Operation: Budding Genius

YouTube, the popular video sharing website, is set to challenge established TV broadcasters by offering its own live channels. The plans would enable YouTube’s millions of users to chat from their bedrooms, perform music or report on a breaking news story to a worldwide audience in real time. A birthday party or wedding could be broadcast live to family and friends who are unable to attend. The truly committed could start a 24-hour ‘lifecast’ of their daily activities reminiscent of television’s Big Brother.Read More| Technology | The Observer

Blogging….what’s it for, why do we do it?

Its a sort of twilight zone really.

I really didn’t think that anyone would actually visit my blog let alone read the content and yesterday somebody commented on a story a posted!!! This is a rarity in my little world, someone actually took the time to read what I had written. Blogging is a strange concept to which I have yet to find my own little niche. Its personal and yet impersonal, a brief glimpse into the minds of some or random,irrelevant babblings (in my case). I blog therefore i am but what does it actually mean?

The Oxford English dictionary defines it as:

(weblog)- frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary.

The site Blogger gives many variations on how a blog may be defined –

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

And that is where is the problem starts for me. How do visitors know you exist? What do they expect when they hit your page? Its all a big mystery to me…..but it cheers the little cockles of my heart when you know that you have reached out to at least one or two readers who have actually taken the time to read what you have written and let you know by posting their own thoughts or observations. I am making it my new year resolution to post my own comments or thoughts on blogs that interest me. I may too be the one to cheer up the writers days and spread a little happiness as I go. To all my fellow bloggers, interaction is the future, so put down your garlic bread and cakes of cheese and embrace the world of conversation.

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit partnership of people from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.read more on the ICANN website

ICANN Watch say however

ICANN says that it is private, non-profit, consensus-based, California corporation charged with technical coordination of the Internet. Some others, including some of the people behind this web site, worry that ICANN has a somewhat manipulable idea of what constitutes a consensus, or that ICANN’s close relationship with the U.S. Department of Commerce might make it a “state actor” under U.S. law– a formally private body that has the same legal obligations to provide due process and non-discrimination as a government agency. read more on ICANN Watch website

This is worrying for the future of a free and open internet. Censorship of the internet is already a highly controversial topic and more people need to be made aware of the role of ICANN and the close relationship it shares with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Operation: Budding Genius: Censorship of New Media

Operation: Budding Genius: Censorship of New Media

New Media Technology is advancing rapidly . The use of multimedia platforms to distribute and share information is something to which many are accustomed to. It is inevitable, that in this new information society, a minority of users will abuse this privilege by publishing libellous or copyrighted material, albeit not always deliberately. General consensus of social norms and common sense by the majority of the online community means unsavoury or offensive material found on the Internet is ignored. I believe in free speech and understand that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. No one should dictate what anyone says, even if it is not always appropriate or conventional. At present there are debates about control and censorship of the Internet and I wonder how long it will be before there are calls for all online content to be subject to approval by strict draconian rulings and guidelines. Surveillance and collection of data by government is already in force and if sanctions are imposed, democratic thought processes will be assigned to the history books.

The notion of a Ministry of Truth is something which I fear will become a reality, and our right to free speech is rapidly disappearing .

For further debates about online censorship see http://current.com/topics/75917592_censorship

New Media Technology is advancing rapidly . The use of multimedia platforms to distribute and share information is something to which many are accustomed to. It is inevitable, that in this new information society, a minority of users will abuse this privilege by publishing libellous or copyrighted material, albeit not always deliberately. General consensus of social norms and common sense by the majority of the online community means unsavoury or offensive material found on the Internet is ignored. I believe in free speech and understand that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. No one should dictate what anyone says, even if it is not always appropriate or conventional. At present there are debates about control and censorship of the Internet and I wonder how long it will be before there are calls for all online content to be subject to approval by strict draconian rulings and guidelines. Surveillance and collection of data by government is already in force and if sanctions are imposed, democratic thought processes will be assigned to the history books.

The notion of a Ministry of Truth is something which I fear will become a reality, and our right to free speech is rapidly disappearing .

For further debates about online censorship see http://current.com/topics/75917592_censorship