criticism into humorous jabs and jibes dancing around the lines of what is acceptable to the authorities.
French's article includes a good short summary of Chinese blogging and the attempts by the authorities to squash these bloggers:
Chinese Web logs have existed since early in this decade, but the form has exploded in recent months, challenging China's ever vigilant online censors and giving flesh to the kind of free-spoken civil society whose emergence the government has long been determined to prevent or at least tightly control.
Web experts say the surge in blogging is a result of strong growth in broadband Internet use, coupled with a huge commercial push by the country's Internet providers aimed at wooing users. Common estimates of the numbers of blogs in China range from one million to two million and growing fast.
Under China's current leader, Hu Jintao, the government has waged an energetic campaign against freedom of expression, prohibiting the promotion of public intellectuals by the news media; imposing restrictions on Web sites; pressing search engine companies, like Google, to bar delicate topics, particularly those dealing with democracy and human rights; and heavily censoring bulletin board discussions at universities and elsewhere.
So far, Chinese authorities have mostly relied on Internet service providers to police the Web logs. Commentary that is too provocative or directly critical of the government is often blocked by the provider. Sometimes the sites are swamped by opposing comment - many believe by official censors - that is more favorable to the government.
Blogs are sometimes shut down altogether, temporarily or permanently. But the authorities do not yet seem to have an answer to the proliferation of public opinion in this form.
There is no "free-spoken civil society" in China at the moment. But the repression has not shut down the discussion online, only forced it into euphemisms, humor, and witty end runs around the censors. There is a constant pushing at the limits of what is acceptable and a mixing of political criticism and the cultural content. French describes Mu Mu's blog as posting "highly ironic commentary about sexuality, intellect and political identity."
These bloggers open up the authorities to a powerful weapon of criticism: ridicule. The role of bloggers in subjecting the government to ridicule is hopeful sign that a public sphere, a "free civil society" is indeed emerging. If you can't speak truth to power, then make fun of it:
"The new bloggers are talking back to authority, but in a humorous way," said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley. "People have often said you can say anything you want in China around the dinner table, but not in public. Now the blogs have become the dinner table, and that is new.
"The content is often political, but not directly political, in the sense that you are not advocating anything, but at the same time you are undermining the ideological basis of power."
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
AT&T will have to change its name to AIT&T
WSJ.com - In Risky Move, a New AT&T Bets on Internet Technology
An article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal announced that AT&T,the company that dominated the telephone industry for most of the 20th Century, is undergoing a digital revolution of its own. Ma Bell will have to add Internet to the Telephone and Telegraph in its name.
According to the WSJ, AT&T is
An article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal announced that AT&T,the company that dominated the telephone industry for most of the 20th Century, is undergoing a digital revolution of its own. Ma Bell will have to add Internet to the Telephone and Telegraph in its name.
According to the WSJ, AT&T is
placing a risky bet that its future will depend on delivering content to television, wireless phones and computers on a network using Internet technology. In doing so, the merged company hopes to play a central role in the seismic changes under way in the media and telecom businesses.Telephone landlines will no longer be the core of the telephone business for AT&T, now it's broadband delivery of all sorts of content. It is a risky bet because AT&T is not the only media giant competing for this market. Power companies, telephone companies, cable companies, satellite companies, and even Google seem to be vying to be your ISP. Here's what they plan to do:
A key to AT&T's new growth strategy is to deliver video, data, wireless calls and phone traffic over a single network to consumers and large corporate customers. AT&T executives say the technology will let it offer a new form of television with 1,000 or more channels available to consumers within the next 18 months. The company also plans to beam TV content to cellphones; offer targeted advertising on TV, much like Google offers on the Internet; and eventually provide thousands of programs and movies on demand. Yahoo Inc., which has been working on ventures with SBC since 2001, will work closely with AT&T in this effort and will help develop search technology and advertisingMa Bell won't just be selling phone service, or music and movie/tv content on demand, they clearly want a piece of the internet advertising pie that companies like Google and Yahoo are gobbling up. The Wall Street Journal sums it up this way:
The new Ma Bell thus embarks upon the 21st century embroiled in a historic convergence of companies all diving into the same market. With voice, video and other kinds of information all transformed into digital data, a race is under way to sell consumers all of these services in one package.One package for an ocean of information, images and music. Content on demand for the masses.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The Rising Nepal
The Rising Nepal
A link to an editorial commenting on the WSIS from Nepal, This editorial does a good job of putting the task of bridging the digital divide into perspective:
The idea that ICT and the net will allow poor nations to leapfrog into the 21st century is a wonderful idea, and it has some basis in reality. However, the economic reality of nations like Nepal does not inspire confidence.
A link to an editorial commenting on the WSIS from Nepal, This editorial does a good job of putting the task of bridging the digital divide into perspective:
In Nepal less than 13 per cent of the people have access to electricity. People having access to telephone services is even less. Even those who have access to electricity and telephone services cannot afford information technology. Given the economic status of the people, information technology is still expensive for the majority. This is one of the major reasons behind the growing digital divide. We live in a country where a stunning number of people have never made a telephone call in their lives.
The idea that ICT and the net will allow poor nations to leapfrog into the 21st century is a wonderful idea, and it has some basis in reality. However, the economic reality of nations like Nepal does not inspire confidence.
World summit tackling the digital divide to get under way in Bilbao
EiTB24.com
Spain is hosting the "World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society" Delegates are assembled to try to figure out how to use ICT to reduce poverty around the world.
Virtually every hotel room in the city has been snapped up as over 2,000 delegates from cities and regions around the world arrive to draw up a plan of action based on the Internet as a tool for combating global poverty.
Spain is hosting the "World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society" Delegates are assembled to try to figure out how to use ICT to reduce poverty around the world.
All citizens have a universal right to access and use these technologies, but there is still much work to be done in this respect, particularly in view of the fact that 80% of Internet users live in developed countries. However, for people in many other parts of the world, the possibility of being able to connect to the Internet remains a dream. Analysts believe that the bolstering of the Information Society may help dissuade people from emigrating in large numbers from the Third World in search of a supposedly better life in the developed world.Another example of the attempt to address the digital divide and end poverty with digital tools. Are they putting too much hope into a technological fix? Is ICT a silver bullet to kill global poverty? Or just one more arrow in the quiver of weapons that can be used to address the global extremes of wealth and poverty. What ever the answer, it is clear that many experts and organizations and governments are putting a lot of faith that an equitable digital revolution can redress the inequalities of the global economy.
"Western states abuse the internet"
The Herald - Zimbabwe News Online
President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been a very vocal critic of what he sees as Western domination of the internet to "undermine national sovereignty, social and cultural values." He is calling for "democratic governance" of the internet. Is this a positive step. First you need to assess President Mugabe and what he intends to do with his informational independence when he gets it. He is calling for independence, transparence and democracy. But what does he offer in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe is a illustration of just how complicated these questions of internet governance are. What he says sounds good, but how will this freedom and independence manifest itself if the net really were under the control of men like Mugabe?
President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been a very vocal critic of what he sees as Western domination of the internet to "undermine national sovereignty, social and cultural values." He is calling for "democratic governance" of the internet. Is this a positive step. First you need to assess President Mugabe and what he intends to do with his informational independence when he gets it. He is calling for independence, transparence and democracy. But what does he offer in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe is a illustration of just how complicated these questions of internet governance are. What he says sounds good, but how will this freedom and independence manifest itself if the net really were under the control of men like Mugabe?
Sunday, November 20, 2005
We, the representatives of the peoples of the world . . .
Tunis Commitment
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has posted two documents that have come out of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) The first is the Tunis Commitment and the second is the Tunis Agenda for an "equitable information society." Just what is an "equitable information society"? And who is responsible for creating information equality?
The representatives of world governments assembled in Tunis have come to some conclusions on how to begin the process of addressing the global imbalance in information and communications technology (ICT). The U.S. is not supporting this effort in "world government" which is coming out of the United Nations. While the U.S. supports the goal of global equality, the Bush administration disagrees with the means: international governance of the internet and information infrastructure.
The consensus in Tunis is that control over the internet should not be dominated by the U.S or Europe but should be moved to some form of international bureaucracy under the aegis of the United Nations. Developing nations think that this shift in power over the net is a first step towards bridging the digital divide and internationalizing the digital revolution.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has posted two documents that have come out of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) The first is the Tunis Commitment and the second is the Tunis Agenda for an "equitable information society." Just what is an "equitable information society"? And who is responsible for creating information equality?
The representatives of world governments assembled in Tunis have come to some conclusions on how to begin the process of addressing the global imbalance in information and communications technology (ICT). The U.S. is not supporting this effort in "world government" which is coming out of the United Nations. While the U.S. supports the goal of global equality, the Bush administration disagrees with the means: international governance of the internet and information infrastructure.
The consensus in Tunis is that control over the internet should not be dominated by the U.S or Europe but should be moved to some form of international bureaucracy under the aegis of the United Nations. Developing nations think that this shift in power over the net is a first step towards bridging the digital divide and internationalizing the digital revolution.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
The industrial revolution mass produced good jobs. What about the digital?
For a G.M. Family, the American Dream Vanishes - New York Times
There has been talk in the press recently about whether General Motors, once the largest employer in America, will survive the next decade. General Motors says that this speculation is without foundation, but it is clear that the mighty have fallen. The big auto companies are no longer the engines of American prosperity and growth.
Danny Hakim, writing from Flint, Michigan for the New York Times, describes what the automobile industry meant to the American worker for much of the 20th century. Well paying, unionized factory jobs with good benefits were the foundation of American prosperity after WWII. The social contract between organized labor and the auto industry was an economic bargain for both parties.
There has been talk in the press recently about whether General Motors, once the largest employer in America, will survive the next decade. General Motors says that this speculation is without foundation, but it is clear that the mighty have fallen. The big auto companies are no longer the engines of American prosperity and growth.
Danny Hakim, writing from Flint, Michigan for the New York Times, describes what the automobile industry meant to the American worker for much of the 20th century. Well paying, unionized factory jobs with good benefits were the foundation of American prosperity after WWII. The social contract between organized labor and the auto industry was an economic bargain for both parties.
"Four generations of the Roy family relied on General Motors for their prosperity.Will the digital economy be as good a provider as the industrial economy was after WWII? The postwar economic boom moved many American up and out of poverty into the middle class and their own homes and yes, automobiles. China is experiencing that industrial growth that we once enjoyed (at a much lower pay scale.) In the U.S., high wages, health benefits, and pensions, did not just arrive as a corporate gift to the worker, they were the product of a long and bitter struggle between unions and management fighting for a share of the wealth. That kind of struggle is no longer possible because of off-shoring and out-sourcing and the mobility of industry. CEO salaries rose by more than 30% last year. It is clear that there is great wealth to be made in the digital economy. Google stock has quadrupled to more than $400 a share. But will this prosperity enrich American workers on the scale that the Auto industry once delivered? Should we read the article and weep for lost jobs? Or should we grasp the situation and begin to plan and work for a more equitable future?
Over more than seven decades, the company's wages bought the Roys homes, cars and once-unimaginable comforts, while G.M.'s enviable medical and pension benefits have kept them secure in their retirements.
But the G.M. that was once an unassailable symbol of the nation's industrial might is a shadow of its former self, and the post-World War II promise of blue-collar factory work being a secure path to the American dream has faded with it.
After a long slide, it now looks like the end of an era. "General Motors, when I got in there, it was like I'd died and went to heaven," said Jerry Roy, 49 - who started at G.M. in 1977 and now works on an assembly line at a plant operated by Delphi, the bankrupt former G.M. parts unit that was spun off in 1999.
When Mr. Roy was hired at G.M., nearly three decades ago, his salary more than doubled from his job at a local supermarket. He traded in his five-year-old Buick for a new Chevy and since then he has done well enough to buy a pleasant house on a lake near Flint.
But now he faces the prospect of either losing his job or accepting a sharp pay cut. And for those coming after him, "it's just sad that it's ending, that it looks like this," he said. In his hometown, he added, "all these places that used to be factories are now just parking lots."
Those factories supported the Roy family for generations."
Friday, November 18, 2005
Will the Bubble Burst or Give Birth to Web 2.0?
Building a Better Boom - New York Times
In a New York Times Op-Ed, John Battelle, "co-producer of the Web 2.0 conference" argues that the rising market in tech stocks is not a bubble about to burst. Instead he argues that we are moving from Web 1.0 to the next version of the internet Web 2.0. Battelle is convinced that all of this virtual economic activity is not a prelude another dot-com crash but the beginning of a new approach to online business:
In a New York Times Op-Ed, John Battelle, "co-producer of the Web 2.0 conference" argues that the rising market in tech stocks is not a bubble about to burst. Instead he argues that we are moving from Web 1.0 to the next version of the internet Web 2.0. Battelle is convinced that all of this virtual economic activity is not a prelude another dot-com crash but the beginning of a new approach to online business:
The Internet is exciting again, and once again folks are rushing in. In some categories - like search or social networking, for example - there are scores of start-ups vying for pretty much the same market, and it's certain that, just like last time, most of them will fail.The web has become a platform for all sorts of new services which can make use of the high speed, interactive, networking capacity of the web. This is where the growth will come from, web businesses do not necessarily require enormous sums to get started, which lowers the barrier to new investment. Look at the new online services he cites, search, sharing, social netwoking, music downloading. Are these kinds of companies going to be the foundation of a prosperous digital economy for the U.S.? Or, Are the the start-up costs so low is because they simply don't employee many people. Perhaps we will not have a market correction in the price of tech stocks in the near future. Let a thousand flowers bloom, feisty little start-ups with just a tiny bit of capital are the future of our economy. Battalle is hoping that sum of these ventures will add up to something, even if many will fail. Battalle could be right about the potential of the new business model of Web 2.0 services in the long run, but in the short term we may still have a bubble of tech enthusiasm ready to burst.
But regardless of all this deja vu, we are not in a bubble. Instead we are witnessing the Web's second coming, and it's even got a name, "Web 2.0" - although exactly what that moniker stands for is the topic of debate in the technology industry. For most it signifies a new way of starting and running companies - with less capital, more focus on the customer and a far more open business model when it comes to working with others. Archetypal Web 2.0 companies include Flickr, a photo sharing site; Bloglines, a blog reading service; and MySpace, a music and social networking site.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Is there a racial digital divide?
Central Valley Business Times
A University of Santa Cruz study links access to home computers to educational success. Wealth and race are factors here. The study found that the digital divide is a bigger factor among children than adults and this can determine educational success.
A University of Santa Cruz study links access to home computers to educational success. Wealth and race are factors here. The study found that the digital divide is a bigger factor among children than adults and this can determine educational success.
Digital Diversity
MySA.com : Printer Friendly Story
The FCC is addressing the question of the racial digital divide. The question of digital diversity has been raised. The FCC has created a special committee to address the question of digital equality.
The FCC is addressing the question of the racial digital divide. The question of digital diversity has been raised. The FCC has created a special committee to address the question of digital equality.
Digital Diversity
MySA.com : Printer Friendly Story
The FCC is addressing the question of the racial digital divide. The question of digital diversity has been raised. The FCC has created a special committee to address the question of digital equality.
The FCC is addressing the question of the racial digital divide. The question of digital diversity has been raised. The FCC has created a special committee to address the question of digital equality.
Is there a broadband gap?
Tech asks for U.S. aid but really doesn't need it
Mike Langberg writing for Mercury News comments that the fear of broadband gap are overstated. He is criticizing the call for government support for providing high speed broadband access for the U.S.. The IT group calling for government action "TechNet" is just promoting the interests of the companies that would profit from government investment in broadband infrastructure. The key question here is: Does the U.S. economy need massive investment in broadband infrastructure in order to compete globally? And, second, who should pay for this? Government? Business? What are are competitors doing?
Mike Langberg writing for Mercury News comments that the fear of broadband gap are overstated. He is criticizing the call for government support for providing high speed broadband access for the U.S.. The IT group calling for government action "TechNet" is just promoting the interests of the companies that would profit from government investment in broadband infrastructure. The key question here is: Does the U.S. economy need massive investment in broadband infrastructure in order to compete globally? And, second, who should pay for this? Government? Business? What are are competitors doing?
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is another privacy watch-dog worth taking a look at for news about the battle over government and corporate surveillance.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is another privacy watch-dog worth taking a look at for news about the battle over government and corporate surveillance.
EFF: Homepage
EFF: Homepage
The Electronic Freedom Foundation is an watch-dog group which monitors digital freedom. It is a great clearinghouse for information about the ways in which privacy and civil liberties are threatened by the power of information technologies.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation is an watch-dog group which monitors digital freedom. It is a great clearinghouse for information about the ways in which privacy and civil liberties are threatened by the power of information technologies.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
A Watchful Eye on China's Blogosphere
A Watchful Eye on China's Blogosphere
Businessweek has an interview with Blogcn chairman Hu Zhiguang about running a blog service provider in China.
Businessweek has an interview with Blogcn chairman Hu Zhiguang about running a blog service provider in China.
Can you get around any obstacle on the web?
Travis over at the Ipod Taking Over blog has a link to a 2003 article from The Economist that explains a key point about the ability of governments to control the web. Promoters of the Internet have always said that the very architecture of the network makes it impossible to completely block or filter out content because the redundancy built into the network would just bypass the filter and be routed through another set of servers that aren't controlled by that government. It seemed that the web was to powerful for any one government to stop unless they simply prevented their citizens from connecting at all. But that confidence seems to have been shaken in the last few years as the sophistication of security technology and software has developed to meet the very real criminal and terrorist threats posed by open digital networking. IT companies have been working overtime to make the network secure and manageable, technology and software have been developed to maker networking more efficient, faster and more easy to monitor and control:
Until recently, China's efforts to control how its citizens accessed information on the Internet were clumsy and ineffective. In its original form, the Great Firewall of China, as it has become known, was unsophisticated and presented little challenge to anyone with a modicum of Internet experience. Clambering over, around or through the wall, domestic surfers could roam the Internet with impunity.
Suddenly, though, all that has changed. The purchase, since the beginning of 2001, of more than US$46bn of mostly Western-made telecoms equipment has brought with it the engineering expertise of foreign networking companies whose eagerness to make sales outweighs any qualms they may have with helping authorities implement a complex, nationwide system of monitoring and censorship.
As a result, accessing outlawed websites from within China has become immeasurably more difficult. What is more, new technology has now armed authorities with the means to identify in real time where any given Internet surfer is looking, to track patterns of individual surfing activity over time, and even to scan the content of domestic e-mail traffic for suspicious content.
A digital revolution in political repression and control.
Western Corporations role in Chinese Repression of Dissent
Critics Press Companies on Internet Rights Issues - New York Times
Recently there has been a campaign waged by human rights activists to point out that the transnational corporations that provide both the hardware and the software for networking are at least indirectly aiding governments that wish to monitor and control information flows and dissent. The information infrastructure of the digital revolution is designed primarily to speed and facilitate the flow of data across the net, however, there are real security concerns that need to be addressed in the design and creation of a national and international network. When these security features are used for legitimate purposes by governments to protect their national security there is no problem. On the other hand, authoritarian governments can use these same monitoring, filtering and control functions to run a police state, stifle dissent, and arrest cyber-dissidents.
Cisco systems, a major provider of networking technology has come under fire for helping to build a network infrastructure in China that the state uses to control and arrest political dissidents. At a recent share holder meeting a proposal was put forward by a minority group of stock holders proposing a company "human rights policy."
Cisco's position is that they are selling China the same technology that they sell to other customers around the world and that they cannot held responsible for what is done with that technology. Cisco works with governments and police forces around the world to set up networking systems that coordinate security efforts. Just what kind of law enforcement they are facilitating is not Cisco's responsibility. What responsibility do software and technology companies have when it comes to preventing their powerful tools from being used for repressive purposes? Cisco argues that by helping China to modernize they are pushing China towards a free market society which will eventually open up as free market of ideas. The argument is that economic and technological modernization will lead (eventually) towards the greater civil liberties required by a liberal free market society. What do you think?
Recently there has been a campaign waged by human rights activists to point out that the transnational corporations that provide both the hardware and the software for networking are at least indirectly aiding governments that wish to monitor and control information flows and dissent. The information infrastructure of the digital revolution is designed primarily to speed and facilitate the flow of data across the net, however, there are real security concerns that need to be addressed in the design and creation of a national and international network. When these security features are used for legitimate purposes by governments to protect their national security there is no problem. On the other hand, authoritarian governments can use these same monitoring, filtering and control functions to run a police state, stifle dissent, and arrest cyber-dissidents.
Cisco systems, a major provider of networking technology has come under fire for helping to build a network infrastructure in China that the state uses to control and arrest political dissidents. At a recent share holder meeting a proposal was put forward by a minority group of stock holders proposing a company "human rights policy."
Cisco's executives oppose the proposal, contending that the company already has a human rights policy, and that the equipment it sells to China is no different from that sold to any other customer.
Lu Kun, the wife of a software engineer in China who has been in prison since 2003 for posting pro-democracy musings on the Web, joined the petitioners yesterday with harsh words for Western technology businesses operating in China.
"If a police officer presents them with a search warrant and demands to look at customer information," she said through a translator, "the companies always comply. They do not dare disobey the order."
Yahoo, like many other companies, has maintained that the issues are complicated, that it must abide by local laws to continue doing business in China, and that doing business there will slowly force change.
Mary Osako, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said yesterday that the company took these issues seriously. "We balance legal requirements," she said, "against our strong belief that our long-term involvement in China contributes to the continued modernization of the country." Even so, Mr. Kanzer said, a trade-off is being made between "making money and a person going to prison for expressing their viewpoint."
Cisco's position is that they are selling China the same technology that they sell to other customers around the world and that they cannot held responsible for what is done with that technology. Cisco works with governments and police forces around the world to set up networking systems that coordinate security efforts. Just what kind of law enforcement they are facilitating is not Cisco's responsibility. What responsibility do software and technology companies have when it comes to preventing their powerful tools from being used for repressive purposes? Cisco argues that by helping China to modernize they are pushing China towards a free market society which will eventually open up as free market of ideas. The argument is that economic and technological modernization will lead (eventually) towards the greater civil liberties required by a liberal free market society. What do you think?
Blogs and text messages spread call to violence
Blogs and text messages spread call to violence -- International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune has an article on how the unrest in France was "coordinated" through the use of cell phones, text messaging and, yes, blogging. This was indeed a smart mob using digital communications networks to spread information about the movements of the police and encourage people to participate in the actions. Young people have been arrested for participating in the unrest and some have even been arrested for blogging:
The International Herald Tribune has an article on how the unrest in France was "coordinated" through the use of cell phones, text messaging and, yes, blogging. This was indeed a smart mob using digital communications networks to spread information about the movements of the police and encourage people to participate in the actions. Young people have been arrested for participating in the unrest and some have even been arrested for blogging:
Police officials are saying that youths have coordinated local arson attacks using mobile phone messages, and have arrested three people for comments on the online diaries known as blogs that are hosted by Skyblog. The site belongs to the nationwide radio station Skyrock, which has four million listeners daily and claims the largest audience of any radio station among 13-to-24-year-olds.Skyblog is a blogging service run by a popular radio station which is targeting a generation that uses IM and texting to communicate. These free blogs were used a means of communication by the rioters and could also be used as a means of reaching them as a market and influencing their opinions. According to Pierre Belanger, the head of Skyrock:
The Skyblog site says that it hosts more than three million blogs, with new ones coming online at a pace of 20,000 a day, and is possibly the most popular meeting point for French youths on the Internet.
Those prosecuted for inciting violence in their postings this week included a 14-year-old from Aix-en-Provence who called on rioters to attack police stations, according to Justice Minister Pascal Clément.
Blog entries of those arrested also included ones calling on youths in the Paris region to rise up at once in a coordinated attack. "Unite, Ile-de-France, and burn the cops," one of the postings said, according to Agence France-Presse. "Go to the nearest police station and burn it."
Another message called on youths in housing projects to start arson attacks between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday.
Under French law, such calls to violence can result in sentences of one to seven years in prison.
Judicial officials said the three youths arrested did not know one another, but had all used Skyblog to send out their message.
Speaking during a press conference on Monday, the director general of the police, Michel Gaudin, condemned some blog entries as "real calls to violence."
Through blog entries, he added, the police have been able to watch development of a competition between housing projects to produce the most violence and damage.
Following the arrests, a spokesman for Skyrock issued a statement that the station would block any blog content deemed too inflammatory. "Whatever you do, I do not want you to use my name," the spokesman added. "You can imagine from what is happening in the suburbs that if someone finds out that we deleted their blog, it could mean a bullet in the head."
Censorship of Skyblog became severe enough by Tuesday afternoon to become a major topic of conversation on the most popular blogs. Postings on a memorial blog that features photos of the youths whose deaths inspired the unrest, bouna93.skyblog.com, emphasized the need for polite postings.
"We are targeting the first generation to have grown up after the Internet and mobile phone revolutions," Belanger said. "Eighty percent of our listeners have access to Internet and 90 percent own a cellular phone." Rather than traditional-style radio broadcasting, he said, he wanted a conversation with French youth over Internet and SMS messages.Some officials are also using web sites and blogging to explain their recent actions and the unrest has spread into cyberspace in the form of hacking in support of the rioters:
Official Web sites have also been hit by hacking and Google "bombing." For a time over the weekend the French version of Google returned the home page for the French president's political party when users typed in a search for Paris and the words "riot" or "suburb" in French.It is unclear who isresponsiblefor the online actions, but we have an interesting attempt to create some cyber disturbances in support of the real disturbances, fire and violence in the streets.
The Web site, www.u-m-p.org, features a banner advertisement of Sarkozy, whose hard-line policing tactics are blamed by many in the suburbs as alienating the youth there.
Another Web site taken over by hackers was the municipal Web site of Clichy-sous-Bois, the commune in which the unrest began. An article declaring the town mayor had resigned was posted on the Web site and sent out to all who had signed up for the municipal e-mail newsletter.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Wal-Mart: The Model of Business in the Flattening World
Relationships in the Digital Age: Wal-Mart: The Model of Business in the Flattening World
CBarr's blog Relationships in the Digital Age has a great post which explains why Wal-Mart is the model of efficiency and productivity for the digital age. Great for customers, but a threat to labor:
Understanding how Wal-Mart has the power to control and transform its suppliers and even national economies is important. What role does information management made possible by high-speed computing and networking and powerful software play in the emergence of Wal Mart as a world power in the digital age?
CBarr's blog Relationships in the Digital Age has a great post which explains why Wal-Mart is the model of efficiency and productivity for the digital age. Great for customers, but a threat to labor:
Each time Wal*Mart was able to create lower prices for itself, it passed these savings onto its customers in order to undersell its competitors. Now, Wal*Mart has such influence with its suppliers, it is able to drive prices down even further. However, Wal*Mart differs from other Big-Box Retailers in that it has shared its efficiency model with its suppliers to drive down costs even further. Wal*Marts ever increasing efficiency has spread like a virus through its suppliers, and the access given to them by Wal*Mart into Wal*Mart's inventory has helped to further drive down prices and lessen the amount of out-of-stock items, which is something it is working on further with the use of RFID chips.
Understanding how Wal-Mart has the power to control and transform its suppliers and even national economies is important. What role does information management made possible by high-speed computing and networking and powerful software play in the emergence of Wal Mart as a world power in the digital age?
The American Banana Split
Digitally Yours, Revolution: The American Banana Split
MSTORRES over at Digitally Yours, Revolution raises some of the important questions that come up when you start to think about our place in a global economy. She asks:
Unfortunately, in order to understand the digital revolution you need to understand some basic political economy. Understanding globalization, world trade, out-sourcing, post-industrial society, etc., these are some of the big ideas that you need to grapple with if you are going to make sense of the 21st century.
MSTORRES over at Digitally Yours, Revolution raises some of the important questions that come up when you start to think about our place in a global economy. She asks:
What is the industrial policy?
How would putting up walls or regulations on outsourcing help us? Wouldn't that just give a greater advantage to other economic strong arms such as China?
Does it make a difference to buy or support companies that do not outsource?
Unfortunately, in order to understand the digital revolution you need to understand some basic political economy. Understanding globalization, world trade, out-sourcing, post-industrial society, etc., these are some of the big ideas that you need to grapple with if you are going to make sense of the 21st century.
Friedman Flattener #7
Biological Computers: Friedman Flattener #7
Andrew L. over at Biological Computers has a substantial post on Flattener #7. The global supply chain has changed to face of business. What will become of the worker?
Andrew L. over at Biological Computers has a substantial post on Flattener #7. The global supply chain has changed to face of business. What will become of the worker?
With sales, production, outsourcing to overseas countries increasing, the American laborer may no longer be at such an advantage any longer compared to the rest of the world. This only means that the American laborer must change as well.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
frontline: is wal-mart good for america? | PBS
frontline: is wal-mart good for america? | PBS
The best investigative news show on television is PBS's Frontline. Frontline produced a show about Wal-Mart called "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" The companion website features interviews and articles discussing the importance of Wal-Mart in the global marketplace. Explore this site and check out the links to other resources on this topic.
The best investigative news show on television is PBS's Frontline. Frontline produced a show about Wal-Mart called "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" The companion website features interviews and articles discussing the importance of Wal-Mart in the global marketplace. Explore this site and check out the links to other resources on this topic.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
China Daily CEO Roundtable
China Daily CEO Roundtable
An discussion by an number of CEO's of major multinational corporations on the topic of how the multinationals can make the most of the Chinese consumer market:
An discussion by an number of CEO's of major multinational corporations on the topic of how the multinationals can make the most of the Chinese consumer market:
China has overtaken the United States as the world's number one consumer marketThese CEO's are learning how to produce for the Chinese consumer market not just in China for the world market. China appears here as an opportunity for economic growth. The Chinese government is facilitating investment--as long as that investment includes some form of Chinese partnership. The coordination, planning and implementation of this multinational drive to open the Chinese consumer market is being carefully limited by the Chinese government. Wal-Mart is a big player in the transformation of the retail sector in china, spurring greater productivity from its competitors. Wal-Mart continues to set the standard for global business standards in China. This kind of command and control, this kind of integration is made possible by the networking and information revolution
"Chinese fascination with the Wal-Mart model is growing fast."
A Welcome to Wal-Mart - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com
Newsweek International has an indepth article about relationship between China and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is China's eight largest trading partner, right after Germany. Wal-Mart's influence on the Chinese way of doing business is huge:
Newsweek International has an indepth article about relationship between China and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is China's eight largest trading partner, right after Germany. Wal-Mart's influence on the Chinese way of doing business is huge:
The company's iron-fisted price and performance demands on suppliers are changing the way China does business, and now that Wal-Mart is free to expand inside China, that impact will grow exponentially.It seems that the WAl-Mart model of retailing and production management has attracted a lot of interest in China. The article argues that as China adopts Wal-Mart as a business model Chinese business will become even more competitive and efficient in the global market:
What is obvious is that China, more than most nations, welcomes the disruptive impact of Wal-Mart's business model, built on the scale of its stores and innovative use of information technology to keep track of what sells and what doesn't. Chinese suppliers say Wal-Mart is already having a transformative effect on everything from supply chains, to distribution networks, to customer service. The company has a network of 10,000 suppliers for its China operation, most of which are small and not part of its global supply chain. Thus, the spread of Wal-Mart stores is raising efficiency standards for a growing number of Chinese suppliers, which is likely to make the nation an even tougher competitor in the international arena as well. Government officials see Wal-Mart as a good way to accelerate China's transition from state planning to free markets and to "bring the country's economy into the 21st century," says Li Fei, a retail-marketing professor at Tsinghua University.Wal-Mart is being touted as modernizer. The new open door policy has arrived. China is welcoming the cream of capitalist efficiency into China as a way to increase productivity and efficiency in the Chinese economy. This would be an example of state planning on the part of China, not simply a triumph of the market The state is learning how to promote free market efficiency through a very carefully planned roll out of capitalism bit by bit, using the Wal-Mart model as a guide. God help us all if China is able to create corporations in the image of Wal -Mart backed by what increasingly seems to be China's mercantile policy of state-planned promotion of "free" market models based on the efficiencies made possible by the digital revolution.
Welcome to Wal-Mart China !
Welcome to Wal-Mart China !
WalMart has a website describing WalMart's relationship with China. Its purpose is two-fold: First, to describe how China benefits from WalMart's expansion of production in China, and second, WalMart's attempts to gain access to the growing Chinese retail market. This site is worth a peak because it will help you to understand the extent of WalMart's growing partnership and exploitation of China. While most of it is pure public relations, the material stll provides a better undertanding of the role of WalMart in the global market.
WalMart has a website describing WalMart's relationship with China. Its purpose is two-fold: First, to describe how China benefits from WalMart's expansion of production in China, and second, WalMart's attempts to gain access to the growing Chinese retail market. This site is worth a peak because it will help you to understand the extent of WalMart's growing partnership and exploitation of China. While most of it is pure public relations, the material stll provides a better undertanding of the role of WalMart in the global market.
