insights from the digital future
State takes aim at ‘risks’ of Twitter, bans Facebook friends
February 26, 2010 | 3:55 pmThe Internet can be a wild place, with all the damage one can do from an office cubicle on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like. So the state of California on Friday unveiled a “Social Media Standard” to ensure that its employees aren’t running amok.
Continue reading “State of California takes aim at ‘risks’ of Twitter, bans Facebook friends”
Amazing to read this latest report from the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (emphasis mine):
By the end of 2009, there were an estimated 4.6 billion mobile cellular subscriptions, corresponding to 67 per 100 inhabitants globally (Chart 1). Last year, mobile cellular penetration in developing countries passed the 50 per cent mark reaching an estimated 57 per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2009. Even though this remains well below the average in developed countries, where penetration exceeds 100 per cent, the rate of progress remains remarkable. Indeed, mobile cellular penetration in developing countries has more than doubled since 2005, when it stood at only 23 per cent.
Internet use has also continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace. In 2009, an estimated 26 per cent of the world’s population (or 1.7 billion people) were using the Internet. In developed countries the percentage remains much higher than in the developing world where four out of five people are still excluded from the benefits of being online.
Can only hope that broadband internet penetration access is the next to take off — in the U.S. more than one-third are without it, largely due to cost, according to a Pew Study also released today. Hopefully the U.S. FCC’s National Broadband plan, due to be formally announced March 17, is aggressive enough to make a difference. It’s our future.
The executive summary of the UN report:
Measuring the Information Society 2010 – United Nations International Telecommunications Union –
?From Google Wave to mommy blogs to TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington “stealing our tweets,” 2009 was a booming year for the Web and social media scene. To celebrate, LAWeekly.com is hosting the LA Web Awards 2009 and asked you to nominate the best in 36 categories. Who gives the best tweet? What’s the best site for gamers? From over a thousand nominations, a team of expert judges from LA and SF’s online communities — including Kevin Pereira, Andrew Nystrom, Gabe Rivera, Travis Keller, Sean Percival, Aubrey Sabala, Mike Prasad, Shira Lazar, John Resig, Maya Baratz, Andrew Sorcini, and VVM new media staff — combed through the sites and selected winners. And to keep it fair, none of the judges voted in a category they’re affiliated with. Check out the winners below and stay tuned for information on how you can win a spot on the guest list for our private party at Bardot on January 21st to celebrate 2009’s best online.
LA’s Best Twitterer
@XeniJardinLA’s Best Flickr Pool
LA AddictLA’s Best Flamer (i.e. best shit talker)
BuddyheadLA’s Best Food Blog
Eater LALA’s Best Music Blog
Aquarium DrunkardLA’s Best Police Blog
Witness LALA’s Best Tech Blog
Lalawag
Intellectual Property Developers
Caution! The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files. The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of “24” in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free.
A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.
We’re the post office, they tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product. Note to self: Don’t get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn’t already left to write jingles.
Bono’s insinuation that content must be tagged, tracked, and protected in the interest of the creator is an uneven (if not borderline fascist) suggestion.
The biggest problem with this is that bandwidth regulation affects not just entertainment (whether downloaded, streamed, for pay or for free) but everything else that operates in the digital space.
Which includes education, charity, government, and most ironically, the development, production, and broadcast of creative content itself.
Read up on Net Neutrality Bono. The movie industry is booming (in spite of a relative abundance of poor content). But the service providers aren’t just stuffing their pockets with profit, they’re limiting both consumers and creators by throttling bandwidth.
Don’t wage war on the Internet, Bono. Talk about putting your back up against the wall… please don’t go singing that song.
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