[governance] Two articles of interest today

[yehudakatz at mailinator.com]

Two articles of interest today:

Governments are now using filters to censor internet content at an alarming
rate
Re: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7356

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'$100 laptop' sparks war of words 
Re: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6675833.stm

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Governments are now using filters to censor internet content at an alarming
rate
  Re: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7356

According to a recent report conducted by University of Toronto, Harvard,
Oxford and Cambridge, 26 of 40 countries surveyed utilize some degree of
state-sponsored software filtering.

China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Morocco, and Singapore were mentioned
as countries actively filtering its citizens.

The study found that many of the Middle Eastern countries mainly filtered
international news.  Saudi Arabia focuses its censorship on political sites,
pornography and gambling.  Tunisia also focused their filter on pornography,
but the country also filters sites which dealt with human rights and political
opposition to the government.  

South Korea enabled filters to eliminate North Korean web sites.  Thailand,
while not in the report, recently filtered YouTube and other video-sharing
websites that disseminated videos critical of the country's king. 

According to the University of Toronto report, Russia, Venezuela, Egypt, Hong
Kong, Israel and Iraq were among the countries found that did not enable any
sort state-sponsored of content filtering.

SmartFilter, developed by Secure Computing in San Jose, California, is one of
the more popular software filtering tools found used today.  Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, Oman, Sudan and Tunisia are currently using this
software.

Other countries simply display a default page or  a DNS error in an attempt to
mask that any censorship is taking place. China, by far the worst offender
according to the report, recently censored the entire LiveJournal network in an
attempt to block individual blogs.

A brief lax in the Great Firewall of China resulted in major headlines last
year.  For a six hour period, all users inside China were able to view and
search for content typically deemed unviewable by the Chinese government.  The
Chinese government, Skype and Google have since declared it their right to
continue to censor and promote censorship as a cost of doing business in such
countries. Last year Yahoo! spoke openly against censorship in China, yet only
a month later it was discovered Yahoo! is one of the most censored western
portals inside China.

"Once the tools are in place, authorities realize that the Internet can be
controlled. There used to be a myth that the Internet was immune to regulation.
Now governments are realizing it's actually the opposite," said associate
professor of political science at the University of Toronto, Ron Deibert.

The report did not include western countries, citing North American censorship
typically takes place because of copyright infractions.  None of the 40
countries observed during the analysis incorporated any filtering based on
intellectual property concerns.


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http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7356

All 82 news articles » 
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'$100 laptop' sparks war of words 
  Re: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6675833.stm
 
The $100 has already been tested in many countries 
Chip-maker Intel "should be ashamed of itself" for efforts to undermine the
$100 laptop initiative, according to its founder Nicholas Negroponte. 
He accused Intel of selling its own cut-price laptop - the Classmate - below
cost to drive him out of markets. 

Professor Negroponte, who aims to distribute millions of laptops to kids in
developing countries, said Intel had hurt his mission "enormously". 

Speaking to US broadcaster CBS, Intel's chairman denied the claims. 

"We're not trying to drive him out of business," said Craig Barrett. "We're
trying to bring capability to young people." 

Mr Barrett has previously dismissed the $100 laptop as a "gadget". 

Speaking to the BBC News website earlier this year Professor Negroponte said:
"The concept has received a lot of criticism and yet after that criticism they
are either copying it or doing things perfectly in line with the concept. 

"Yes people laugh at it, then they criticise it, then they copy it." 

Business practice 

Both Intel and Professor Negroponte's not for profit organisation, One Laptop
per Child (OLPC), have developed a low cost, robust laptop aimed specifically
at school children in the developing world. 

 
Intel's Classmate PC runs Microsoft Windows and Linux 

There are various differences in both the hardware and software, but Professor
Negroponte believes the main problem is that his machine uses a processor
designed by Intel's main competitor, AMD. 

"Intel and AMD fight viciously," he told CBS. "We're just sort of caught in the
middle." 

Professor Negroponte says Intel has distributed marketing literature to
governments with titles such as "the shortcomings of the One Laptop per Child
approach", which outline the supposedly stronger points of the Classmate. 

Mr Barrett told CBS: "Someone at Intel was comparing the Classmate PC with
another device being offered in the marketplace. That's the way our business
works." 

He dismissed claims that Intel was trying to put OLPC out of business as
"crazy". 

"There are lots of opportunities for us to work together," he said. 

Price drop 

Professor Negroponte's project is currently in a critical phase. 

Countries have until 31 May to place their orders for the first batch and will
be able to purchase lots of 250,000. 

They will initially cost $176 (£90) but the eventual aim is to sell the machine
to governments of developing countries for $100 (£50). 

Intel says it already has orders for "thousands" of Classmates, which currently
cost over $200 (£100). 

Like the OLPC machine, Intel expects the price to eventually fall. 


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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6675833.stm

All 13 news articles » 
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&ncl=1116481668&hl=en 

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