September 28, 2009
How Much Government Control of Web in Cybercrisis?
A Senate committee proposed a provision to give the President power to shut down Internet traffic in the event of an emergency.
The provision, an attempt to secure the Internet from a cyber crisis, was quickly shot down when corporate leaders and privacy advocates said that the government must not take control of the Internet.
So, how much control should the government have over the Internet? Considering that many government files, military specifications, sensitive coroprate data, and personal files take residence on the Web, lawmakers have run into trouble deciding what the answer should be.
The issue of privacy still remains. Bloggers and business leaders objected to the takeover of the Internet, but Senate committee spokeswoman, Jena Longo, assures that this is not a government takeover, but a constitutional authority that the President has to protect the people and direct a response to a crisis.
Legislation aside, the government should work with cyber experts, private sector businesses, and civilians to bring light to the issue of hackers and cybercriminals before regulating the Internet themselves.
Related Articles:
(AP) How Much Government Control of Web in Cybercrisis
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 25, 2009
German Chancellor Besieged By Flashmob Protesters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel referred to recent protesters as, "My young friends from the Internet".
Merkel was referring to the flash mob protesters, a group of people summoned over the Internet to show up at a specific time and place to do something unusual.
The activists were notified to turn up at the rally by a picture of Merkel posted unanimously on the online picture-sharing website Flickr and micro-blogging site Twitter along with an invitation to "flash mob" her in Hamburg. Video of the flash mob of protesters who materialized at an election rally last week in the northern city of Hamburg has been viewed over 250,000 times.
Participants were shouting "Yeaahh" at every sentence spoken by the conservative leader. Many of the people involved in the protests support the Pirate Party, a group of Libertarian youths who have taken German politics by storm.
"This is our political message and the political meaning of this flash mob -- we won't swallow election campaign messages anymore and we'll throw Merkel's rubbish back at her with an ironic 'Yeaahh'," wrote Rene Walter on the nerdcore.de blog.
Flashmobs Target Merkel at Final Election Rallies
Merkel Flash Mob Protest Becomes Internet Hit
Ahoy, Germany!
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 23, 2009
Republicans Twittering Away
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Nearly twice as many Republicans as Democrats have Twitter accounts and are using the political communication tool twice as often as their liberal counterparts.
The Politico covered a report by the Congressional Research Survey that reported on two week long periods in which they found Republicans using Twitter twice as often as Democrats since they lost power of the White House in 2008. But is Twitter, in fact, a useful political communication tool to spend so much time on or just a PR bully pulpit?
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 18, 2009
FCC Backs New Net Neutrality Rules
On Monday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will outline proposals for new rules on Net neutrality.
Genachowski will outline proposals for new rules that would prohibit Internet companies from giving preferential treatment to certain services and content on the Web and require Internet providers to treat all legal Web traffic equally.
The Wall Street Journal defines Net neutrality as, "the principle that Internet providers should treat all data equally and avoid restricting or delaying access to certain sites." Some ISPs resist net-neutrality legislation because they argue that the government shouldn't intrude on their network-management operations, but net neutrality has many ardent supporters - who launch sites like Save the Internet and We Are the Web - who say that "the open Internet" is at stake."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he signed on to a bill introduced by Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), supporting FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's commitment to net neutrality.
The Hill reports Commissioner Robert McDowell, the senior Republican on the FCC, said, "Whatever polices we adopt should help attract more private investment and not deter it. ... We should not cherry-pick data to justify a predetermined outcome." Rep. Mike Rogers (R- Mich.) agreed and said he hoped the FCC "does not give in to temptation for net neutrality."
(WSJ) Net Neutrality in the Spotlight
(The Hill) FCC chief gets new net neutrality support in House from Waxman
(WSJ) FCC to Propose 'Net Neutrality' Rules
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 16, 2009
The Cost of U.S. Broadband
Congress set aside $350 million from the $787 billion stimulus bill to create a national broadband Internet access map.
The NYTimes reports, "Although the map should run much less than the $350-million cap set by Congress, the total still looks to be far higher than estimates based on the costs of smaller efforts in individual states."
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 11, 2009
Wilson's "You Lie!" Comment Fires Up Fundraising
Rob Miller is up to $1.5 million after Wilson's "You lie!" outburst and Wilson has over $1 million in donations as well.
Within minutes, the name, address, website, and phone number of Wilson's opponent in the 2010 Congressional election had been spread around the blogosphere. Rob Miller, a retired marine and Iraq veteran who ran against Wilson in 2008, brought in about $400,000 within 8 hours after Wilson's outburst. As of today, Miller's ActBlue fundraising page has raised $743,090 online from 20,269 supporters and Miller told Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline, that he has raised over $800,000 in donations.
Wilson's Wikipedia page was updated within minutes of his comment to read, "He is a [expletive] that called the president of the United States a liar on national television and has no respect for the office he holds." The online encyclopedia quickly removed the condemning entries and eventually had to disable the editing feature to Wilson's page completely citing "vandalism".
"Joe Wilson" was a top trending topic on Twitter and on Facebook, where users can go beyond 140 characters to express themselves, both condemnation and support surged on. Wilson has raised more than $200,000 since asking for donations in YouTube video that both apologized for his behavior and directed supporters to his web site for contributions.
Related Articles
(CNN) Two words make Joe Wilson an Internet sensation
(TheNation)Challenger to "You Lie" Congressman Cashes In After Speech
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 04, 2009
U.S. Health Care Policy Debated Online
The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in public policy discussions as seen through the online debate over U.S. health care reform.
The public policy debate continues to play out through Internet ads, Facebook and Twitter updates, and anti-viral emails.
The health care debate has hit Twitter and Facebook with a viral status message which reads, "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day."
Ready-made response tools for combating viral emails have been sprouting up due to the creation and spread of disinformation regarding the proposals for health care reform online. False and misleading claims have been one of the largest hurtles for the White House to overcome. Media Matters Action Network's " Email Checker" is the latest online tool being used to swiftly respond to misleading viral emails with fact- based replies.
In an effort to make their online health care campaign more interactive, Vice President Joe Biden introduced a new feature on Whitehouse.gov in the form of a quiz to reiterate how President Obama's health care reform proposals will impact different individuals. Biden asked citizens in a YouTube video to take the reality check quiz, and upload a video response.
More discussion and opinions are coming from Republicans and Interests groups than ever before. Internet ads are being bought left and right. The LA Times reports that interest groups on both sides of the issue are buying ads linked to popular Google search terms such as the infamous "death panels" coined by former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Type in "death panels" in a Google search and you're likely to see an ad by Obama's team debunking the claim.
"Looking back at previous issue battles -- even thinking about the Iraq war, which was a passionate issue -- we didn't see anything close to the amount of online activity," said Peter Greenberger, Google's director of political advertising.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 02, 2009
Ready-Made Responses Combat Viral Emails
Media Matters Action Network's "Email Checker" is the latest online tool being used to swiftly respond to misleading viral emails with fact-based replies.
Media Matters Action Network has come out with an online tool that is similar to the "Fight the Smears" online campaign during the 2008 Presidential election, but in a cut and paste "faux-personal" way: pre-written responses to viral emails ranging in topic from "Health Care Bill" to "AARP Agree or Disagree" that are counter arguments for certain viral emails circulating the Internet that proliferate popular Conservative claims. Users can copy and paste the response, creating their own viral email while countering conservative misinformation contained in the most common and most egregious chain and viral emails.
The Politico posted the Email Checker's response to a popular (and wildly misleading) summary of health care legislation:
Hey!
Thanks for sending me this email - it's crazy how much they packed into that bill.
But I thought I would let you know that I googled a couple of the points to try to get some details and found out some weird stuff.
Do you know who put this list together? I saw that a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, and some guy on a blog are all named as the author. I'm not really surprised that lots of people have tried taking credit for this, but I'm curious to know who actually wrote it.
I found this site (PolitiFact.com) that says "Jennifer Tolbert, an independent health care analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan foundation that studies health care reform," looked at the email and said "It's awful...It's flat-out, blatant lies. It's unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false." The site also picks apart several of the points from the email, and since they have an actual health care person reading it, it seems legit. It also has fun icons - like when something is really false, there is a "pants on fire" icon.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
