http://www.ejc.net/media_news/eu_privacy_body_wants_changes_to_google_street_view/
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http://www.ejc.net/media_news/eu_privacy_body_wants_changes_to_google_street_view/
Posted at 02:08 AM in Content, Governance / E-Government, Privacy/Security | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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The UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Measuring the Information Society 2010 report “confirms that despite the recent economic downturn, the use of ICT services has continued to grow worldwide,” ITU’s Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid said in releasing the study.
All 159 countries featured in the report’s ICT Development Index (IDI) have improved their levels, and mobile cellular technology continues to be a key driver of growth. In 2010, ITU expects the global number of mobile cellular subscriptions to top 5 billion.
“At the same time, the report finds that the price of telecommunication services is falling – a most encouraging development,” said Mr. Al Basheer, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau.
Fixed broadband services showed the largest price fall (42 per cent), compared to 25 and 20 per cent in mobile cellular and fixed telephone services respectively, yet a person in the developing world is nearly seven times less likely to have access than someone in a developed country.
The world’s top 10 most advanced ICT economies feature eight countries from Northern Europe, with Sweden topping the IDI for the second year in a row. The Republic of Korea and Japan rank third and eighth, respectively.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain top the list of Arab States, with Russia and Belarus leading ICT development in the ex-Soviet Union. In Africa, only the Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa are included in the top 100.
Given the close relationship between ICT uptake and national income, most poor countries rank at the low end of the IDI. In particular, the least developed countries (LDCs), many of them in Africa, still have very limited access to ICTs, especially in terms of broadband infrastructure and household access.
The gap between the high and the low groups is still significant although it is shrinking slightly, going from a value of 5.5 in 2002 to 5.3 in 2008, ITU Statistician Esperanza Magpantay told a news briefing in New York. “What we have found in our research is that sometimes it takes a certain threshold level of use of internet and new technology before the economy and the country take off and you have the network effect and all the other benefits kicking in,” she said.
Mobile cellular technology continues to be the main driver of ICT growth, especially in the developing world, where average penetration surpassed the 50 per cent mark in 2009. Today, over 70 economies worldwide have surpassed the 100 per cent penetration mark, with developed countries averaging 113 per cent by the end of last year.
While high-speed Internet access is now available in almost all countries, fixed broadband penetration in the developing world remains as low as 3.5 per cent, compared to 23 per cent in developed countries.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33867&Cr=telecom&Cr1
Posted at 08:35 PM in E-conomy | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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Polish Internet users have scored a major victory in their fight against a law that would have blocked certain Web sites deemed to have dangerous content. Under the weight of their online protests, Prime Minister Donald Tusk decided to abandon the proposed law, which was originally designed to block gambling sites.
The government decided to scrap the register of banned Web sites after talks between Tusk and nongovernmental organizations, according to a statement on the prime minister’s Web site Thursday.
Now Tusk will be successful in damage control after what turned out to be a major public-relations disaster. Still, it could become a major legal embarrassment, since the legislation introducing the register already had been sent to the Constitutional Tribunal. In recent days, the Parliament received expert opinion that clearly stated the government’s plan was unconstitutional.
This ruling majority’s track record of silliness is quite small compared with that of its predecessors. The Solidarity in the late 1990s, for example, wanted “the enthronement of Jesus the King” as King of Poland. It was also responsible for a useless bill on the purity of the Polish language and socialist-style legislation overregulating landlord-tenant relationships, just to name a few ideas straight from the 19th century.
But over the past two years, the Tusk administration has proposed ideas that could potentially be as damaging. Internet censorship was one of them, but concepts that would effectively outlaw anonymous HIV testing were just as dangerous.
This shows that the Tusk government, which enjoys great popularity in financial circles and a large part of the Polish society and media, can make mistakes, too. Fortunately, unlike some of its predecessors, it’s also willing to admit them before major damage is done.
But there’s yet another conclusion from this story. On this blog, we sometimes write about the rapid generational change happening in Poland as the people who don’t remember the communist era hit the job market, become taxpayers and more informed voters. The massive protests against online censorship were initiated by those very people.
Twenty years since the fall of communism in Poland, it looks like the critical mass for a working civic society has finally been achieved.
http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/02/18/poland-abandons-internet-censorship-plans/
Posted at 05:44 PM in E-Activism, Governance / E-Government | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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http://www.ejc.net/media_news/yahoo_partners_with_twitter_to_boost_social_features/
Posted at 01:54 PM in Content, Social Media | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed.
Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question. Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all.
But we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them — every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video — then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.
These are important points of principle, which is why we and our employees will vigorously appeal this decision.
Posted by Matt Sucherman, VP and Deputy General Counsel - Europe, Middle East and Africa
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/serious-threat-to-web-in-italy.html
Posted at 01:18 PM in Content, E-Activism, Governance / E-Government, Netbiz | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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