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<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Hi All<br>
<br>
All the defense of 'insider or closed communities' on the Internet
given by a few in this thread is indeed inspiring. A good indication of
how we can easily lose perspective in the new digital reality - which
is indeed very new in many ways, and needs a new thorough
consideration. To be able to build such communities is just an
extension of the fundamental right of association which has more or
less been uniformly recognized, and is a key socio-political right. <br>
<br>
However one does understand the concerns of those who feel that such a
religious community based search engine may indeed be a dangerous
trend. And we need to look at these concerns closely and seriously. The
way the digital space can connect all those with similar views - and,
this is important to note, correspondingly, cut off all those whose
views we are already prejudiced not to agree with - has a deleterious
impact on 'public space/sphere/ media'. <br>
<br>
We need a strong and vibrant public sphere/ media, which is a space
where we are almost nilly willy thrown in along with many others with
whom we may not instinctively agree, to keep our polity, which is the
basis of our rights, alive. There are no rights without an active
polity, and no active polity without a shared public sphere/ media. <br>
<br>
Digital reality is having a very strong negative impact on such shared
spaces across socio-political spectrum. In India, though we were always
a very unequal society, at least till very recently everyone, rich and
the (literate) poor, more or less read the same newspaper. We now have
media which is strongly socially-segmented, and it portends very badly
for the future of our society as a cohesive socio-political entity. <br>
<br>
My point is, while we hail our rights, not to think of structural
deformities that may be getting set up in our societies, and not
thinking of the possible remedial actions - new political and
governance mechanism being perhaps primary among them - we may be being
short-sighted. Our rights wont go far if we lose our political
character. <br>
<br>
parminder <br>
</font><br>
Shahzad Ahmad wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:93AAE0A7DCF34B2297B2A3C85269BCF7@shahzad"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Here is more information and background on this... forwarded from another
list.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Helmi Noman" <>
For those interested in more info about this search engine
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090907/NATIONAL/709069866/1041/FOREIGN">http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090907/NATIONAL/709069866/1041/FOREIGN</a>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Milton L Mueller" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:mueller@syr.edu"><mueller@syr.edu></a>
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org"><governance@lists.cpsr.org></a>; "Ian Peter" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com"><ian.peter@ianpeter.com></a>; "Avri
Doria" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:avri@psg.com"><avri@psg.com></a>
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 3:58 AM
Subject: RE: [governance] Halal Search Engine
You can pay to be listed in the CLEARLY MARKED and SEPARATED sponsored
links, which in fact attract far fewer clicks than the regular ones. Google
was the first to clearly separate them and NOT make their regular rankings
depend in any way on payments, and that of course is why it won the market -
it really was better for finding what you were looking for than the
alternatives. That set the standard for Bing, which is actually a very good
competitor now if you haven't tried it. All hail market competition! What a
friend we have in....Mammon!! Genuflect to Market FUNDAMENTALISM ;-)
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Peter [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com">mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com</a>]
Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 3:52 PM
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org</a>; Avri Doria
Subject: Re: [governance] Halal Search Engine
( a couple of people disputed this)
The most obvious example is that on any common Google search the first few
results that come through may be sponsored links - identified as such if
you
have good eyes and bother to look, but the first results nevertheless. You
can pay to be number one on a Google search results listing, that's the
bottom line.
Beyond that - because Google doesn't release its algorithms this is
unproven. But articles such as this <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.seobook.com/google-branding">http://www.seobook.com/google-branding</a>
do tend to suggest new factors coming into results.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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