Shirky sides with Apps

Speaking to CNN's Fareed Zakaria about the changing face of online media, technology evangelist Clay Shirky noted,
"Apps are the new way of "marshaling the resources of the Internet," he said. "It's a more tightly designed experience."

Quote via The Hill, for the full CNN interview, click here.

Mobile keeps growing in China

814 million mobile phones

A new initiative in China will require the nation's 814 million mobile subscribers, 87 percent of whom use prepaid mobile plans, to present ID to maintain phone service.

"China has more than 814 million mobile subscribers and is adding five million per month.

Chinese officials have discussed implementing an identity-based registration system for mobile users for years, a similar policy to those in the U.S. and other Western nations that require proof of identification or residence when signing up for a new account. According to Nielsen, 87 percent of Chinese mobile users have prepaid phone plans that don't require them to provide identification, compared to less than 20 percent of American users.

But the issue of anonymity is especially salient in China, where the government is known to censor Web content and crack down on users posting information deemed politically sensitive. The anonymity provided by Web-enabled mobile phones has allowed the Chinese people far greater latitude to share information and question the ruling Communist Party without fearing reprisal."

Full story:
New York Times
The Hill

What Does Gmail's Priority Inbox Mean for Political Emails?
(TechPresident) "Google's new "Priority Inbox" for Gmail is the company's attempt to help the 175 million or so people who use Gmail to manage their messages by bubbling up the important ones while downplaying the rest. Powering the thing will be a filter created by Google, but one that can be molded through user feedback. So what does it mean for the many people in the political world who rely upon email to campaign, fundraise, and organize online?"

Full Story

AT&T petitions FCC for paid prioritization of web traffic
(National Journal) "In a filing this week to the FCC, AT&T defended the idea of allowing businesses and others to pay to ensure faster access to their Web content, saying the Internet's key standard setting organization has supported the idea of paid prioritization and that it is being used today by businesses of all sizes."

Full Story

Lawmakers frustrated by internet 'kill switch' provisions
(The Hill) "Lawmakers seeking to craft a comprehensive cybersecurity bill are growing increasingly frustrated with characterizations of their legislative efforts as providing the president with a "kill switch" for the Internet."

Full Story

DC uses Twitter to keep voters updated
(WAMU radio) "This is useful and innovative; on the first day of Early Voting, the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics used Twitter to let potential voters know exactly how long the wait-times were, throughout the day."

Full Story

Florida candidate aims mobile ads at voters in line to vote
(ClickZ) "Mobile advertising is often a direct-response marketing tool, something focused on a call-to-action, but for one Florida Attorney General candidate, it's all about persuasion. Today, as Democrats queue up to vote in their party's primary - quite possibly with mobile devices in pocket - Dan Gelber's campaign aims to reach them there. The AG hopeful is running Google mobile ads targeted to Floridians in the hopes of convincing them to vote for Gelber if they search for more information about the candidate while en route to the polls or waiting in line."

Full Story

Kashmir taking revolution online?

"Young Kashmiris use social media to document alleged violence by Indian security forces and gain support for their separatist movement"

Watch the video here

Nigerian officials dispute portrayal of Nigeria online
(AllAfrica) "The minister said this yesterday in Abuja when he received the South African High Commission in Nigeria, Mr. Kingsley Mamabolo. The minister said many people used internet to portray Nigeria in bad light, adding that South Africa has so many things to learn from Nigeria in terms of its diversified cultures and hospitalities, politics and the way "we solve our problems"."

Full Story

Burma opens up with RSS
(TechPresident) "Activists who toil in the field of helping figure out how people the world over can avoid web restrictions put in place by governments will tell you, happily, that this sort of circumvention is becoming second nature, especially amongst young people in repressive countries. Earlier generations figured out how to send emails; today's up and comers learn how to route around search engine filters and blocked websites. But how? How, as a normal sort of person living in say, Burma, do you acquire that sort of knowledge?"

Full Story

Palestine, Israel take debate to Wikipedia
(TechPresident) "After the Israeli Yesha Council announced, for example, that they'd be holding Wikipedia-editing workshops and offering a prize for the "most outstanding Zionist editor" (grand prize: a hot-air balloon trip over Israel), the Association of Palestinian Journalists responded by calling on Palestinian civil society to get busy editing relevant Wikipedia entries to be more pro-Palestinian, reports Ha'aretz."

Full Story

North Korea takes to social media
(ABC News) "It's known as the hermit kingdom, has a population of 23 million people cut off from the world without satellite TV, mobile phones or the Internet. But now North Korea is flooding cyberspace, inundating social media with pictures, video, audio in the closed-circuit communist state's biggest global propaganda drive yet."

Full Story

Google, Skype targeted in India crackdown
(Huffington Post/AP) " India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications - not just BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion - to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype."

Full Story

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