November 2002

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November 19, 2002

African Technology Policy Studies Network Annual Conference and Workshop 2002

From allAfrica.com: The African Technology Policy Studies Network Annual Conference and Workshop 2002, held in Abuja, Nigeria last week, raised the importance of bridging the digital divide that Africa faces at both regional and global levels. Different speakers raised the issue and suggested possible measures that African nations must adopt to bridge this gap. According to the findings of one paper, "Internet Diffusion and Digital Inequality in Sub-Saharan African across-country Analysis," the 6.31 million Africans online are equivalent to only 1% of the total Netizens of the world. Professor Gabriel O. Ajayi of the National Information Technology Development Agency, named Africa as the most affected by the digital divide. He appealed to the government to respond to this issue and suggested the development of institutional and infrastructure capacity and global human resources as tools for eradicating the divide. The Nigerian Minister for Science and Technology Professor Turner T. Isoun, offered this challenge to all African countries. He stressed the need for Information Communication Technology development as the key to have any presence in the networked global economy. He called for institutional restructuring and that science and technology held most of the solutions to global problems.

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Internet boom in Tanzania brings women to the Web

From BBC News - Internet boom in Tanzania brings women to the Web, Meghna Krishna: "The growing Internet rush in the country of Tanzania is bringing more women to the Web, a trend unlike other African countries. An increasing number of cyber-cafes in cities and rural areas that offer cheap Internet access contribute to this boom. A growing number of female Net-cafe owners provide easy Internet access to their female customers. 'I can come to Anna Cafe and feel comfortable here,' Zuweni Bakari said. 'Especially because if I need help there are women around to give me advice.' The Web finds many applications in these women's lives, including e-mail and finding price structures for small business owners. Female students find the Web is a convenient tool for researching academic topics, and women’s groups are also looking at ways to use Internet technology. It helps these women that Tanzania's access has improved. 'The situation with wireless broadband in Tanzania is that you can get access as reliable as and as high speed as any connection you could get in Europe,' said John Tumelty, the general manager of Mobitel."

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Net spying gets OK from secret U.S. court

Net spying gets OK from secret U.S. court, Melissa Milios, OnlineJournalism.com Managing Editor: "A special three-judge panel Monday overturned a lower court's decision that said some sections of the USA Patriot Act step on the civil liberties of Americans. U.S. police now have the authority to 'monitor Internet usage, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects,' CNET News.com reports. The ruling loosens procedures federal agents have to follow when spying under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and allows intelligence sharing between federal agents and domestic police. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department declared the ruling a victory in the war against terrorism, but many civil libertarian groups are concerned. Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told CNET News: 'Because the FISA now applies to ordinary criminal matters if they are dressed up as national security inquiries, the new rules could open the door to circumvention of the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements. The result: rubber-stamp judicial consent to phone and Internet surveillance, even in regular criminal cases, and FBI access to medical, educational and other business records that conceivably relate to foreign intelligence probes."

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November 13, 2002

moodRingBaby

"The collaboration between Yael Kanarek and bnode (Judith Gieseler and Innes Yates) elaborates on the World of Awe Traveler's Tale to investigate the diffusion of techno-scientific knowledge into popular culture through a fictional supertoy—the mRB... The mRB is developed as the prototype of the moodRingBaby described in the Traveler's Journal. According to the journal, the moodRingBaby—a mass-produced object purchased at Duane-Reade for $1.99, was used by the traveler to soothe the effects of loneliness. Resembling an advanced Tamagotchi, the device was capable of holding conversations and telling stories."

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Movielink.com

Movielink.com: "In an effort to combat online piracy, five major Hollywood studios will offer feature films for Web surfers to download from Movielink.com, reports the New York Times. Sony Pictures, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers will be the first to make titles legally downloadable from the Internet. Hollywood executives say it is the first step toward a video-on-demand service. With the popularity of file-trading software like KaZaA and Morpheus, the film studios are trying to avoid the online piracy that plagues the music industry. Customers have 30 days to watch movies after the initial download at $2.99 to $4.99 each. Once 'play' has been hit on the movie viewing software, customers have 24 hours to view the film. The films cannot be transferred to other computers once it has been downloaded. Initially, about 175 movies will be available, with titles like 'A Beautiful Mind' and 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.' James B. Ramo, the chief executive of Movielink said, 'Part of our job is to provide a legitimate outlet for people looking for video in the pirate community. We consider the pirate services our competition.'"

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November 10, 2002

Free media lives

Free magazines and newsletters have emerged as the newest trend in Japanese pop-culture, reports Nikkei Net Interactive, (subscription required). Japanese youth are snatching up gratis publications distributed at their favorite cafes and fashion outlets in trendy Tokyo neighborhoods. One successful quarterly, known as Electric SAL, features and is edited by young artists, and its 10,000 copies are gone within a matter of days. Select publishers have honed in on the potential effectiveness of free titles, either for their commercial or artistic value. While financial support can be hard to come by, big names like travel agency JTB Corp., fashion retailer Ships Ltd. and karaoke chain Big Echo either buy media spots or subsidize free publications, looking to capitalize on this latest advertising platform. Meanwhile, publishers try to downplay corporate advertisements and maximize the artistic aspect of the free media by marrying the advertisements with art. Artists (including poets, freelance writers and graphic artists) contribute to these magazines for minimal pay, some for the exposure, and others who find the weakened Japanese economy has taken away paying modes of artistic expression. Some artists integrate online creative efforts for more added value for their readers.

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African journalists fighting costly media regulation

From AllAfrica.com: African journalists fighting costly media regulation: Journalists in Africa are fighting media regulation in order to protect private media companies. In Masvingo, they are contesting the Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA). The Media Institute of Southern Africa organized a workshop where the chairman for the Masvingo Chapter said the Acts were enacted to stifle journalists' ability in private media. Energy Bara, chairman of the Masvingo Chapter, said, "We are totally against these repressive Acts which we know to be aimed at preventing independent journalists from practicing their profession and we urge all journalists to wage a war against these draconian Acts before it is too late." Bara urged journalists from public media outlets to challenge the Acts as well. Journalists must pay a $6,000 registration fee and media organizations must pay a $20,000 application and $50,000 registration fees. With the deadline approaching quickly, employers and journalists have decided to register under protest.

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All CDs will be protected and you are a filthy pirate

All CDs will be protected and you are a filthy pirate: "There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content."

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Illegal Art Exhibit

The Illegal Art Exhibit: "The laws governing 'intellectual property' have grown so expansive in recent years that artists need legal experts to sort them all out. Borrowing from another artwork -- as jazz musicians did in the 1930s and Looney Tunes illustrators did in 1940s -- will now land you in court. If the current copyright laws had been in effect back in the day, whole genres such as collage, hiphop, and Pop Art might have never have existed. The irony here couldn't be more stark. Rooted in the U.S. Constitution, copyright was originally intended to facilitate the exchange of ideas but is now being used to stifle it. The Illegal Art Exhibit will celebrate what is rapidly becoming the 'degenerate art' of a corporate age: Art and ideas on the legal fringes of intellectual property. Some of the pieces in the show have eluded lawyers; others have had to appear in court."

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Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture

The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture: "The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture (AIfIA) is a 501c6 non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture... AIfIA serves to advance the design of shared information environments. We support a global community infrastructure that connects people, ideas, content, and tools. Through research, education, advocacy and community service, we promote excellence within our field and build bridges to related disciplines and organizations."

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One step away

There are people who don’t understand that the fingerprinting and photographing of Canadian citizens who were born in certain countries by the United States government is only one small step away from the fingerprinting and photographing of American citizens who were born in certain countries by their own government.

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Pseudodictionary

"Pseudodictionary, the place where words you've made up can become part of an actual online dictionary! slang, webspeak, colloquialisms...you name it, if you know a word that should be in the dictionary but isn't, submit it and we'll post it on this site (with credit given to you of course).

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The nonsense of 'knowledge management'

T.D. Wilson's "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" "examines critically the origins and basis of 'knowledge management', its components and its development as a field of consultancy practice. Problems in the distinction between 'knowledge' and 'information' are explored, as well as Polanyi's concept of 'tacit knowing'. The concept is examined in the journal literature, the Web sites of consultancy companies, and in the presentation of business schools. The conclusion is reached that 'knowledge management' is an umbrella term for a variety of organizational activities, none of which are concerned with the management of knowledge..."

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November 8, 2002

The Horse without Horseman

"I am the first to say that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery, but what is strange is that they [the Israelis] perhaps read it and decided to implement it." Mohammed Sobhi, screenwriter of The Horse without Horseman, reacts to charges that his Egyptian mini-series is anti-semitic. The program tells the story of an Egyptian who leads the struggle against the British colonizers until he finds a book that provides proof that the true enemy is not the British, but the "Elders of Zion".

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November 3, 2002

Mistry suffers 'visions of Guantanamo'

"The first flight we took my wife and I, we were greeted by a ticket agent who cheerfully told us that we had been selected randomly for a special security check. Then it began to happen at every single stop, at every single airport. The random process took on a 100 per cent certitude." Canadian award winning writer Rohinton Mistry cancels his US book tour after being subjected to racial profiling.

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