Internet

The UK government’s war on internet freedom (by Trevor Timm)

April 16, 2012
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  San Francisco, CA – Last summer in the wake of the London riots, British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted that the government should have the power to censor social media and “stop [alleged rioters] from communicating via these websites”. But after Cameron’s plan was widely compared to the tactics of former Egypt President Hosni Mubarak – not to mention the same social media services were instrumental in helping organise post-riot cleanup – the proposal never materialised. Unfortunately, Cameron’s declaration that the “free flow of information” can sometimes be a problem, then an aberration, seems to have turned into a pillar of the UK government’s 2012 agenda.…

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Move over SOPA & PIPA: Here comes CISPA (by Anne Sewell)

April 6, 2012
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In the wake of SOPA and PIPA, there is yet another terrifying bill on the table. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA for short) which is currently being discussed by Congress.   In Washington, Congress is discussing the best way to avert the ongoing cyberattacks and some legislators have put forward a new act which, if it passes Congress, will allow the government access to personal correspondence of any person of their choosing.   Much like the Big Brother tactics in the United Kingdom recently, this bill will likely cause an outcry of condemnation and criticism, as…

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The gamification of life (lecture by Jesse Schell)

April 3, 2012
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The following presentation was given at DICE 2010 by Jesse Schell, university professor and game designer. While Part 1 and Part 2 are both worth watching, I especially recommend  Part 3 (see below), where he introduces the phenomenon of gamification and envisions a commercialized future, where TVs will probably track your eyeballs and reward you for watching ads. Schell suggests that gamification could actually help people to lead better lives, but only if they are designed and implemented in a thoughtful and ethical manner. 

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The ethics of internet piracy (by Peter Singer)

February 25, 2012
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Recently an article by Peter Singer was published by project-syndicate, discussing the ethics of internet piracy.  While the whole article is absolutely worth reading, here are a few paragraphs that seem to catch the essence: If I steal someone’s book the old-fashioned way, I have the book, and the original owner no longer does. I am better off, but she is worse off. When people use pirated books, the publisher and the author often are worse off – they lose earnings from selling the book. But, if my colleague had not sent me the book, I would have borrowed the…

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The internet filter bubble

January 7, 2012
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Thanks to Google’s search engine we now have the ability to retrieve instantly a massive amount of information on virtually any topic or any question we might have. On the surface, it seems that we are all better informed and more knowledgeable as a result of Google.  But are we? Consider the fact that Google recognizes  users and collects information on their digital behavior–their favorite searches, articles they have read on Google news, and even their choice of words.  Everything is recorded, the pattern is analyzed, and a user profile is created. Then, when you perform a search, Google tries to find…

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