New York Times: "Google handles roughly two-thirds of all Internet searches. It owns the largest online video site, YouTube, which is more than 10 times more popular than its nearest competitor. And last year, Google sold nearly $22 billion in advertising, more than any media company in the world."

Marketing Yourself with Webinars - Attorney Wells H. Anderson recommends presenting periodic webinars as an effective, direct and efficient technique to attract new clients and professionals who refer business to you.

Review of HTC Magic (G2) vs iPhone 3G (and 3G S): Techie expert extraordinaire Nicholas Moline compares the upcoming T-Mobile G2 (HTC Magic) with the iPhone 3G, which has the new iPhone 3.0 Software. Nick ran detailed and thorough tests of each Smartphone's usability and functionality, and he highlights the respective range of features, including bar code readers, removable memory, cameras, GPS, touchscreens, email, web access, and lots more. He also shares his thoughts about which gadget delivers the best applications for users.

TIME: "In a complex settlement agreement, which took three years to hammer out and spans 135 pages excluding attachments, Google will be allowed to show up to 20% of the books' text online at no charge to Web surfers. But the part of the settlement that deals with so-called orphan books — which refers to out-of-print books whose authors and publishers are unknown — is what's ruffling the most feathers in the literary henhouse. The deal gives Google an exclusive license to publish and profit from these orphans, which means it won't face legal action if an author or owner comes forward later. This, critics contend, gives it a competitive edge over any rival that wants to set up a competing digital library. And without competition, opponents fear Google will start charging exorbitant fees to academic libraries and others who want full access to its digital library. "It will make Google virtually invulnerable to competition," says Robert Darnton, head of the Harvard University library system."

Pew Internet & American Life Project: Home Broadband Adoption 2009, by John Horrigan, June 17, 2009

"Social networks are exploding in popularity. Forty-three percent of the online community now uses social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. This is up from 27 percent a year ago, reports The Conference Board and TNS. The Consumer Internet Barometer, a quarterly report produced by The Conference Board, the global business membership and research association, and TNS, a global market insight and information group, surveys 10,000 households across the country and tracks who's doing what on the Internet. More than half of social networkers log on at least once a day, and the majority log on several times a day. Interacting with family, friends and celebrities are among the main reasons people log on to sites like Twitter. The majority of users log on at home, although a quarter of social networkers log on at work, and 10 percent connect through their phone."

"On 16 June the Government published The Digital Britain Report, its strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy. The report provides actions and recommendations to promote and protect talent and innovation in our creative industries, to modernise TV and radio frameworks and support local news, and introduces policies to maximise the social and economic benefits from digital technologies."

"This Pew Internet/California HealthCare Foundation survey finds that technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network’s volume."

• Army Working Capital Fund: Actions Needed to Improve Budgeting for Carryover at Army Ordnance, GAO-09-415, June 10, 2009
• Environmental Contamination: Lessons Learned from the Cleanup of Formerly Used Defense and Military Munitions Sites, GAO-09-779T, June 10, 2009
• VA Real Property: VA Emphasizes Enhanced-Use Leases to Manage Its Real Property Portfolio, GAO-09-776T, June 10, 2009
• Voters With Disabilities: More Polling Places Had No Potential Impediments Than in 2000, but Challenges Remain, GAO-09-685, June 10, 2009
• Telecommunications: Broadband Deployment Plan Should Include Performance Goals and Measures to Guide Federal Investment, GAO-09-494, May 12, 2009

Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University report: Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Taskforce to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States in December of 2008.

News release: "A rogue Internet Service Provider that recruits, knowingly hosts, and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content has been shut down by a district court judge at the request of the Federal Trade Commission. The ISP’s upstream providers and data centers have disconnected its servers from the Internet."

News release: "Terms of Service" policies on websites define how Internet businesses interact with you and use your personal information. But most web users don't read these policies -- or understand that the terms are constantly changing. To track these ever-evolving documents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching "TOSBack": a "terms of service" tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and other major websites...At www.TOSBack.org, you can see a real-time feed of changes and updates to more than three dozen polices from the Internet's most popular online services. Clicking on an update brings you to a side-by-side before-and-after comparison, highlighting what has been removed from the policy and what has been added."

"New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 62 percent of households reported using Internet access in the home in 2007, an increase from 18 percent in 1997, the first year the bureau collected data on Internet use. Sixty-four percent of individuals 18 and over used the Internet from any location in 2007, while only 22 percent did so in 1997. Among households using the Internet in 2007, 82 percent reported using a high-speed connection, and 17 percent used a dial-up connection."

"FlightAware offers live flight data, airport information, weather maps and charts, as well as aviation news to nearly two million users a month. FlightAware also powers operational management and dispatch software, airport FIDS (flight information displays), and provides reporting data to aircraft and airport operators. [currently] tracking 2,274 airborne aircraft with 88,882,867 total flights in the database. FlightAware has tracked 39,546 arrivals in the last 24 hours." [ars technica's backgrounder]

Follow up to April 26, 2009 posting - WSJ Interactive Map - Adverse events at top 100 newspapers, 2006-2009, this New York Times op-ed by Frank Rich - The American Press on Suicide Watch: "Newspaper circulations and revenues are in free fall. Legendary brands from The Los Angeles Times to The Philadelphia Inquirer are teetering. The New York Times Company threatened to close The Boston Globe if its employees didn’t make substantial sacrifices in salaries and benefits. Other papers have died. The reporting ranks on network and local news alike are shriveling. You know it’s bad when the Senate is moved, as it was last week, to weigh in with hearings on The Future of Journalism."

News release: "Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg with 13 Partner Countries Release First World Internet Project Report - Pioneering Report Finds Remarkable Similarities and Significant Differences Globally - Online Purchasing Not Yet Part of the Global Internet Experience; A Majority of Users Believe Only Half of the Information they Find Online is Reliable."

On May 6, 2009 the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held the following Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet hearing: The Future of Journalism. Witness statements:

• Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience, Google Inc.
  
• Alberto Ibargüen, President and Chief Executive Officer, John S. And James L. Knight Foundation
  
• David Simon, Author, TV Producer and Former Newspaperman
  
• Steve Coll, Former Managing Editor, The Washington Post
  
• James Moroney, Publisher/CEO, The Dallas Morning News
  
• Arianna Huffington, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post

News release: "Recommind...search-powered information risk management (IRM) software....released the results of its recent research into the information access and search habits of UK organisations. With businesses capable of searching just 50 percent of the information that their employees need for their daily tasks, the findings indicate that legacy, one-size-fits-all ‘Enterprise Search 1.0’ systems are no longer suitable for modern enterprises that require instant, automated and highly relevant access to all kinds of information – from documents and email to fellow colleagues’ expertise and knowledge to project-specific information. The impact on businesses from this technology failure includes staff spending many hours searching fruitlessly for the information they need to do their daily jobs – with approximately a quarter of those surveyed admitting that employees typically spend more than half a day a week on this task. For a company with 1,000 employees, this equates to upwards of £50,000 worth of lost time a week or £2,600,000 a year."

Burney's Legal Tech Reviews: A Review of the CradlePoint PHS300 mobile broadband router and the Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter - Mobile traveler Brett Burney describes how he uses his laptop and iPhone, both of which connect beautifully to Wi-Fi networks, to create his own little hotspot by plugging his Verizon Wireless USB760 modem into the PHS300 and turning it on. Within 5-10 seconds, the PHS300 is broadcasting a private, secure Wi-Fi hotspot that his laptop and iPhone connect to immediately.

News release: "In a video posted on her website this morning, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, called for greater transparency and accountability in Internet Governance as of October 2009. Key decisions related to Internet Governance, like top level domains and managing the internet's core directory, are currently made by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private not-for profit corporation established in California. So far, ICANN has been operating under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce. However, this agreement expires on 30 September this year. For the time after, Commissioner Reding today outlined a new governance model for the internet. This would include a fully private and accountable ICANN, accompanied by an independent judicial body, as well as a "G12 for Internet Governance" – a multilateral forum for governments to discuss general internet governance policy and security issues."

"In 2008, OCLC conducted focus groups, administered a pop-up survey on WorldCat.org—OCLC’s freely available end user interface on the Web—and conducted a Web-based survey of librarians worldwide. The report, Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want, presents findings from these research efforts in order to understand:

• The metadata elements that are most important to end users in determining if an item will meet his or her needs
  
• The enhancements end users would like to see made in online library catalogs to assist them in consistently identifying appropriate materials
  
• The enhancements librarians would recommend for online library catalogs to better assist them in their work
  
• The findings indicate, among other things, that although library catalogs are often thought of as discovery tools, the catalog’s delivery-related information is just as important to end users.

News release: "A national survey of American white collar workers found that while technology is widely embraced among working professionals, significant gaps exist among generations regarding its use and application in the workplace. The newly released Technology Gap Survey found generational differences in the effect of technology on workplace etiquette, the blurring boundaries between personal and professional tasks, and the impact of technology overload. The survey – commissioned by LexisNexis, a leading provider of content-enabled workflow solutions – examined the impact of technology in the workplace. It compared technology and software usage among generations of working professionals, including Boomer (ages 44-60), Generation X (ages 29-43) and Generation Y (ages 28 and younger)."

News release: "The value of libraries in communities across the country continued to grow in 2008—and accelerated dramatically as the national economy sank and people looked for cost effective resources in a time of crisis, according to the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual State of America’s Libraries report, released today as part of National Library Week, April 12-18, 2009. U.S. libraries experienced a dramatic increase in library card registration as the public continues to turn to their local library for free services. More than 68 percent of Americans have a library card. This is the greatest number of Americans with library cards since the American Library Association (ALA) started to measure library card usage in 1990, according to a 2008 Web poll conducted by Harris Interactive. The report also says library usage soared as Americans visited their libraries nearly 1.4 billion times and checked out more than 2 billion items in the past year, an increase of more than 10 percent in both checked out items and library visits, compared to data from the last economic downturn in 2001."

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing April 2, 2009: Recovery and Investment Spending: Implementing a Bold Oversight Strategy, the Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan M. Collins discussed the urgency of making sure that proper controls are in place to deter waste, fraud, or mismanagement before stimulus money is distributed..."The two witnesses - Robert L. Nabors, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Earl Devaney, Chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board - spoke about the development of Recovery.gov, the Administration website that allows Americans to track grants, contracts and other forms of assistance as they are awarded and report back on suspected waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in their own communities. Recovery.gov receives about 4,000 hits a second, for a total of about 300 million since its creation, according to Devaney."

"In December 2003, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) was renamed the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to better reflect the broad character of such criminal matters having a cyber (Internet) nexus. The 2008 Internet Crime Report is the eighth annual compilation of information on complaints received and referred by the IC3 to law enforcement or regulatory agencies for appropriate action. From January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2008, the IC3 website received 275,284 complaint submissions. This is a (33.1%) increase when compared to 2007 when 206,884 complaints were received. These filings were composed of complaints primarily related to fraudulent and non-fraudulent issues on the Internet."

Burney's Legal Tech Reviews: Verizon Wireless USB760 Modem and the Cradlepoint CTR500 Mobile Broadband Travel Router - For consistent, resilient mobile internet connectivity, Brett Burney recommends these three small, versatile products that are cost effective and reliable.

"The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is launching a new roof strength rating system to help consumers pick vehicles that will help protect them in rollover crashes. Twelve small SUVs are the first to be put to the test. Only 4 earn the top rating of good...This new rating system is based on Institute research showing that occupants in rollover crashes benefit from stronger roofs. Vehicles rated good must have roofs that are more than twice as strong as minimum federal safety standards require."

• View/download: includes color ratings chart
  
• Video: roof strength rating system
  
• Status Report special issue: roof strength, Vol. 44, No. 3, March 24, 2009
  
• Research paper: Roof strength and injury risk

News release: "According to an international study released today by software company 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy, nearly half of US workers who use a PC at their job do not typically shut down at night1. The 2009 PC Energy Report, which examines workplace PC power consumption in the US, UK and Germany, found that US organizations waste $2.8 billion a year to power 108 million unused machines. In 2009, these unused PCs are expected to emit approximately 20 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, roughly the equivalent impact of 4 million cars."

• PC Energy Report UK 2009
  
• PC Energy Report US 2009
  
• PC Energy Report Germany 2009

The Mobile Difference, by John Horrigan, March 25, 2009

International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR): Countering Online Radicalisation: A Strategy for Action

2007 Circumvention Landscape Report: Methods, Uses, and Tools, March 2009 by Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, and John Palfrey

Newspapers Face a Challenging Calculus - Online Growth, but Print Losses are Bigger, February 26, 2009: "The trend is unmistakable: Fewer Americans are reading print newspapers as more turn to the internet for their news. And while the percentage of people who read newspapers online is growing rapidly, especially among younger generations, that growth has not offset the decline in print readership."

"In the past three years, developments in social networking and internet applications have begun providing internet users with more opportunities for sharing short updates about themselves, their lives, and their whereabouts online. Users may post messages about their status, their moods, their location and other tidbits on social networks and blogging sites, or on applications for sending out short messages to networks of friends like Twitter, Yammer and others. As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others."

In the article Fifty Varied Lives, Ended on a Cold, Foggy Night the New York Times shares the loss using photos, text, a slide show and related links.

Center for Research Libraries/Global Resources Network: The Future of Newspapers: A Conversation. Alex Jones, Laurence M. Lombard Lecturer in the Press and Public Policy and Director of the Shorenstein Center, Harvard University, John Carroll, Former Editor, Los Angeles Times.

Follow up to previous postings on the Google Book search project, from the New York Review of Books, Google & the Future of Books, by Robert Darnton

5 Best Data Visualization Projects of the Year: "Data visualization continues to grow online and in the real world. It exists as masterful art pieces and amazingly useful analysis tools. In both cases though it brings data -- which is oftentimes cryptic -- to the masses and shows that data is more than a bucket of numbers. Data is interesting. As we collect more and more data about ourselves and our surroundings, the data and the visualization will only get more interesting. On that note, I give you FlowingData's picks for the top 5 data visualization projects of 2008. Visualizations were judged based on the use of data, aesthetics, overall effect on the visualization arena, and how well they told a story."

News release: "Over half of the adult internet population is between 18 and 44 years old. But larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online, according to surveys taken from 2006-2008. Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the "Net Generation," internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people)."

Google Public Policy Blog: When an Internet application doesn't work as expected or your connection seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP, the application, your PC, or something else? It can be difficult for experts, let alone average Internet users, to address this sort of question today...Today Google, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, and academic researchers are taking the wraps off of Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform that researchers can use to deploy Internet measurement tools." [See About Measurement Lab for more details including a FAQ]

Intel: "On January 28, 2009, the United States, Canada, and 27 European countries will celebrate Data Privacy Day together for the second time. Designed to raise awareness and generate discussion about data privacy practices and rights, Data Privacy Day activities in the United States have included privacy professionals, corporations, government officials, and representatives, academics, and students across the country. One of the primary goals of Data Privacy Day is to promote privacy awareness and education among teens across the United States. Data Privacy Day also serves the important purpose of furthering international collaboration and cooperation around privacy issues."

White House Tech More Tired Than Wired: "Any tech geek recognizes that modern technology is far more than a means to an end: Whether we own iPods, Zunes, MacBooks, iPhones or BlackBerry smartphones, our gadgets have become intimately integrated into our lifestyles. So you have to feel the pain of Obama and his team, who drove the most tech-savvy presidential campaign in history, for having to cope with the White House's bureaucratic IT swamp. "It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of the White House's outdated tech."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Efforts to Combat Crimes Against Children, Audit Report 09-08, January 2009

According to Atlantic, President Obama will use a National Security Agency approved encrypted PDA, perhaps this one.

CDT news release: "The Supreme Court Wednesday dealt the final blow to the government's 10-year campaign to place onerous restrictions on Internet content. The Court declined to hear the government's appeal of lower court rulings [3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Decision in COPA February 22, 2008] that declared the Child Online Protection Act as unconstitutional. COPA passed in 1998 but was never enforced due to immediate court challenges on First Amendment grounds. Since COPA was passed there have been at least three major commissions or studies that have concluded that education and voluntary technology tools are the most effective way to protect kids online. These approaches are the ones Congress and the President should pursue to enhance Internet safety."

CNN: "Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and the nation's first African-American president Tuesday. This is a transcript of his prepared speech." The video link is here.

Presidential Inaugural Committee: "Don’t miss it when Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office next Tuesday, January 20th. As part of our commitment to making this the most open inauguration in history, we’ll be streaming the swearing-in ceremony on our site using Microsoft’s Silverlight. You can view high quality Silverlight streams, in full screen, and enjoy related inaugural video content. As long as you have an Internet connection, you’ll be able to watch the ceremony as if you were there. Visit www.pic2009.org on Tuesday, January 20th to watch the swearing-in live. The swearing-in ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Take a look at the rest of the scheduled events for Inaugural Weekend."

Where to watch Obama’s presidential inauguration online: Links to more than a dozen sources, from news and social media sites as well as bloggers. Of course, the networks will also be "televising" the inaugural, live.
See also:

Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States, Published January 14, 2009: "The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was created in February 2008 in accordance with the Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety announced in January 2008 by the Attorneys General Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking and MySpace. The scope of the Task Force's inquiry was to consider those technologies that industry and end users - including parents - can use to help keep minors safer on the Internet."

"The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years -- from 8% in 2005 to 35% now, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 tracking survey. While media coverage and policy attention focus heavily on how children and young adults use social network sites, adults still make up the bulk of the users of these websites. Adults make up a larger portion of the US population than teens, which is why the 35% number represents a larger number of users than the 65% of online teens who also use online social networks. Still, younger online adults are much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with 75% of adults 18-24 using these networks, compared to just 7% of adults 65 and older. At its core, use of online social networks is still a phenomenon of the young."

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: "The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%."

Those Active in the Obama Campaign Expect to be Involved in Promoting the Administration, by Aaron Smith, Research Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 30, 2008: "Voters expect that the level of public engagement they experienced with Barack Obama during the campaign, much of it occurring online, will continue into the early period of his new administration. A majority of Obama voters expect to carry on efforts to support his policies and try to persuade others to back his initiatives in the coming year; a substantial number expect to hear directly from Obama and his team; and a notable cohort say they have followed the transition online."

"Information technology (IT) and broadband are major drivers of research, innovation, economic growth and social change. The 2008 edition of the OECD Information Technology Outlook analyses recent developments in the IT goods and services industries, and suggests that the outlook is for continued long-term growth, constrained by the currently very uncertain macroeconomic environment in OECD countries. Cross-border investment, trade, and mergers and acquisitions remain high, and ICTs drive globalisation in general. The industry is rapidly restructuring, and China and India are major suppliers of information and communications technology (ICT)-related goods and services."

News release: "The music industry must move away from the retail CD as its primary revenue generator before Christmas 2009, according to Gartner. Gartner said that reliance on revenue from the sale of prerecorded CDs is hindering the music industry from fully embracing online distribution opportunities...Enabling the transition away from retail music CDs toward online distribution is now in sight, given that 77 percent of U.S. households (a total of 96 million connections) will have broadband connections by 2012. Beyond these consumers, the alternative distribution afforded by Wi-Fi-enabled notebooks and rapidly improving media-enabled mobile phones pose opportunities that provide multiple paths for marketing, promotion and distribution outside the consumer’s home."

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: "The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%."

"The transformation of the media world is well underway, facilitated by the spread of digital tools. A myriad of innovative new media organizations have sprung up to take advantage of the opportunities that stem from low-cost distribution networks. Meanwhile the economic base of many of the large media companies continues to erode. Despite the demonstrated success of many new media enterprises, the euphoria over the rise of participatory media has been tempered by concerns over the quality and credibility of online media, the possible fragmentation of audiences, a decline in editorial standards and the persistent challenge of effectively reporting the news. Over the past year, researchers at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society have reached out to a broad range of media experts to help in this assessment of the changes in new media over the past several years and to take a sober look at the successes and ongoing challenges.

National Health Interview Survey Early Release Report: "Preliminary results from the January-June 2008 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicate that the number of American homes with only wireless telephones continues to grow. More than one out of every six American homes (17.5%) had only wireless telephones during the first half of 2008, an increase of 1.7 percentage points since the second half of 2007. In addition, more than one out of every eight American homes (13.3%) received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite having a landline telephone in the home. This report presents the most up-to-date estimates available from the federal government concerning the size and characteristics of these populations."

2008 Network Advertising Initiative Principles: "Through the present 2008 revision to the NAI’s Self-Regulatory Code of Conduct, NAI members continue their commitment to respect appropriate fair information practices adapted for this medium and to their business models, maintaining self-regulation with respect to notice, choice, use limitation, access, reliability and security."

Best Careers, 2009: "U.S. News profiles 30 careers that offer strong outlooks and high job satisfaction. Here's what's new in 2009...as well as a look at 13 cutting-edge careers, viable now and poised for future growth. They stem from megatrends like globalization, digitization, and the wave of environmentalism sweeping the world." See the entry for Librarian.

News release: "Some 578 leading Internet activists, builders, and commentators responded in this survey to scenarios about the effect of the Internet on social, political, and economic life in the year 2020. An additional 618 stakeholders also participated in the study, for a total of 1,196 participants who shared their views..."

E-Discovery Update: My E-Discovery Holiday Wish List - Conrad J. Jacoby's holiday wish is for the legal community to finally develop one or more judicially accepted standards that can be used to craft consistent ways of requesting and producing information. With baseline procedures in place, both producing and requesting parties, as well as judges, will be able to make more informed decisions about the need for discovery and the way in which such discovery should be conducted.

"The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women. The postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.

All you have to do is click on your favorite design and either select the message that best expresses your sentiment or draft a personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops®." [thanks to Marilyn Neforas via Mike Love]

"The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) today released a series of papers [Transition Materials for President Obama] that outline Internet policy proposals for President-elect Obama's Transition Team in the areas of security and civil liberties; preserving free speech on the Internet; keeping the Internet an open platform; protection of consumer privacy; and promoting open government. The 2-3 page memos provide a concise overview of the issues and recommend practical, achievable actions the new administration can take to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. The Internet played an integral part in this election, making it the most participatory in history. CDT believes the Internet can play an equally critical role in other areas, including health care, economic development and education, given the right government policies."

DOJ OIG: Review of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Evaluation and Inspections Report I-2009-001, December 2008: "...we found that information in the national sex offender registries is incomplete and inaccurate and therefore the registries are not reliable tools for law enforcement and the public. For example, we found that registries were missing records, did not always identify known fugitives, and did not always contain sufficient information to enable law enforcement and the public to accurately identify sex offenders."

"The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency has released its final report, Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency. The Commission’s three major findings are: cybersecurity is now one of the major national security problems facing the United States; decisions and actions must respect American values related to privacy and civil liberties; and only a comprehensive national security strategy that embraces both the domestic and international aspects of cybersecurity will improve the situation."

Google's gatekeepers, by Jeffrey Rosen, IHT: "For the past two years, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, along with other international Internet companies, have been meeting regularly with human rights and civil-liberties advocacy groups to agree on voluntary standards for resisting worldwide censorship requests. At the end of October, the Internet companies and the advocacy groups announced the Global Network Initiative, a series of principles for protecting global free expression and privacy.

Voluntary self-regulation means that, for the foreseeable future, Wong [Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google] and her colleagues will continue to exercise extraordinary power over global speech online. Which raises a perennial but increasingly urgent question: Can we trust a corporation to be good - even a corporation whose informal motto is "Don't be evil"?"

How to Publish Without Perishing, by James Gleick: "As a technology, the book is like a hammer. That is to say, it is perfect: a tool ideally suited to its task. Hammers can be tweaked and varied but will never go obsolete. Even when builders pound nails by the thousand with pneumatic nail guns, every household needs a hammer. Likewise, the bicycle is alive and well. It was invented in a world without automobiles, and for speed and range it was quickly surpassed by motorcycles and all kinds of powered scooters. But there is nothing quaint about bicycles. They outsell cars...Go back to an old-fashioned idea: that a book, printed in ink on durable paper, acid-free for longevity, is a thing of beauty. Make it as well as you can. People want to cherish it."

Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship, James A. Evans, Published 18 July 2008, Science 321, 395 (2008) [Subscription only - Supporting Online Material available free]

Via YouTube: Weekly Address from the President-Elect, November 26, 2008

"In this report, e-Government and e-Participation, produced for the publication series ICT Research: The Policy Perspective, we examine how information and communications technology, or ICT, is revolutionising the way citizens, businesses and public administrations interact. The EU is investing heavily in e-government to help boost growth while delivering on the benefi ts of the information society, including greater cross-border collaboration, less fragmented research effort, and access to ICT anywhere, any time and by any one."

Improving Government Interoperability: A capability framework for government managers, Theresa A. Pardo, G. Brian Burke, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, SUNY. October 2008.

Chumby: Internet Access You Can Hug? - Conrad J. Jacoby reviews a quirky, open source dual purpose gadget: both alarm clock and a delivery outlet for Internet content that is pushed to you in real time.

News release: "Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth. "This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," said Adrian Hooke, team lead and manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA and Vint Cerf, a vice president at Google Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., partnered 10 years ago to develop this software protocol. The DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet's Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, communication suite, which Cerf co-designed."

The Future of Privacy Forum Agenda for Consumers and Businesses [See also: About the Forum]

• "FPF will seek to bring transparency to online data practices. Our plan is to document practices, produce multi-media educational materials, and commission reports and studies that provide consumers and policy makers the real story about how their data is used.
  
• FPF will seek to bring true transparency and user control to behavioral targeting and will broaden the discussion of the ethics of what the online norms can be with regard to use of web browsing.
  
• FPF will seek to ensure that considerations around data retention, limitation, and deletion are a significant part of the consumer privacy debate.
  
• FPF will seek to drive practices that enhance consumer controls - ensuring that data use is obvious, useful, intuitive and used and for a benefit he values and controls - no matter the type of technology used..."

News release: "A new Web site launched by four national legal organizations will help victims of disasters find valuable information and assistance to speed recovery from hurricanes, fires, floods or other disasters. The site is sponsored by the American Bar Association, Legal Services Corporation, National Legal Aid & Defender Association and Pro Bono Net.

“The site – www.disasterlegalservices.org – lists information for people who need help and the lawyers who want to volunteer to help them,” said ABA President H. Thomas Wells Jr. “By pooling the resources of our organizations, we can provide services in a timely, efficient manner.”

Online Threats to Youth: Solicitation, Harassment, and Problematic Content, Literature Review by the Research Advisory Board of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, Andrew Schrock and Danah Boyd, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, Draft Version. November 14, 2008

News release: "Although information technology is well integrated into the lives of many Americans, gadgets and communication services require, for some, a call for help. Some 48% of technology users usually need help from others to set up new devices or to show them how they function. Many tech users encounter problems with their cell phones, internet connections, and other gadgets. This, in turn, often leads to impatience and frustration as they try to get them fixed."

Washington Post: "Armed with millions of e-mail addresses and a political operation that harnessed the Internet like no campaign before it, Barack Obama will enter the White House with the opportunity to create the first truly "wired" presidency. Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media."

News release: "The Internet will be the catalyst for advancement of programs promoting social justice over the next decade, according to new research from Harvard Professor Elaine C. Kamarck, PhD. The research paper, titled Transforming the Fight Against Poverty: The Internet & Anti-Poverty Strategies, addresses how the Internet has enhanced productivity in government run anti-poverty programs and bridged physical and market isolation gaps prevalent in poor populations."

Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, Volume III: "Arbor Networks®, Inc., in cooperation with the Internet security operations community, has completed the third edition of an ongoing series of annual operational security surveys. This survey, covering a 12-month period from July 2006 through June 2007, is designed to provide data useful to network operators so that they can make informed decisions about their use of network security technology to protect their mission-critical infrastructures. It is also meant to serve as a general resource for the Internet operations and engineering community, recording information on trends and employment of various infrastructure security techniques."

Dan Farber, CNET News: "Obama will appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices."

Hull D, Pettifer SR, Kell DB 2008 Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web. PLoS Computational Biology 4(10): e1000204 doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000204 [Gerry McKiernan]

News release: "Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, today announced that all four television networks enjoyed month-over-month growth in online video viewers in September, coinciding with the season premieres of many popular and new television shows. NBC.com had the largest increase in video viewers, growing 312 percent month-over-month, followed by FOX Broadcasting and ABC.com, with 165 percent and 105 percent growth, respectively."

News release: "In its continuing efforts to promote efficient use of spectrum and to extend the benefits of such use to the public, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today adopted a Second Report and Order (Second R&O) that establishes rules to allow new, sophisticated wireless devices to operate in broadcast television spectrum on a secondary basis at locations where that spectrum is open. (This unused TV spectrum is now commonly referred to as television “white spaces”). The rules adopted today will allow for the use of these new and innovative types of unlicensed devices in the unused spectrum to provide broadband data and other services for consumers and businesses.

The rules represent a careful first step to permit the operation of unlicensed devices in the TV white spaces and include numerous safeguards to protect incumbent services against harmful interference. The rules will allow for both fixed and personal/portable unlicensed devices. Such devices must include a geolocation capability and provisions to access over the Internet a data base of the incumbent services, such as full power and low power TV stations and cable system headends, in addition to spectrum-sensing technology. The data base will tell the white space device what spectrum may be used at that location."

IHT: "As the financial crisis deepened and his employer teetered on the brink of collapse, Gautam Bose, a senior vice president at the U.S. bank Wachovia, found a discreet way to ponder his future and that of the financial industry. Bose turned to MeettheBoss, a new online social networking site for financial services executives. It was started in September - a timely introduction for a forum that helps nervous bankers connect with their peers...In addition to facilitating discussion groups, MeettheBoss, which is based in Bristol, England, allows members to speak by video conference and instant messaging. Interviews with industry leaders are shown on the site, which says it has attracted 25,000 active members."

As print media decline, so does the amount of available information, by David Carr, IHT: "It has been an especially rotten few days for people who type on deadline. Just Tuesday, The Christian Science Monitor announced that, after a century, it would cease publishing a weekday paper. Time Inc., the Olympian home of Time magazine, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated, announced that it was cutting 600 jobs and reorganizing its staff. And Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, compounded the grimness by announcing it was laying off 10 percent of its work force - as many as 3,000 people...The paradox of all these announcements is that newspapers and magazines do not have an audience problem - newspaper Web sites are a vital source of news and growing - but they do have a consumer problem."

News release: "Introducing new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) is central to fostering choice and competition in domain registration services, and as such is significant to the promotion of ICANN’s core values. The evolution of the namespace towards an enhanced diversity of services and service providers must be planned and managed effectively to preserve the security, stability, and global interoperability of the Internet.

The proposed policy to guide the introduction of new gTLDs was created by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) through its bottom-up, multi-stakeholder policy development process. The elements addressed in the development of the new gTLD policy involve technical, economic, operational, legal, public policy, and other considerations. The intended result is a straightforward, fair, and efficient process for allocating new gTLDs."

News release: "Traditional nuclear families use the internet and cell phones to create a “new connectedness” that revolves around remote interactions and shared online experiences...Among all household types, the traditional nuclear family has the highest rate of technology usage and ownership. A national survey of 2,252 adults by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that households with a married couple and minor children are more likely than other household types -- such as single adults, homes with unrelated adults, or couples without children – to have cell phones and use the internet."

Review of CiteGenie - Automatic Bluebook citations when using Westlaw: Attorney Marc Hershovitz reviews CiteGenie, a new extension for the Firefox web browser that, as its website promises, "automagically" creates Bluebook formatted pinpoint citations when copying from Westlaw.

News release, September 29, 2008: "Europe could take the lead in the next generation of the Internet. The European Commission today outlined the main steps that Europe has to take to respond to the next wave of the Information Revolution that will intensify in the coming years due to trends such as social networking, the decisive shift to on-line business services, nomadic services based on GPS and mobile TV and the growth of smart tags. The report shows that Europe is well placed to exploit these trends because of its policies to support open and pro-competitive telecom networks as well as privacy and security. A public consultation has been launched today by the Commission on the policy and private sector responses to these opportunities. The Commission report also unveils a new Broadband Performance Index (BPI) that compares national performance on key measures such as broadband speed, price, competition and coverage. Sweden and the Netherlands top this European broadband league, which complements the more traditional broadband penetration index used so far by telecoms regulators."

• The Commission Communication on Future networks and the Internet
  
• The public consultation on the Internet of Things
  
• Press factsheet: Broadband Performance Index - Monitoring high-speed Internet access in the EU

From NextGov: "Members of the House will be permitted to use third-party Web sites like YouTube to communicate with constituents as long as the content is for official purposes, and not personal, commercial or campaign communication, according to rules adopted Thursday by the House Administration Committee."

Courthouse News: "Thomson Reuters demands $10 million and an injunction to stop George Mason University from distributing its new Web browser application, Zotero software, an open-source format that allows users to convert Reuters' EndNote Software. Reuters claims George Mason is violating its license agreement and destroying the EndNote customer base."

Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation - Hearing on: Broadband Providers and Consumer Privacy, September 25, 2008

The Government Domain: Political Fact-Checking Websites - Peggy Garvin's well-timed article identifies and evaluates key websites that monitor the accuracy of statements and representations made by political candidates and their respective campaigns.

News release: "A new national survey shows that 62% of adults who are currently employed use the internet or email at work and they have mixed views about the impact of technology on their work lives. On the one hand, they cite the benefits of increased connectivity and flexibility that the internet and all of their various gadgets afford them at work. On the other hand, many workers say these tools have added stress and new demands to their lives."

Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged - A National Survey by CTIA–The Wireless Association® and Harris Interactive: "As the wireless industry celebrates the upcoming 25th anniversary of the first commercial cell phone call (October 13, 1983), this in-depth online study of more than 2,000 teenagers around the nation sheds new light on how today’s teens feel about wireless products and services, how they are using them today and most importantly, how they would like to use them in the future. A growing wireless segment, teens view their cell phones as more than just an accessory."

News release: "blinkx, the world’s largest video search engine, today launched an evolution of its broadband television offering: blinkx BBTV will now be available without download, straight from your browser. Leveraging blinkx’s patented speech and visual recognition technology, BBTV simultaneously delivers a high-quality television experience over the Internet, and links it to the universe of information on the Web, adding dimension and context to the viewer’s experience. Now, BBTV is available in the browser, without any software download, integrating video into the fiber of the Web for true, full-screen Online Television. To try blinkx BBTV direct from your browser - click here."

"Some 69% of online Americans use webmail services, store data online, or use software programs such as word processing applications whose functionality is located on the web. Online users who take advantage of cloud applications say they like the convenience of having access to data and applications from any Web-connected device. However, their message to providers of such services is: Let's keep the data between us."

News release: "The (ITN) International Telecommunication Union launched its key Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008...The Report (for purchase) focuses on broadband connectivity as a vehicle for content to drive development and build a knowledge-based information society. While some Asia-Pacific economies are world leaders in information and communication technologies (ICT) where broadband access is ultra-high speed, affordable and close to ubiquitous, in most of the region’s poorer countries Internet access remains limited and predominantly low-speed. The Report finds evidence that ICTs and broadband uptake foster growth and development, but the question remains as to the optimal speed that should be targeted in view of limited resources."

Catalyst Group - Beyond Red and Blue: Insights into the Design of Presidential Candidate Websites, August 6, 2008 - "The results of our research indicated that aesthetics play an important role in users’ evaluation of a candidate’s site, but that ease-of-use may ultimately carry the day as the quality that people value most."

AmLaw Daily: "In the last two years or so, though, Web development and marketing professionals say law firms have gotten increasingly serious about the Web. Slowly, the gap in quality between Am Law 200 Web sites and those of Fortune 500 companies has narrowed, as more and more firms put in the investment and manpower to make their Web sites more than just regurgitations of what can be found in print."

News release: "A new study clearly finds that America’s public libraries are breaking through traditional brick-and-mortar walls to serve more people online and in person. America’s 16,543 public library buildings are leveraging technology to help children succeed in school and support lifelong learning. More than 83 percent now offer online homework resources, including live tutors and collections of reliable Web sources – up 15 percent in one year, according to Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2007-2008...The study, conducted by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Information Use Management and Policy Institute at Florida State University (FSU), shows today’s libraries are partners in learning – providing free access to expensive online resources that would otherwise be out of reach for most families..."

News release: "Worldwide sales of mobile phones reached close to 305 million units in the second quarter of 2008, a 11.8 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Sales of mobile phones in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America slightly recovered after a difficult start. Western Europe reached close to 42 million units while North America surpassed 44 million units in the second quarter of 2008."

USDOJ: "Enhanced 911 systems would accommodate calls from Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled phones under rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Electronic 911 (e-911) calls are routed to about 6,000 call centers nationwide (known as public safety answering points) using various technical protocols to identify the caller's location and the appropriate answering point to handle the call. FCC published a notice of proposed rulemaking on August 25, 2008 with the goal of ensuring that voice-over-IP (VOIP) service providers have access to the capabilities they need to provide 911 and e-911 services. FCC officials say the proposed rule is part of their effort to comply with provisions of the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008, which became law on July 23, 2008."

Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload: "Sarah Houghton-Jan explores different strategies for managing and coping with various types of informational overload." Ariadne, Issue 56 July 2008.

Tracking the Terrorists Online, By Yassin Musharbash in Washington, D.C.: "For years, al-Qaida and other terror groups have set up shop in the Internet. Those who track them have covertly followed. The companies SITE and IntelCenter have penetrated even deeper into the terror Web than most intelligence agencies."

Threats to Internet Routing and Global Connectivity, 20th Annual FIRST Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, June 2008 (69 page presentation) includes discussion of the following topics:

• Physical problems (Physical Infrastructure: Natural, accidental or intentional destruction)
  Earthquakes, Anchors/Backhoes, Hurricanes
• Routing Vulnerabilities (Logical Infrastructure: if routers cannot direct traffic appropriately, the Internet is broken.)
  Misconfigurations, hijacks, attacks
• Business Conflicts (Competitors might not want to exchange traffic.)
  De-peerings
Permanent Link

"TeleGeography's Submarine Cable Map 2008 edition includes information for over 120 submarine cable systems, including major systems that are in service as well as announced cable systems expected to join a reinvigorated cable market. All data contained in the map is drawn from our Global Bandwidth Research Service, our definitive guide to the supply, demand and pricing of international bandwidth."

Center for Studying Health System Change: Striking Jump in Consumers Seeking Health Care Information, Tracking Report No. 20, August 2008, Ha T. Tu, Genna Cohen

Pew Internet and American Life Project - Podcast Downloading 2008, 8/28/2008, Mary Madden Sydney Jones

Realizing the Global Promise of the Internet: The Future of Internet Governance, Constance Ledoux Book, Janna Quitney Anderson, Michele Hammerbacher, Anne Nicholson, Dannika Lewis, Eryn Gradwell, August 13, 2008.

"Features include significant security, privacy and developer tools updates."

• Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Fact Sheet
  
• Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Images

Electronic Media and Youth Violence: A CDC Issue Brief for Educators and Caregivers "focuses on the phenomena of electronic aggression. Electronic aggression is defined as any kind of harassment or bullying that occurs through email, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, blogs, or text messaging. The brief summarizes what is known about young people and electronic aggression, provides strategies for addressing the issue with young people, and discusses the implications for school staff, education policy makers, and parents and caregivers."

The Kindle for Professional Researchers: DC based journalist Cheryl Miller offers seven good reasons to buy this gadget seemingly tailor-made for dedicated readers, but she also provides caveats worth your attention.

The Government Domain: Back to School for Constitution Day 2008 - E-gov expert Peggy Garvin guides researchers, educators and librarians to key online resources available for teaching, training and educational activities associated with the September 17, 2008 celebration of Constitution Day in the United States.

News release: "The second annual speedmatters.org survey of actual Internet speeds of users nationwide shows that the United States has not made significant improvements in deploying high-speed broadband networks in the past year. Our nation continues to lag behind other industrial nations and currently is ranked 15th in the percentage of residents who have broadband access."

Council on Library and Information Resources, pub 142 - No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century, August, 2008 (74 pages, PDF)

"As personal information becomes more widely available on blogs, MySpace, Facebook and other social networking Web sites, the Internet has become an important tool for jury consultants and trial lawyers. Such sites are a treasure trove of information about potential and seated jurors that can be used in picking the right jurors, bouncing potential jurors and even influencing jurors during trial and in closing arguments. Jury consultants have begun turning to private investigators, some of whom have started niche businesses offering Internet jury research and "personality profiling" of jurors." [National Law Journal, August 11, 2008 - subscription req'd]

"W3C...announced new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the Web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation by the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group, condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content. These guidelines will help to improve the experience of people browsing the Web on a wide array of mobile handsets."

"Fuelly is a site that lets you track, share, and compare your gas mileage. Simply sign up, add a car, and begin tracking your mileage. By recording and analyzing your mileage, you can see how much money you can save with small driving changes. You can also see how your mileage compares with EPA estimates and the mileage of other drivers using Fuelly. Tips and a discussion forum also offer ways to save. The site is free to use, so sign up to start tracking your miles today." [via Andy Baio]

"Professors and librarians talk about plagiarism and other issues of academic integrity a lot more than they used to, said Barbie Selby, a university librarian, because research is so much easier to do now. It takes just a couple of clicks to copy and paste a passage from an online source into a paper, rather than going to the library, finding the right books and copying something by hand. Even unintentional mistakes are easier." [Link]

News release: "U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced that a number of the largest American internet companies [Microsoft, Google, Yahoo], human rights organizations and other stakeholders have reached agreement on a voluntary code of conduct that would govern internet companies operating in countries where internet freedom is restricted, like China."

Planetary-Scale Views on a Large Instant-Messaging Network, Jure Leskovec and Eric Horvitz

Abstract: "We present a study of anonymized data capturing a month of high-level communication activities within the whole of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging system. We examine characteristics and patterns that emerge from the collective dynamics of large numbers of people, rather than the actions and characteristics of individuals. The dataset contains summary properties of 30 billion conversations among 240 million people. From the data, we construct a communication graph with 180 million nodes and 1.3 billion undirected edges, creating the largest social network constructed and analyzed to date. We report on multiple aspects of the dataset and synthesized graph. We find that the graph is well-connected and robust to node removal. We investigate on a planetary-scale the oft-cited report that people are separated by “six degrees of separation” and find that the average path length among Messenger users is 6.6. We find that people tend to communicate more with each other when they have similar age, language, and location, and that cross-gender conversations are both more frequent and of longer duration than conversations with the same gender."

Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon
Big Microsoft Study Supports Small World Theory, By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post, Saturday, August 2, 2008; A01 - "The "small world theory," embodied in the old saw that there are just "six degrees of separation" between any two strangers on Earth, has been largely corroborated by a massive study of electronic communication. With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances."

News release: "The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) announced today that their anti-censorship software tools are ready to help journalists and tourists during the Olympics, to circumvent China's Internet blockade. The software, which is available free of charge, can be downloaded onto a hard drive or USB drive to safely and effectively overcome the Internet censorship in China.

In the run-up to Olympics, Beijing tightened control over media and Internet. Overseas web sites that have keywords on Beijing's blacklist are blocked and cannot be visited from China without any "anti-censorship" tools. The decision to block access to these websites is in contravention to Beijing's earlier promises to grant unrestricted Internet access to foreign reporters during the Games, and will seriously impede reporters' ability to do their work in Beijing. Although web restrictions were relaxed to some degree on Friday, it is unclear how long these conditions will last.

In order to overcome these Internet restrictions and gain free access to the Internet in China, the GIFC recommends that journalists and tourists download the free software packages by its partners. All Internet traffic through the tools is encrypted and can successfully bypass the Internet blockades in repressive nations around the world."

RE: Formal Complaint of Free Press and Public Knowledge Against Comcast Corporation for Secretly Degrading Peer-to-Peer Applications; Broadband Industry Practices, Petition of Free Press et al. for Declaratory Ruling that Degrading an Internet Application Violates the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement and Does Not Meet an Exception for “Reasonable Network Management,” File No. EB-08-IH-1518, WC Docket No. 07-52, Memorandum Opinion and Order.

News release: "Comcast Corp.’s management of its broadband Internet networks contravenes federal policies that protect the vibrant and open nature of the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission found [August 1, 2008]. Ruling on a complaint by Free Press and Public Knowledge as well as a petition for declaratory ruling, the Commission concluded that Comcast has unduly interfered with Internet users’ right to access the lawful Internet content and to use the applications of their choice. Specifically, the Commission found that Comcast had deployed equipment throughout its network to monitor the content of its customers’ Internet connections and selectively block specific types of connections known as peer-to-peer connections.

...The Commission’s action today is the result of an exhaustive examination of conduct that was first brought to light by Comcast subscribers who noticed that they had problems using peer-to-peer applications, such as BitTorrent, over their Comcast broadband connections...The Commission’s extensive investigation into this matter – which included two public hearings, substantial input from experts, and thousands of comments from companies, organizations, and the public at large – confirms that Comcast’s interference is far more invasive and widespread than the company first conceded."

Related news from the Electronic Freedom Foundation (FCC): "Hours before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to take action against Comcast for violating the FCC's net neutrality principles, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is releasing "Switzerland," a software tool for customers to test the integrity of their Internet communications."

• For more information and to download the Switzerland software:
• For more about EFF's "Test Your ISP" Project

OECD Ministerial Meeting -- The Future of the Internet Economy, Seoul, Korea, 17-18 June 2008. Shaping Policies for Creativity, Confidence and Convergence in the Digital World

• The Seoul Declaration for the Future of the Internet Economy
  
• Chair's Summary
  
• Shaping policies for the future of the Internet economy
  
• Shaping policies for the future of the Internet economy: Annexes
  (including Recommendations and Guidances)

New York Times: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?: "Few who believe in the potential of the Web deny the value of books. But they argue that it is unrealistic to expect all children to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Pride and Prejudice” for fun. And those who prefer staring at a television or mashing buttons on a game console, they say, can still benefit from reading on the Internet. In fact, some literacy experts say that online reading skills will help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs...Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends."

InformationWeek: " "More than three-quarters of bank Web sites have design flaws that could expose bank customers to financial loss or identity theft, according to a University of Michigan study that will be presented this week at the Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy. The study, Analyzing Web Sites For User-Visible Security Design Flaws, examined 214 bank Web sites in 2006. It was conducted by University of Michigan computer science professor Atul Prakash and doctoral students Laura Falk and Kevin Borders."

• "In this paper, we examine the prevalence of user-visible security design flaws by looking at sites from 214 U.S. financial institutions. We specifically chose financial websites because of their high security requirements. We found a number of flaws that may lead users to make bad security decisions, even if they are knowledgeable about security and exhibit proper browser use consistent with the site’s security policies. To our surprise, these design flaws were widespread. We found that 76% of the sites in our survey suffered from at least one design flaw. This indicates that these flaws are not widely understood, even by experts who are responsible for web security. Finally, we present our methodology for testing websites and discuss how it can help systematically discover user-visible security design flaws."
  
• Related news, Washington Post. Banks: Losses From Computer Intrusions Up in 2007 - "U.S. financial institutions reported a sizable increase last year in the number of computer intrusions that led to online bank account takeovers and stolen funds, according to data obtained by Security Fix. The data also suggest such incidents are becoming far more costly for banks, businesses and consumers alike. The unusually detailed information comes from a non-public report assembled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the federal entity that oversees and insures more than 9,000 U.S. financial institutions. The statistics were gathered as part of a routine quarterly survey called the Technology Incident Report, which examines so-called suspicious activity reports (SARs)."

News release: "Worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow from 323 million connections in 2007 to 499 million in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide consumer broadband connections penetrated 18 percent of households in 2007, and by 2012, households with a broadband connection will reach 25 percent. Five countries exceeded 60 percent broadband penetration into the home in 2007; and, this is expected to grow to 17 countries by 2012. The five countries with broadband penetration into the home above 60 percent are Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea and Hong Kong."

"The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court ruling striking down the controversial Child Online Protection Act (COPA) that required Web operators to restrict access to large amounts of constitutionally protected speech. COPA placed severe restrictions on a wide range of legal, socially valuable speech, including content relating to sexual identity, health and art. CDT, which has filed friend-of-the-court briefs opposing COPA and supporting parental empowerment technology, applauds the ruling. July 22, 2008.

• CDT Statement on Ruling July 22, 2008
  
• 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Decision in COPA [PDF] July 22, 2008
  
• CDT Policy Post on COPA March 23, 2007
  
• Related postings on COPA and articles from LLRX.com

Project for Excellence in Journalism: "Meet the American daily newspaper of 2008. It has fewer pages than three years ago, the paper stock is thinner, and the stories are shorter. There is less foreign and national news, less space devoted to science, the arts, features and a range of specialized subjects. Business coverage is either packaged in an increasingly thin stand-alone section or collapsed into another part of the paper. The crossword puzzle has shrunk, the TV listings and stock tables may have disappeared, but coverage of some local issues has strengthened and investigative reporting remains highly valued." [thanks TM]

• Table of Contents
  
• Full Report - The Changing Newsroom (57 pages, PDF)

Internet for Everyone: "Survey after survey shows American broadband quality and access falling perilously behind countries in Europe and Asia. Getting everyone connected to an open Internet should be a national priority. Click on your state...to learn more about Internet access in your area." [Example - As of 2007, in Maryland 56.1% of homes had broadband]

"Today’s tech-savvy world demands tech-savvy government. Increasingly connected citizens and stakeholders are asking governments to deliver services more rapidly and efficiently. Yet the public service bureaucracies that form the governmental backbone often take a conservative approach to adopting the latest Internet-based technologies to accelerate service delivery. On June 3, 2008, Deloitte and the National Academy of Public Administration convened a group of government leaders, subject matter experts and forward thinkers to develop a road map to help the next administration navigate the work force and organization changes that need to occur to move to a more collaborative model of government." [Note: links to related documents are here]

News release: "Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative Statement of Capability Evaluation Report highlighting the Federal government’s rapid progress toward strengthening IT security. This was achieved by reducing external connections, including Internet points of presence from over 4,300 reported in January 2008, to a target of less than one hundred."

Draft Guide to Bluetooth Security, July 9, 2008, SP 800-121.

News release: "Despite a decline in the number of Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs, like OxyContin and Valium, Xanax and Vicodin, and Ritalin and Adderall, in the past year, 85 percent of Web sites selling such drugs do not require a prescription, according to You’ve Got Drugs! V: Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet, the fifth annual White Paper on this subject released by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University."

"HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Through an automated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and displayed by location for user-friendly access to the original alert. HealthMap provides a jumping-off point for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases and has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers."

News release: "Some 55% of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home, according to a May 2008 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 47% in early 2007 and 42% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 79% have a high-speed connection while 15% use dialup.

The 17% growth rate from 2007 to 2008 represents is comparable to the 12% growth rate recorded in the 2006 to 2007 timeframe. However, several groups exhibited little or no growth in broadband adoption at home from 2007 to 2008.

• FOIA Facts: My Proposals for the FOIA: Following up on the passage earlier this year of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes make two proposals absent from the law, but which would help FOIA requesters. — Published June 29, 2008
• 60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes - Three techie gurus (Barbara Fullerton, Ed Vawter, and Dina Dreifuerst) take you on a whirlwind, freewheeling virtual trip of the latest, greatest, fun, fanciful, must have gadgets available now and in the near future. — Published June 24, 2008
• Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Sabrina I. Pacifici's revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web and database products, services and tools, as well links to reliable sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers. — Published June 1, 2008

News release, June 26, 2008: "The Board of ICANN today approved recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system. "The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity" said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey. "It's a massive increase in the 'real estate' of the Internet."

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info.

This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel, Senate Judiciary Committee
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, June 25, 2008.

Pew Internet news release: "The Library of Congress invited Michael Wesch to deliver the third of four Digital Natives lectures. Wesch, creator of the world-famous YouTube video, The Machine is Us/ing Us, presented the "Anthropology of YouTube" to a packed, fascinated and amused audience on Monday...Wesch said that there are now well over 200,000 three-minute videos posted on YouTube. About half of those videos are posted by 18-24-year-olds."

News release: "Americans 50+ are increasingly becoming immersed in the Internet and in many ways can be compared to users who are decades younger, according to findings from the Center for the Digital Future released today in conjunction with AARP. The study takes a look at online behaviors of those age 50+ compared to the under 50 demographic...The Internet as news source – Users 50+ go online more frequently to check for news compared to those under 20. Forty-two percent of users 50 and older check the Internet for news daily or several times a day, compared to 18 percent of users under 20."

White Space Devices & The Battle Over Innovation: Public Access vs. Industry Control of the Airwaves, By Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation, June 2008

News release: "Fully 46% of all Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others. Further, the proportion of Americans going online on a typical day at the tail end of the primary season to get political news or information has more than doubled since a comparable point in the 2004 race—from 8% of all adults in spring 2004 to 17% of all adults in spring 2008."

AP: "Thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. reported more than three horse deaths a day last year and 5,000 since 2003, and the vast majority were put down after suffering devastating injuries on the track, according to an Associated Press survey."

New York Times: "Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload. Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers — theirs and others — cope with the digital deluge."

"This is the companion website for the following book. Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan and Hinrich Schütze, Introduction to Information Retrieval, Cambridge University Press. 2008. This "is the first textbook with a coherent treatment of classical and web information retrieval, including web search and the related areas of text classification and text clustering. Written from a computer science perspective, it gives an up-to-date treatment of all aspects of the design and implementation of systems for gathering, indexing, and searching documents and of methods for evaluating systems, along with an introduction to the use of machine learning methods on text collections. Designed as the primary text for a graduate or advanced undergraduate course in information retrieval, the book will also interest researchers and professionals. A complete set of lecture slides and exercises that accompany the book are available on the web."

Akamai, 1st Quarter 2008 - The State of the Internet Report.

"During the first quarter, Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 125 unique countries around the world. China and the United States were the two largest attack traffic sources, accounting for some 30% of this traffic in total. Akamai observed attack traffic targeted at 23 unique network ports. Many of the ports that saw the highest levels of attack traffic were targeted by worms, viruses, and bots that spread across the Internet several years ago. A number of major network “events” occurred during the first quarter that impacted millions of Internet users. Cable cuts in the Mediterranean Sea severed Internet connectivity between the Middle East and Europe, drastically slowing communications. Cogent’s de-peering of Telia
impacted Internet communications for selected Internet users in the United States and Europe for a two-week period. A routing change by Pakistan Telecom that spread across the Internet essentially took YouTube, a popular Internet video sharing site, offline for several hours.

From the poughkeepsiejournal.com, users may search the U.S. forces deaths database for more than 4,500 men and women who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Search fields include: Last name, Home state or province, Service branch, year of death, and conflict (Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom).

Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT): Global Internet Freedom Should Be Top Human Rights and Foreign Policy Priority - "The Congress and Administration should make global Internet freedom a top human rights and foreign policy priority, CDT said today in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The government should closely monitor and report on global Internet freedom and factor progress in this area into criteria for development assistance and conditions for trade agreements. CDT also called for greater cooperation between the U.S. government and the technology industry to better manage human rights risks associated with offering Internet services in repressive countries."

"The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. Feel free at any time to pause the tour, explore on your own (with multiple information sources for objects at your fingertips), and rejoin the tour where you left off. Join Harvard Astronomer Alyssa Goodman on a journey showing how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets. Take a tour with University of Chicago Cosmologist Mike Gladders two billion years into the past to see a gravitational lens bending the light from galaxies allowing you to see billions more years into the past." [Microsoft Research]

European Digital Rights: "The European Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs have agreed to make publishing bomb-making instructions on the Internet a crime...Justice and interior ministers from the EU member states backed a proposal from Commissioner Frattini to harmonise the normative acts that will make the "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment, and training for terrorism" a crime. According to the statements of the EU officials publishing these acts on the Internet completed the European legislation in this domain. They described the Internet as "a virtual training camp for militants, used to inspire and mobilise local groups." Gilles de Kerchove, the EU anti-terrorism co-ordinator, declared that there are approx. 5,000 websites that are used to radicalise young people."

• Council of Europe: Why terrorism? Addressing the Conditions Conducive to the Spread of Terrorism, Strasbourg, 25-26 April 2007, Conclusions
  
• EU Project on Cybercrime: Guidelines for the cooperation between law enforcement and internet providers against cybercrime, April 2, 2008 (provisional)

Written Statement of Kevin J. Martin, Chairman Federal Communications Commission Before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing, Future of the Internet, April 22, 2008.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA): Households using the Internet in and outside the home, by selected characteristics: Total, Urban, Rural, Principal City, October 2007

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online: "For decades available only to scholars at Cambridge University Library, the private papers of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential scientists in history, can now be seen by anyone online and free of charge. This is the largest ever publication of Darwin papers and manuscripts, totalling about 20,000 items in nearly 90,000 electronic images. This vast and varied collection of papers includes the first draft of his theory of evolution, notes from the voyage of the Beagle and Emma Darwin's recipe book." Readers may also browse the papers here.

"This presentation [April 7, 2008] is an overview of recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project about internet use and Web 2.0 activities. It also focuses on the Project's findings about the role of libraries when Americans are trying to solve problems...This presentation covers the highlights from the report issued late last year about library use and the experiences people had at libraries when they went there for problem-solving help."

Jerry Crimmins, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, April 10, 2008: " The University of Chicago Law School has removed Internet access in most of its classrooms because of a growing problem of students surfing the Web on laptops during lectures...Law students' use of laptops to surf the Web, read and write e-mail and play computer games during class has brought changes at a number of schools, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford."

News release: AeA, Advancing the Business of Technology - Cyberstates 2008: A Complete State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry (fee)

"This project is an ongoing commitment by Universal McCann to measure consumer usage, attitudes and interests in adopting social media platforms and is the largest exploration of its kind. It aims to provide the facts behind the hype...This report (Wave 3) surveyed 17,000 internet users in 29 countries and was completed in March 2008.

Power to the people, Social Media Tracker, Wave 3.0, March 2008 - Wave 3 Highlights:

Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media

• Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region
  
• All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves
  
  Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3
  
  • 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content
    
  • 55% of users have uploaded photos
    
  • 22% of users have uploaded videos
  
  
• Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and as a collective rival any traditional media
  
• 73% have read a blog
  
• The blogsphere is becoming increasingly participatory, now 184m bloggers world-wide
  
• China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined."

Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Tuesday, April 1, 2008. Witness List & Prepared Testimony.

BBC News: How the open net closed its doors - "Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering challenges the long-standing assumption that the internet is an unfettered space where citizens from around the world can freely communicate and mobilise. In fact, the book makes it clear that the scope, scale and sophistication of net censorship are growing."

News release: "Many Americans assume that China's internet users are unhappy about their government's control of the internet, but a new survey finds most Chinese say they approve of internet regulation, especially by the government."

"Today is Document Freedom Day: The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation with roughly 200 active teams worldwide. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general...Open Standards are essential for interoperability and freedom of choice based on the merits of different software applications. They provide freedom from data lock-in and the subsequent vendor lock-in... This makes Open Standards essential for governments, companies, organisations and individual users of information technology.This is where teams will report their activities in 2008."

Still Seeking a Truly Digital Life - Analysis: "The French call it 'dematerialization' but the search for a paperless existence continues to elude even technophiles." Peter Sayer, IDG News Service.

News release: "Sixty-five million Americans depend on broadband services for work, education, entertainment and communications. But too many other Americans have no access to broadband services, according to a new telecom industry survey. Aggravating the country's broadband gap is the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) definition of broadband, 200 kilobits per second. At that rate, it takes longer to download a movie than to watch it. The survey, commissioned by Tellabs, reflects responses from 451 readers of leading U.S. telecom publications."

News release: "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today released new data on high-speed connections to the Internet in the United States. Twice a year, all facilities-based broadband providers are required to report to the Commission basic information about their service offerings and types of customers pursuant to the FCC’s local telephone competition and broadband data gathering program (FCC Form 477). Statistics released today reflect data as of June 30, 2007."

High-Speed Services for Internet Access: Status as of June 30, 2007 - Industry Analysis and Technology Division - Wireline Competition Bureau, March 2008.

• "High-speed lines increased by 22% during the first half of 2007, from 82.8 million to 100.9 million lines in service, following a 27% increase, from 65.3 million to 82.8 million lines, during the second half of 2006. For the full twelve-month period ending June 30, 2007, high-speed lines increased by 55% from 65.3 million to 100.9 million (or 35.7 million lines) compared to a 54% increase, from 42.5 million to 65.3 million lines (or 22.8 million lines), in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2006."

New York Times: On Thursday [March 20, 2008] Sports Illustrated "will introduce the Vault, a free site within SI.com that contains all the words Sports Illustrated has ever published [over 53 years] and many of the images, along with video and other material, in a searchable database."

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) press release: "Five years after the outbreak of the war in Iraq, the humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world. Because of the conflict, millions of Iraqis have insufficient access to clean water, sanitation and health care. The current crisis is exacerbated by the lasting effects of previous armed conflicts and years of economic sanctions. Despite limited improvements in security in some areas, armed violence is still having a disastrous impact. Civilians continue to be killed in the hostilities. The injured often do not receive adequate medical care. Millions of people have been forced to rely on insufficient supplies of poor-quality water as water and sewage systems suffer from a lack of maintenance and a shortage of engineers."

Carnage and despair: Iraq five years on. Index Number: MDE 14/001/2008. Date Published: 17 March 2008.

Project for Excellence in Journalism - State of the News Media 2008 - Preface: "The State of the News Media 2008 is the fifth edition of our annual report on the health and status of American journalism. Its goal is to gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, to identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers...This year, we also offer A Year in the News, a content analysis of more than 70,000 stories from 48 news outlets across five media sectors; a Survey of Journalists, produced with the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press; a Special Report on the Future of Advertising and a content study of Citizen Media Sites, 64 in 15 communities."

The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2011, March 2008, By International Data Corporation.

VOIP-News: "Email, IM (instant messaging) and even VoIP solutions like Skype and Vonage have taken over communications in both the business and social worlds. These systems work well because they're a much-needed solution for high phone bills, static-filled communications and dropped cell-phone calls. Internet-based communication methods also give users optimum remote access, since all one needs to use VoIP or send an IM is an Internet connection. But with this increase in popularity comes serious security issues. VoIP technology is still relatively new, and hackers are finding new ways to rip off service providers and their customers. Just who might be spying on your online communications? You might be surprised."

Political Knowledge Update: "Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had confirmed the deaths of 3,974 U.S. military personnel in Iraq."

"Reporters Without Borders calls on Internet users to come and protest in virtual versions of countries that are Internet enemies...There are 15 countries in this year’s Reporters Without Borders list of “Internet Enemies” - Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. There were only 13 in 2007. The two new additions to the traditional censors are both to be found in sub-Saharan Africa: Zimbabwe and Ethiopia...There is also a supplementary list of 11 “countries under watch.” They are Bahrain, Eritrea, Gambia, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen."

Byting Back - Regaining Information Superiority Against 21st-Century Insurgents, RAND Counterinsurgency Study - Volume 1, by Martin C. Libicki, David C. Gompert, David R. Frelinger, Raymond Smith.

AARP Report Finds Brand Name Drug Prices Continue to Soar - March 5, 2008: "According to a report released today by AARP, pharmaceutical companies have substantially raised prices on 220 brand name prescription drugs most commonly used by people in Medicare Part D since the implementation of the drug benefit in 2006. AARP has studied drug prices since 2002 and reported the findings in a series of Watchdog reports. Today’s report expands on the series by focusing its analysis on those brand prescription drugs most widely used by people enrolled in Medicare Part D."

"CDT today released a set of privacy principles to help guide the development of software tools related to online behavioral targeting. Developed in consultation with members of CDT's Internet Privacy Working Group (IPWG), the principles aim to bolster the development of tools for Web browsers and other software that empower users with the ability to manage their privacy and control online behavioral tracking activities. The document is a result of meetings with IPWG, sparked by renewed interest in behavioral targeting at the FTC, in the private sector and among consumer groups."

2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey - Over Half of All Employers Combined Fire Workers for E-Mail & Internet Abuse, February 28, 2008

"The Safer Internet plus programme aims to promote safer use of the Internet and new online technologies, particularly for children, and to fight against illegal content and content unwanted by the end-user, as part of a coherent approach by the European Union."

"Women have made great strides in the fight for equality, but gender bias continues to create huge barriers for many—especially immigrants, women of color, women with low incomes, and victims of domestic violence. Women's History Month draws attention to the women who have fought for the rights we have today, and at the same time highlights the ongoing struggles for women's equality, such as ensuring economic and educational opportunities for all women, ending violence against women, and addressing the harms to women and girls caught up in the criminal justice system. Since 1972 the ACLU Women's Rights Project has been working to systematically end discrimination against women and girls and to challenge the obstacles that prevent women and girls from participating fully in all aspects of society."

The Connection Has Been Reset, by James Fallows.

Global Insight: "The existing median home price data, released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for the fourth quarter of 2007, show that all but 11 of the 145 metro areas covered by NAR saw quarter-to-quarter declines from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2007. This represents a significant increase in price erosion compared to the third quarter of 2007, in which 80 metros still recorded appreciation quarter-to-quarter. Of the 11 metro areas that saw appreciation in the fourth quarter, only six had consecutive gains in the third and fourth quarters: Kennewick-Richland-Pasco and Yakima in Washington, Oklahoma City, OK, Syracuse, NY, Atlantic City, NJ, and Raleigh, NC.. Aside from the latter two metros, the 11 metros reporting appreciation in the fourth quarter were in the more affordably priced-markets with a median price of less than $200,000 (the U.S. median price was $206,200). The credit crunch has lessened homebuyers' ability to garner higher priced mortgages, putting downward pressure on the median price. The map below shows the quarter-to-quarter change in the existing median price at a compound annual rate."

A Portrait of Early Internet Adopters: Why People First Went Online --and Why They Stayed, by Amy Tracy Wells, Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, February 20, 2008

"The American Cancer Society’s annual cancer statistics report finds that death rates from cancer in the United States have decreased by 18.4 percent among men and by 10.5 percent among women since mortality rates began to decline in the early 1990s, which translates to the avoidance of more than half a million cancer deaths (534,500) in the United States. Society epidemiologists predict that in the U.S. in 2008 there will be 1,437,180 new cancer cases (745,180 in men and 692,000 in women) and 565,650 cancer deaths (294,120 among men and 271,530 among women)."

CODENOMICON White Paper - Wireless Security: Past, Present and Future, by Sami Petäjäsoja, Tommi Mäkilä, Mikko Varpiola, Miikka Saukko and Ari Takanen, Version 1.0, February 1st, 2008

Tracking Housing Prices - Why the Numbers Conflict, By David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal Online.

Press release: "Leading investors today published disclosure guidelines for the electric utilities sector which will make it easier for investors to assess and compare the risks and opportunities posed by climate change and climate policy to individual companies. The Global Climate Disclosure Framework for Electric Utilities captures those climate change issues that are relevant specifically for electric
utilities and power generators and provides a unique format for presenting quantitative and qualitative issues in a coherent and consistent way."

Countering Insurgency in the Muslim World - Rethinking U.S. Priorities and Capabilities, by: David C. Gompert, John Gordon, IV, Adam Grissom, David R. Frelinger, Seth G. Jones, Martin C. Libicki, Edward O'Connell, Brooke K. Stearns, Robert E. Hunter.

Creative Commons and Public.Resource.Org announced [February 11, 2008] that the first revision of a substantial corpus of U.S. federal case law is available for download by developers. The files are all clearly marked with the new Creative Commons CCØ label, indicating that the contents are Works of the United States Government and are thus free of copyright or other restrictions for their dissemination and reuse. Developers may access this information here. [This] release covers all U.S. Supreme Court decisions and all Courts of Appeals
decisions from 1950 on. The release is equivalent to 1,858 volumes of case law in book form, a stack of books 348 feet tall. The files have all been converted to the XHTML standard and make extensive use of
CSS style sheets to allow developers to build new search engines and user interfaces."

Pew Hispanic Center: "If current trends continue, immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their descendants will account for 82% of the population growth in the United States during this period, according to new projections from the Pew Research Center. The nation's racial and ethnic mix will change markedly by mid-century, the projections show, with the Hispanic population tripling in size and increasing its share of the total to 29%. Among non-Hispanic race groups, the Asian share will rise to 9%, the black share will hold steady at 13% and the white share will fall to 47%."

New York Times: Pushing Paper Out the Door, by Hannah Fairfield

Audubon Naturalist Society: "Gardeners have long wanted pots made of biogradable and renewable materials. And now, at least for seedling pots, this alternative exists: CowPots™, invented by two Connecticut dairy farmers, are durable fiber pots made of cow poo. So far, though, these odorless pots are only available to us online."

"You've heard about global warming with its subsequent impending ecological disasters, but what's the real story? By connecting you with scientists in the field, current news and visual representations of data from NOAA and NASA, Earth Live will explore climate change and its consequences. The layers that spin across the globe are gathered over the latest 30 days giving you a near-real time glimpse of the state of the earth."

"The Committee for Economic Development (CED)...released a new report – Harnessing Openness to Transform American Health Care (94 pages, PDF) – that focuses on how to improve health care by giving people more access to information and making the information more responsive to their contributions. The report touches on the entire production system for health care from biomedical research to clinical trials to electronic health care records and patient/doc interactions. It also addresses open access publishing of research results and access to clinical trial data, openness in public health, the impact of greater openness on approval of medical devices, and open models of innovation. The report was prepared by CED's Digital Connections Council (DCC). The DCC is a group of information technology experts from CED-affiliated companies established to advise CED on the policy issues associated with the digital economy and emerging technologies. This report follows the late 2007 release of CED’s report, Quality, Affordable Health Care For All: Beyond The Employer-based Health-insurance System, which includes findings and recommendations on health care reform from CED."

Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization, A White Paper by Oya Y. Rieger, February, 2008. 52 pp. Published by the Council on Library and Information Resources.

"A joint project of the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Progress & Freedom Foundation tracks more than 30 pieces of federal legislation that seek to protect children online, some of which pose serious threats to free speech. The reports released today summarize and categorize child online safety bills introduced in the 110th Congress, analyze free speech implications of key bills, and provide recommendations to Congress on how it can promote child online safety without impinging on First Amendment rights. February 06, 2008."

Information Economy Report 2007-2008 (386 pages, PDF): "The Information Economy Report 2008 - Science and technology for development: the new paradigm of ICT, analyses the current and potential contribution of information technology to knowledge creation and diffusion. It explores how ICTs help generate innovations that improve the livelihoods of the poor and support enterprise competitiveness. The report examines how ICTs affect productivity and growth and reflects on the need for a development-oriented approach to intellectual property rights in order to enable effective access to technology. ICT has also given rise to new models for sharing knowledge and collective production of ideas and innovations, known as "open access" models, which often bypass the incentive system provided by intellectual property rights."

"China’s onerous media restrictions, the erosion of press freedom in African democracies, the criminalization of journalism in central Asia, and the use of vague “antistate” charges to jail journalists worldwide are among the troubling trends revealed in the new edition of Attacks on the Press."

Fact Sheet: "The Connectivity Scorecard is a groundbreaking new global information and communications technology (ICT) measure that ranks countries on the approximately 30 indicators of connectivity -- including broadband, fixed-line, mobile and computing technologies -- that contribute to the enhancement of a country’s social and economic prosperity. The Scorecard was created by Leonard Waverman, professor of economics at London Business School, and conducted under his direction by economic consulting firm LECG. It was commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks to examine the contribution of connectivity to economic growth and positive social outcomes, and to draw conclusions from how individual countries score on the Index."

Washingtonpost.com" - Zip Code 'Redlining': A Sweeping View of Risk, By Kenneth R. Harney, February 2, 2008. "Critics call it the new redlining: Many of the country's largest mortgage lenders are imposing loan restrictions in entire counties or Zip codes that they rank as risky or "declining."

• How one clumsy ship cut off the web for 75 million people: "A flotilla of ships may have been dispatched to reinstate the broken submarine cable that has left the Middle East and India struggling to communicate with the rest of the world, but it took just one vessel to inflict the damage that brought down the internet for millions."


• The internet's undersea world - "The vast majority of the world's communications are not carried by satellites but by an altogether older technology; cables under the earth's oceans. As a ship accidentally wipes out Asia's net access, this map shows how we rely on collections of wires of less than 10cm diameter to link us all together."


• Effects of Fibre Outage through Mediterranean, by Les Cottrell and Qasim Lone [both of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center]: "On January 31st, 2008, the NY Times, BBC, The Guardian, CNN and many others reported undersea cable cuts in the Mediterranean. One was damaged near Alexandria, Egypt, and another in the waters off Marseille, France. The two cables were damaged within hours of each other on Wednesday morning of January 30th 2008. Operators believe the damage was caused by ship's anchors during a heavy storm at sea. One of the cables, Sea Me We 4, is owned by 16 telecommunications companies along its route. The second cable, known as the Flag (for Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe) System, runs from Britain to Japan. The cables are separately managed and operated. The outages mainly affected the Middle East and Asia. Most disrupted communications were quickly rerouted through the remaining SEAMEW3 cable or fibres taking the other way around the globe. The cables involved are shown in the Telegeography map below. There are also world maps from Telegeography and Alcatel."

Solove, Daniel J., "The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet". The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, Daniel J. Solove, Yale University Press, October 2007 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1019177

Press release, February 1, 2008: "Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008."

"GreenPrint World is a free version of GreenPrint software for home users worldwide. GreenPrint solves a problem nearly every computer user has experienced: The wasteful pages that seem only to appear after a document has been printed (for example, pages with just a URL, banner ad, legal jargon, or a run-over Excel column). GreenPrint does this by analyzing the document and then highlighting and removing unnecessary pages. GreenPrint also incorporates an easy to use PDF writer, a print preview called GreenView, and a reporting feature, which keeps track of the number of pages, trees, and money saved."

A Blueprint for Big Broadband, An EDUCAUSE White Paper by John Windhausen Jr., President, Telepoly Consulting, January 2008.

Bush Order Expands Network Monitoring - Intelligence Agencies to Track Intrusions, by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post: "President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence community's role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies' computer systems. The directive, whose content is classified, authorizes the intelligence agencies, in particular the National Security Agency, to monitor the computer networks of all federal agencies -- including ones they have not previously monitored."

What if the Internet went down...and didn't come back up? By Lynn Greiner, CIO.com, 01/22/08

Top 60 Little-Known Technology Web Sites, By Charles Babcock, Thomas Claburn, John Foley, W. David Gardner, Antone Gonsalves, Nicholas J. Hoover, K.C. Jones, Elena Malykhina, Richard Martin, Paul McDougall, Marianne McGee, Chris Murphy, Cora Nucci, Art Wittman, and Serdar Yegulalp, InformationWeek, January 26, 2008

Press release, December 10, 2007 - "The way communicators dispense information is out of sync with the way consumers use media, according to Media, Myths & Realities, a comprehensive survey of media usage among consumers and communications professionals conducted by global public relations firm Ketchum and the University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center. Advice from family and friends is the No. 1 source that consumers turn to when making a variety of decisions – ranging from purchasing consumer electronics to planning a vacation – and advice from an expert rates highest when making medical decisions and purchases based on a product’s environmental impact. Despite the strong evidence that friends, family and experts play a key role in influencing decisions, only 24 percent of communicators report having a word-of-mouth program in place."

Press release: "W3C...published an early draft of HTML 5, a major revision of the markup language for the Web. The HTML Working Group is creating HTML 5 to be the open, royalty-free specification for rich Web content and Web applications. The group operates entirely in public with nearly five hundred participants, including representatives from W3C Members ACCESS, AOL, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, and Opera."

"A new Institute of Medicine report, Knowing What Works in Health Care: A Roadmap for the Nation, provides a blueprint for a national program to assess the effectiveness of clinical services and to provide credible, unbiased information about what really works in health care. The report recommends that Congress direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a program with the authority, expertise and resources necessary to set priorities for evaluating clinical services and to conduct systematic reviews of the evidence. The program would also develop and promote rigorous standards for creating clinical practice guidelines, which could help minimize use of questionable services and target services to the patients most likely to benefit."

WSJ: "The Wall Street Journal's Web site, WSJ.com, will keep a significant portion of its content behind its paid-subscription wall, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Thursday."

"The State of the World’s Children 2008 assesses the state of child survival and primary health care for mothers, newborns and children today. These issues serve as sensitive barometers of a country’s development and wellbeing and as evidence of its priorities and values. Investing in the health of children and their mothers is a human rights imperative and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course towards a better future."

"Citizens can now track fundraising for over 1,500 congressional candidates with free widgets for blogs, social networking pages, and personal web sites. MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan watchdog group, released today customizable widgets – portable chunks of code that allow content to be displayed on any web page – that make political fundraising more transparent. Bloggers and reporters will be able to easily share the campaign finance data for any number of congressional races with their audiences." [Peggy Garvin]

"The California Broadband Task Force today released its final findings and recommendations in a report to the Governor and Legislature. The report, The State of Connectivity: Building Innovation Through Broadband, represents the culmination of more than a year of work by the Task Force, including maps of current broadband availability and speed, recommendations to achieve universal access and increased use, and a timeframe in which to meet these critical goals."

"The MoneyTree Report is a quarterly study of venture capital investment activity in the United States. As a collaboration between PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based upon data from Thomson Financial, it is the only industry-endorsed research of its kind. The MoneyTree Report is the definitive source of information on emerging companies that receive financing and the venture capital firms that provide it. The study is a staple of the financial community, entrepreneurs, government policymakers and the business press worldwide."

Report of The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, January 9, 2008.

PC World: "Get to your favorite folders in a snap. Stream TV stations from around the globe. Add new power to Internet Explorer. All this and more, and all of it for free." by Scott Dunn.

Grants and Investments: "As of January 2008, Google.org has committed $75.4 million in grants and investments to further our five initiatives."

"The Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School is pleased to present the results [full report/purchase only] of the seventh year of our project, Surveying the Digital Future [highlights]. The seven years of longitudinal research comprise an absolutely unique data base that completely captures broadband at home, the wireless Internet, on-line media, user-generated content and, now, social networking. This year's report contains a large module looking at on-line communities and social networking in great detail. Readers can compare the social networking data and correlate it to seven years of attitudes and behaviors on-line. As usual, the report continues to track off-line media use, purchasing both off-line and through e-commerce, social and political activity and a wealth of other data."

Press release: "A new report, commissioned by the UKL JISC [Joint Information Systems Committee] and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. The report by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web. The report Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future [11 January 2008] also shows that research-behaviour traits that are commonly associated with younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors. 'These findings add to our growing understanding of subjects that should concern all who work in further and higher education – the changing needs of our students and researchers and how libraries can meet their needs.'

The study calls for libraries to respond urgently to the changing needs of researchers and other users and to understand the new means of searching and navigating information. Learning what researchers want and need is crucial if libraries are not to become obsolete, the report warns."

Press release: "A new study showing that the heavily advertised cholesterol drug Vytorin doesn’t work any better than a newly available generic drug in slowing artery-clogging calls into question who should be taking the most potent cholesterol drugs. “This study gives us another important piece of the puzzle in the treatment of high cholesterol and heart disease risk,” said Steven Findlay, managing editor of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a public information and education project of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. “While the results are not conclusive, they should compel doctors and patients to ask just who should be taking the strongest cholesterol lowering drugs.”

Ceres press release: "While encouraging progress is being made, the banking sector still has a long way to go in confronting the business challenges posed by global climate change, according to a first-ever report issued today by the Ceres investor coalition that analyzes climate change governance practices of 40 of the world’s largest banks...The report found that a growing number of European, U.S. banks and Japanese banks are responding to the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, primarily by setting internal greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, boosting climate-related equity research and elevating lending and financing for clean energy projects. But many others are still not addressing climate change and only a handful of the 40 banks have begun integrating climate risks into their core business of lending by pricing carbon into their finance decisions or setting targets to reduce GHG emissions in their lending portfolios.."
Bank Profiles:

"This website is a companion to The Buying of the President 2008. Like the book, this site explores the roles that money and special interests play in presidential politics. But unlike the book, which will provide a behind-the-scenes examination of how big money influences the presidential election process, this site is a work in progress — a continually updated window into the 2008 race that’s also richly supplemented with details, insights, and revelations from previous campaigns and, where feasible, those who engineered them. In addition to details about the 2008 candidates and their political benefactors, for example, the site includes everything from a history of money in presidential politics to in-depth, on-the-record interviews with current and former presidential candidates, consultants and strategists, donors and fundraisers, and academics who have studied the intricacies of the political system. What’s more, the site offers the Center for Public Integrity’s complete body of work on presidential elections, most notably cover-to-cover, full-text-searchable copies of the three previous books in the Buying of the President series."

Scientific American: Wikis, blogs and other collaborative web technologies could usher in a new era of science. Or not. By M. Mitchell Waldrop: "The explosively growing World Wide Web has rapidly transformed retailing, publishing, personal communication and much more. Innovations such as e-commerce, blogging, downloading and open-source software have forced old-line institutions to adopt whole new ways of thinking, working and doing business. Science could be next. A small but growing number of researchers--and not just the younger ones--have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open blogs, wikis and social networks of Web 2.0. And although their efforts are still too scattered to be called a movement--yet--their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based "Science 2.0" is not only more collegial than the traditional variety, but considerably more productive."

Pew Research Center Report: Internet's Broader Role in Campaign 2008 - Social Networking and Online Videos Take Off, Released: January 11, 2008

New York Times - The Afterlife of Cellphones: "Americans threw out just shy of three million tons of household electronics in 2006. This so-called e-waste is the fastest-growing part of the municipal waste stream and, depending on your outlook, either an enormous problem or a bonanza. E-waste generally contains substances that, though safely sequestered during each product’s use, can become hazardous if not handled properly when disposed. Those products also hold bits of precious metals like silver, copper, platinum and gold."

"HealthyCar.org is based on research conducted by the Ecology Center that looks at the presence of key hazardous chemicals in vehicles and child car seats. While there are numerous substances in vehicles that can lead to health and environmental problems, HealthyCar.org focuses on bromine, chlorine, lead, as well as some other heavy metals, allergens and carcinogens. All of these substances were chosen because of their toxicity, persistence, and/or tendency to build up in people and the environment. All of them have also been subject to regulatory restrictions and/or voluntary limits set by industry associations or third party certification organizations.

HealthyCar.org includes test results from over 200 of the most popular vehicles in the U.S. market from the 2006 and 2007 model years. In each vehicle, 15 different components were sampled using a portable, hand-held X-Ray Fluoresence (XRF) spectrometry device. The components sampled include: steering wheel, shift knob, armrest/center console, dashboard, headliner, carpet, seat front, seat back, seat base, hard door-trim, soft door-trim, body sealer, wiring, window seal and wheel weights."

Press release: "Becta [British Educational Communications and Technology Agency], the education technology agency, has published a key report on Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 and on document interoperability which analyses the suitability of both software packages for adoption by schools and colleges."

Press release: "In October 2006, the Transportation Security Administration launched a website to help travelers whose names were erroneously listed on airline watch lists. This redress website had multiple security vulnerabilities: it was not hosted on a government domain; its homepage was not encrypted; one of its data submission pages was not encrypted; and its encrypted pages were not properly certified. These deficiencies exposed thousands of American travelers to potential identity theft. After an internet blogger identified these security vulnerabilities in February 2007, the website was taken offline and replaced by a website hosted on a Department of Homeland Security domain. At the request of Chairman Henry Waxman, Committee staff have been investigating how TSA could have launched a website that violated basic operating standards of web security and failed to protect travelers’ sensitive personal information. As this report describes, these security breaches can be traced to TSA’s poor acquisition practices, conflicts of interest, and inadequate oversight."

Press release: "The Library of Congress and Microsoft Corp. have signed a cooperative agreement that will change the way Library visitors experience history. The joint technology initiative will electronically deliver the Library’s immense collection of historical artifacts to patrons visiting its Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., and will allow unparalleled and immersive interactive experiences that will bring the institution’s vast historical collections and exhibits to life–on-site and online–through the upcoming myloc.gov Web site."

Pew Internet Project Data Memo, Video Sharing Websites, January 9, 2008: "The audience for YouTube and other internet video sites has risen sharply the past year. Nearly half of online adults now say they have visited such sites. On a typical day at the end of 2007, the share of internet users going to video sites was nearly twice as large as it had been at the end of 2006."

"Science and technology (S&T) play increasingly important roles in our society and for those who govern. From energy policy to the environment, from health care to economic competitiveness, and from science education to immigration, S&T research and its products are critical to many issues on the agendas of Congress and the Executive Branch. Yet, very little of the campaign coverage and candidates' discussion focuses on S&T issues. In response, the AAAS [American Association for the Advancement of Science] Center for Science, Technology and Congress, with support from the Lounsbery Foundation, has created this Web site as a resource on candidates' S&T positions, and to provide the research community with a vehicle for informing the candidates on emerging S&T issues. The Web site includes news updates, highlights of and links to candidates' S&T statements and positions, links to other S&T presidential projects, reports, surveys, and events."

"In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods—1997–98 and 2002–03—the U.S. improved only slightly on the measure."

Current notions of defence, foreign affairs, intelligence and development are redundant in the new security environment... National Security for the Twenty-first Century, Charlie Edwards, DEMOS: "The government remains structured around functions and services with separate budgets for defence, foreign affairs, intelligence and development. Whitehall departments, intelligence agencies and the police forces that make up the security architecture have changed very little in the past two decades, despite the end of the Cold War and the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. Based on a 12 month research project, this pamphlet sets out an approach to national security drawing on reforms and innovations from governments elsewhere in Europe and the United States and suggests some new ideas designed to shape the future of the national security architecture."

How the World Rates Women as Leaders, by Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Research Associate, Pew Global Attitudes Project, December 5, 2007: "The countries of Western Europe, North America and Latin America generally include the highest proportions of respondents who rate men and women as equally good political leaders. Roughly two-thirds in [Argentina - with the country's first woman president] (68%) express that view, while 17% say men are better leaders and 9% prefer women. In the United States, fully three-quarters say men and women make equally good political leaders, and that opinion is even more widespread in Western Europe."

Background: "The proposed architecture of the 787 is different from that of existing production (and retrofitted) airplanes. It allows new kinds of passenger connectivity to previously isolated data networks connected to systems that perform functions required for the safe operation of the airplane. Because of this new passenger connectivity, the proposed data network design and integration may result in security vulnerabilities from intentional or unintentional corruption of data and systems critical to the safety and maintenance of the airplane. The existing regulations and guidance material did not anticipate this type of system architecture or electronic access to aircraft systems that provide flight critical functions. Furthermore, 14 CFR regulations and current system safety assessment policy and techniques do not address potential security vulnerabilities that could be caused by unauthorized access to aircraft data buses and servers. Therefore, special conditions are imposed to ensure that security, integrity, and availability of the aircraft systems and data networks are not compromised by certain wired or wireless electronic connections between airplane data buses and networks." Federal Register: January 2, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 1)][Rules and Regulations][Page 27-29]

"In January 2007, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received a donation of a photograph album. The inscription "Auschwitz 21.6.1944" on its first page signaled the uniqueness of the album—there are very few wartime photographs of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, which included Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center. Though his name does not appear anywhere in the album, the dates of the photographs and various decorations including adjutant cords on the uniform of the album's owner, indicate that the album almost certainly belonged to and was created by SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, SS-Sturmbannführer Richard Baer. Höcker was stationed at Auschwitz from May 1944 until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945."

America's Best Big Companies: "This is our 10th year of selecting the 400 Best Big Companies in America. Our methodology for choosing the winners is so stringent that 165 companies from last year's 400 did not make the cut for 2008. Not only must companies pass our benchmarks for financial growth rates and returns, but they must also meet our approval for their corporate governance, accounting standards and background checks."

New Study on Copyright and Creativity from the Center for Social Media, Posted by Hugh DAndrade: "Free video hosting sites like YouTube, Yahoo! Video, and Daily Motion are enabling creators to share video instantly with millions of viewers around the world. A new report from the Center for Social Media takes a close look at these user generated sites, and finds that there is much more at stake than the SNL and Daily Show clips often referenced in the usual Viacom v. YouTube debates on copyright infringement. Recut, Reframe, Recycle shows that far from simply uploading content, more and more users are remixing prior works to create new (and often surprising) works of transformative creativity. Users are borrowing from film, television, and pop culture at large to create parodies and satires, commentaries, pastiche, quotations, as well as archives of important work that cannot be shown due to copyright restriction. By illustrating each category with some of the best examples of user-generated content from the past few years, the study attempts to clarify "the difference between quoting for new cultural creation and simple piracy."

Google Docs Blog: "It's been two months since we launched Google Presentations and already we've got new toys [Link to the presentation detailing the new features]...Embeddable Presentations, Importing slides from other presentations, Drag and drop image insertion, Rearranging slides, Changing the background, Prettier toolbar."

"The European Library launched a new version of its website on the 4th of December; the changes involve significant lay-out improvements and reflect a constant care for understanding user needs. It also introduces the latest partners’ collections and the first The European Library web-exhibition."

"The Institute of Medicine report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care said that racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower-quality health care than whites do, even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable. It recommends first and foremost to increase awareness about racial and ethnic disparities in health care among the general public, health care providers, insurance companies, and policymakers. Consistency and equity of care also should be promoted through the use of "evidence-based" guidelines to help providers and health plans make decisions about which procedures to order or pay for based on the best available science."

Association of Insurance with Cancer Care Utilization and Outcomes,
Elizabeth Ward, PhD, Michael Halpern, MD, PhD, Nicole Schrag, MSPH, Vilma Cokkinides, PhD, MSPH, Carol DeSantis, MPH, Priti Bandi, MS, Rebecca Siegel, MPH, Andrew Stewart, MA and Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD. CA Cancer J Clin, January 1, 2008; 58(1): 7 - 8.

"TechPresident presents our 2007 Campaign Web Index, a year-end study of which campaigns are best at using the various elements of the web. For the survey we've tapped the very brightest minds working in tech and politics, who happen to be our own bloggers and other friends (some respondents have asked to remain anonymous). Check out their votes and opinions for who's best at online video, advertising, social networking, rapid response, and much more. Some of their responses may surprise you, and some may be entirely predictable."

"TechPresident presents our 2007 Campaign Web Index, a year-end study of which campaigns are best at using the various elements of the web. For the survey we've tapped the very brightest minds working in tech and politics, who happen to be our own bloggers and other friends (some respondents have asked to remain anonymous). Check out their votes and opinions for who's best at online video, advertising, social networking, rapid response, and much more. Some of their responses may surprise you, and some may be entirely predictable."

Internet2 and Libraries - Serving Your Communities at the Speed of Light, by James Werle and Louis Fox.

"The gethuman™ movement has been created from the voices of millions of consumers who want to be treated with dignity when they contact a company for customer support." The gethuman 500 database, regularly updated, includes telephone numbers for customer service contacts in the following sectors, located in the United States: automotive, credit, finance, government, hardware, insurance, internet, mobile, pharmacy, products, shipping, software, telco, travel, TV/satellite, and utilities.

"Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have undertaken what has now become the most comprehensive survey of global privacy ever published. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection. The most recent report published in 2007 is probably the most comprehensive single volume report published in the human rights field. The report runs over 1,100 pages and includes 6,000 footnotes. More than 200 experts from around the world have provided materials and commentary. The participants range from eminent privacy scholars to high-level officials charged with safeguarding constitutional freedoms in their countries. Academics, human rights advocates, journalists and researchers provided reports, insight, documents and advice. In 2006 Privacy International took the decision to use this annual report as the basis for a ranking assessment of the state of privacy in all EU countries together with eleven non-EU benchmark countries."

Pew Internet & American Life Project: Information Searches That Solve Problems, 12/30/2007

The State of the Media Democracy: Are You Ready for the Future of Media?: "To shed light on how different generations are “consuming” media — and what their future media preferences are likely to be — Deloitte & Touche USA LLP’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) practice commissioned an extensive survey on the evolving role of media in America. This State of the Media Democracy survey offers a generational reality check on the usage of current media platforms/devices and what the future may hold. Fielded by Harrison Group (an independent research services firm) from February 23 through March 6, 2007, the survey used an online methodology to collect information from 2,200 U.S. consumers between the ages of 13 and 75."

"CDT has created a list to alert consumers about music download Web sites that charge fees and claim a large selection, but do not appear to have obtained licenses to ensure that users' downloads from the site are legal. Consumers looking to download music lawfully for the new computers and MP3 players they receive this holiday season may want to check CDT's list before paying money to unfamiliar but legitimate-looking music services. CDT hopes that warning consumers about these sites can help avoid confusion and promote the continued growth of the lawful online music market."

All the best wishes for a wonderful holiday season.

Clay Johnson III, OMB: "I am announcing the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative to optimize our individual network services into a common solution for the federal government. This common solution facilitates the reduction of our external connections, including our Internet points of presence, to a target of fifty. Additionally, the role of the US-CERT will be enhanced to improve our response capabilities. Each agency will be required to develop a comprehensive plan of action and milestones (POA&M) with a target completion date of June 2008. Initial agency POA&Ms must be sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) by January 8, 2008, for review and agreement with OMB, DHS, and the agency."

Online Journalism Review: As the U.S. approaches the 2008 Presidential voting, website journalists are using interactive graphics to provide coverage at a glance, by Robert Niles: "Every election cycle inspires innovation at newspaper websites. This year, leading U.S. newspapers are offering some stunning online graphic tools to help their readers get an overview of the many elements of the campaign, at a glance."

Official Google Blog: "Here's a suggestion for everyone to save energy over the holidays (and at other times!): turn off your computer and monitor or put them into "sleep" mode when you're not using them. Why? The typical desktop PC uses 100-200 watts even when it's idle. That's the equivalent of 1-2 bright incandescent (read: inefficient) light bulbs. (Note: new PCs that comply with the latest Energy Star specifications consume less than 50-60 watts when idle.) You wouldn't leave your car running for hours when it's just sitting there. Most of us wouldn't leave a bright light bulb burning for hours when no one is nearby to need the light. So why leave your computer on? If you're leaving your office for the holidays, turn off your PC. If it consumes 100 watts, that will save 2.4 kWh/day, or over 25 kWh for the next 11 days through January 1st. In California, that will stop about 40 kg of CO2 from being put into the air, and save about $2.50. For every 1 million people who do this, that will stop 40,000 tonnes (metric tons) of CO2 from being emitted, and save $2.5 million. In many areas, it will reduce emissions even further, and save even more money. The same issue applies at home: turn off your computer or put it to sleep when you're not using it. The automatic power management settings on most computers will put them to sleep automatically after a specified idle period."

Washington Post: "The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law."

The Inquirer: "Norway's Government has mandated that its websites must use Open Document Format (ODF) for files published for use by the Norwegian public.

"The government has decided that all information on governmental websites should be available in the open formats HTML, PDF or ODF. With this decision the times when public documents where only available in Microsoft's Word-format is coming to an end. "'Everybody should have equal access to public information. From 2009 the citizens will be able to chose which software to use in order to gain access to public information. The government's decision will also improve the competition between suppliers of office applications,' says IT-minister Heidi Grande Røys."

Press release: "...in a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the American Library Association (ALA) addressed the critical yet unacknowledged role public libraries play in delivering E-government services to the American people. Increasingly, government agencies refer individuals to their local public libraries for assistance and access to the Internet for citizen-government interactions. Yet public libraries are not considered members of the E-government team. ALA's statement (PDF), for the Committee's hearing on E-government, highlighted the stress these E-government services are placing on public libraries' infrastructure and suggested taking steps toward creating a partnership between public libraries and the government in order to improve E-government delivery to citizens."

Center for Social Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Surveying Internet Usage in China, and its Impact in Seven Chinese Cities, Report by Professor Guo Liang, CASS, November 2007 (126 pages, PDF)

IBM Reveals Five Innovations that Will Change Our Lives Over the Next Five Years: "Unveiled today, the second annual "IBM Next Five in Five" is a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs around the world that could make these innovations possible."

Press release: "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today concluded its quadrennial review of the broadcast ownership rules. The Commission amended the 32-year-old absolute ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership by crafting an approach that would presumptively allow a newspaper to own one television station or one radio station in the 20 largest markets, subject to strict criteria and limitations. The newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule currently prohibits common ownership of a broadcast station and a daily newspaper in the same market. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Court), affirmed the Commission’s determination that this blanket ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership was no longer in the public interest while remanding the specific cross-media ownership limits drawn by the Commission in 2003. The Court agreed that “…reasoned analysis supports the Commission’s determination that the blanket ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership was no longer in the public interest.”

The State of State Disclosure: An Evaluation of Online Public Information About Economic Development Subsidies, Procurement Contracts and Lobbying Activities by Philip Mattera, Karla Walter, Julie Farb Blain and Michelle Lee, November 2007, (Revised 11/19/07), Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First.

"Cancer will claim 7.6 million lives worldwide this year, and more than 12 million people will receive cancer diagnoses, according to Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007, the newest edition to the American Cancer Society's family of Facts and Figures reports. The report, based on data compiled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), reveals disparities in how cancer affects the developed and developing world. Infection plays a greater role in shaping cancer incidence in developing countries, where the number of infection-related cancers is 3 times higher than in developed nations."

Press release: "Forty-seven percent of internet users have searched for their own name online, but few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Fifty-three percent of internet users have searched online for information about personal and business contacts. These findings represent a significant change from when the Pew Internet Project first reported on this activity in 2002, at which time 22% of internet users had searched online for their own name."

New York Times: Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft - "The growing confrontation between Google and Microsoft promises to be an epic business battle. It is likely to shape the prosperity and progress of both companies, and also inform how consumers and corporations work, shop, communicate and go about their digital lives. Google sees all of this happening on remote servers in faraway data centers, accessible over the Web by an array of wired and wireless devices — a setup known as cloud computing. Microsoft sees a Web future as well, but one whose center of gravity remains firmly tethered to its desktop PC software. Therein lies the conflict."

Follow up to December 13, 2007 posting Senator George J. Mitchell Releases Report on Major League Baseball Investigation, this news: "A free, searchable database of The Mitchell Report has been released by askSam Systems. The askSam database contains a full-text searchable archive of George J. Mitchell's report to the commissioner of baseball on the investigation into steroid and other performance enhancing substance use by players in Major League Baseball."

Nuclear Power in a Warming World - Findings and Recommendations in Brief: "Global warming demands a profound transformation in the ways we generate and consume energy. Because nuclear power results in few global warming emissions, an increase in nuclear power could help reduce global warming—but it could also increase the threats to human safety and security. The risks include a massive release of radiation due to a power plant meltdown or terrorist attack, and the death of hundreds of thousands due to the detonation of a nuclear weapon made with materials obtained from a civilian nuclear power system. Minimizing these risks is simply pragmatic: nothing will affect the public acceptability of nuclear power as much as a serious nuclear accident, a terrorist strike on a reactor or spent fuel pool, or the terrorist detonation of a nuclear weapon made from stolen nuclear reactor materials."

Press release: "Vital government information appears “invisible” to millions of Americans who are combing the Internet and looking for answers via the most popular search engines, according to a report released today by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and OMB Watch. The report, Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines, highlights the shortcomings some federal agencies exhibit when trying to comply with the mandates of the E-Government Act of 2002, a landmark law that promotes access to government information and services."

"This edition of eJournal USA presents an introduction to the upcoming 2008 U.S. elections. In these elections, U.S. voters will have the opportunity to vote for president and vice president, congressional representatives, state and local officials, and ballot initiatives. The journal describes aspects of this election which make it different from most recent elections and includes a pro-con debate of the Electoral College."

Acceptance Speech, Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize in Literature 2007, December 7, 2007: "...We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education, to know nothing about the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers. What has happened to us is an amazing invention, computers and the internet and TV, a revolution. This is not the first revolution we, the human race, has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, changed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked "What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print?" And just as we never once stopped to ask, How are we, our minds, going to change with the new internet, which has seduced a whole generation into its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging and blugging etc."

"This week the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a number of online safety bills that pose significant risks for free speech and innovation on the Internet. No less than seven bills relating to online safety are in play in Congress this week; CDT today released an analysis of each. CDT supports S. 2344, which promote online safety education, and H.R. 719, which focuses Internet restrictions on sex offenders who might pose risks to children online. CDT strongly opposes all or portions of five other bills now pending in the Senate."

Press release: "A new study released today by the Newspaper National Network LP reports that Newspaper Website Users are 52% more likely to be “Influencers,” based on the MRI definition, as compared with Newspaper Website Non-Users. Study findings highlight the power Newspaper Website Users have to shape opinions about new products, technologies, and issues. Adults who use Newspaper Websites and read printed newspapers influence 18 people, on average, weekly 38% more than the web user who does not use a newspaper website (13 people average per week). Immediate family, friends and co-workers are core beneficiaries within their influence circle."

Trafficking in human beings: Internet recruitment. Misuse of the Internet for the recruitment of victims of trafficking in human beings, prepared by Athanassia P. Sykiotou, Lecturer in Criminology, Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace (Greece). Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs Council of Europe 2007. (150 pages, PDF)

Via OpenCRS - CRS Report, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Issues for Congress, December 5, 2007 (27 pages, PDF).

Role of Health Insurance Coverage in Women's Access to Prescription Medicines: "This article presents findings from the 2004 Kaiser Women's Health Survey examining how health insurance coverage affects access to prescription medicines for non-elderly women. Results from the nationally representative telephone survey indicate that a lack of health insurance coverage is significantly associated with experiencing cost barriers to prescription medications, regardless of income level. These findings underscore the important role that insurance coverage plays in protecting women from out-of-pocket costs and for accessing prescription medicines....It was published in the journal Women's Health Issues.

A Report of the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery (CA ACTS) Task Force

How the World Rates Women as Leaders by Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Research Associate, Pew Global Attitudes Project, December 5, 2007: "On December 10, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will be inaugurated as Argentina's first female president. The senator and first lady will join 11 other women who currently serve as their countries' presidents or prime ministers, including Michelle Bachelet in neighboring Chile. But while women worldwide are making gains in all levels of government, the most recent Pew Global Attitudes survey of 46 countries and the Palestinian territories finds that publics around the world express mixed opinions about women and political leadership."

Press release: "A report released today by the Washington, DC-based National Environmental Trust demonstrates that many U.S. states individually emit more greenhouse gases than hundreds of developing nations combined. The report, Taking Responsibility: Why the United States Must Lead the World in Reducing Global Warming Pollution (99 pages, PDF) compares annual state emissions data to that of developing and developed nations, graphically illustrating the scope of individual U.S. states' contribution to global warming."

Related reports and links:

• State Department website on Climate Change and Clean Energy


• CRS Report - Climate Change: Issues Underlying Negotiations at the Bali Conference of Parties, November 27, 2007


• CRS Report - Climate Change: Science Update 2007, November 26, 2007


• The National Foreign Trade Council, WTO-Compatibility of Four Categories of U.S. Climate Change Policy


• beSpacific postings on climate change

Press release: "The Ecology Center, a Michigan-based nonprofit organization, today released the results of their testing of 1,200 popular children's toys for toxic chemicals at www.HealthyToys.org. Working with environmental health groups across the country, the Ecology Center led the development of the site to inform consumers about products they will be purchasing this holiday season. Parents and other holiday shoppers can now easily search by product name, brand, or toy type to learn how the products rate in terms of harmful chemical content."

Botnets, Cybercrime, and Cyberterrorism: Vulnerabilities and Policy Issues for Congress, Updated November 15, 2007. "Cybercrime is becoming more organized and established as a transnational business. High technology online skills are now available for rent to a variety of customers, possibly including nation states, or individuals and groups that could
secretly represent terrorist groups. The increased use of automated attack tools by cybercriminals has overwhelmed some current methodologies used for tracking Internet cyberattacks, and vulnerabilities of the U.S. critical infrastructure, which are acknowledged openly in publications, could possibly attract cyberattacks to extort money, or damage the U.S. economy to affect national security...This report discusses options now open to nation states, extremists, or terrorist groups for obtaining malicious technical services from cybercriminals to meet political or military objectives, and describes the possible effects of a coordinated cyberattack against the U.S. critical infrastructure."

The Looming Infrastructure Plateau? Space, Funding, Connection Speed, and the Ability of Public Libraries to meet the Demand for Free Internet Access [First Monday], December 2007.

Press release: "World Economic Forum today announced 39 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008. The companies’ products and services include identity management on the Internet, understanding of individuals’ genetic information, robotic radiosurgery, pollution control materials, low-cost remote diagnosis solutions, virtual interface technologies, wiki-based projects and next generation business intelligence solutions. Twenty-three of the Technology Pioneers 2008 are US-based companies. Israel and the United Kingdom each boast three; Sweden and Switzerland two each; Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Russia, one each. Technology Pioneers are nominated in three main categories: Energy/Environment, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology.

Project for Excellence in Journalism: "After four years of war in Iraq, the journalists reporting from that country give their coverage a mixed but generally positive assessment, but they believe they have done a better job of covering the American military and the insurgency than they have the lives of ordinary Iraqis. And they do not believe the coverage of Iraq over time has been too negative. If anything, many believe the situation over the course of the war has been worse than the American public has perceived, according to a new survey of journalists covering the war from Iraq."

"In preparation for this year’s World AIDS Day, December 1 2007, the Kaiser Family Foundation would like to highlight several new resources that may be of interest, including updated HIV/AIDS fact sheets and web tools, and developments in some of our global public education campaigns designed to raise awareness about HIV." [Link to resource guide including those listed below.]

McAfee Virtual Criminology Report - Cybercrime: The Next Wave - The annual McAfee global cyber trends study into organized crime and the Internet in collaboration with leading international security experts, November 2007.

Press release: "The new, non-proprietary, open standard, ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol), is set to put an end to publisher-search engine legal clashes was unveiled and showcased in New York today, 29 November 2007 at a conference opened by World Association of Newspapers President, Gavin O’Reilly and addressed by keynote speaker AP CEO Tom Curley. ACAP has been developed at the initiative of the World Association of Newspapers, the International Publishers Association and the European Publishers Council in close collaboration with search engines to protect the intellectual property of anyone wishing to make content available on the worldwide web. ACAP is the result of an intense 12-month pilot project which has resulted in a unique communications tool that will open the door to more and more high level content, giving all content owners the confidence to make their content available on the worldwide web. From today, publishers globally will be encouraged to implement ACAP version 1 which will allow publishers, broadcasters and indeed any other publisher of content on the network to express their individual access and use policies in a language that search engine robots and similar automated tools can read and understand. ACAP is set to become a universal standard. Click here for instructions on how to implement ACAP."

Press release: "In the wake of the detection and reporting of Comcast Corporation's controversial interference with Internet traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a comprehensive account of Comcast's packet-forging activities and has released software and documentation instructing Internet users on how to test for packet forgery or other forms of interference by their own ISPs."

• Packet Forgery by ISPs: A Report on the Comcast Affair


• Detecting Packet Injection: A Guide to Packet Spoofing by ISPs


• EFF's research into Comcast's packet monitoring

Follow up to March 27, 2007 posting Opening up of the Bad Arolsen Holocaust Archives in Germany, this news:

Press release: "The sixth edition of Greenpeace International’s ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ has been expanded to include televisions and game consoles.(1) Market leaders Microsoft, Nintendo, Philips and Sharp enter at the bottom of the ranking of environmental performance with Nintendo being the first company scoring zero out of a possible 10 points. Philips and Microsoft performed little better, scoring only 2 and 2.7, respectively."

News.com: "The Universal Digital Library, a book-scanning project backed by several major libraries across the globe, has completed the digitization of 1.5 million books and on Tuesday made them free and publically available. The online library offers full text downloads of works that are in the public domain, or for which the copyright holder has been given permission to make available. Having the backing of prominent institutions such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, however, the collection goes far beyond the widely available classics, though those are there, too..." According to the director of intellectual property for the Universal Digital Library, Michael Shamos, "But once books are digitized and stored on servers around the world, it becomes impossible for any one government to destroy all the copies of a book. Once it's there it remains immortal."

Verizon press release: "Verizon Wireless today announced that it will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company. Verizon Wireless plans to have this new choice available to customers throughout the country by the end of 2008."

LC press release: "The Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and OCLC have signed a memorandum of understanding to extend and enhance the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), a project that virtually combines multiple name authority files into a single name authority service. Building on a previous proof-of-concept research project by the Library, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (the German national library) and OCLC, the new agreement adds the Bibliothèque nationale de France (the French national library) as a principal partner in VIAF and will lead to the inclusion of content from name authority files maintained by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The French name authority records will be added to the existing VIAF files built from authority data from the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Library of Congress. VIAF’s matching routines were developed by OCLC research."

WSJ: "Google is preparing a service that would let users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives -- such as word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and images, say people familiar with the matter. The service could let users access their files via the Internet from different computers and mobile devices when they sign on with a password, and share them online with friends. It could be released as early as a few months from now, one of the people said."

Press release: "With public concern over online fraud, new research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, has revealed that internet users will reveal more personal information online if they believe they can trust the organisation that requests the information. 'Even people who have previously demonstrated a high level of caution regarding online privacy will accept losses to their privacy if they trust the recipient of their personal information' says Dr Adam Joinson, who led the study. The findings of the study are vital for those aiming to create online services that pose a potential privacy threat, such as Government agencies involved in developing ID cards. The project found that even those people who declared themselves unconcerned about privacy would soon become opposed to ID cards if the way that they were asked for information made them feel that their privacy was threatened...56 percent of internet users stated that they have concerns about privacy when they are online. The central issue was whether websites were seen as particularly trustworthy - or untrustworthy - causing users to alter their behaviour. When a website is designed to look trustworthy, people are willing to accept privacy violations. But, the same actions by an untrustworthy site leads to people behaving in a much more guarded manner."

• Privacy and Self-Disclosure Online


• The Privacy and Self-Disclosure Online Project website


• Buchanan, T., Paine, C.B, Joinson, A.N and Reips, U-D. (2007) Development of measures of online privacy concern and protection for use on the Internet. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58, p.157-165.
Permanent Link

WSJ free feature, Clinging to the Rolodex: "More than 20 years after the digital revolution that forecasted the paperless office, the "rotary card file" -- best known by the market-leading brand name, Rolodex -- continues to turn. As millions of social-network users display their connectedness on their Facebook pages, a surprisingly robust group of people maintain their networks on small white cards. Most of these devotees also rely on BlackBerrys and other computer-based address books."

WSJ: A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions - How a Computer for the Poor
Got Stomped by Tech Giants, By STEVE STECKLOW and JAMES BANDLER, November 24, 2007.

"Word Spy is devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't "stunt words" or "sniglets," but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources."

Access Case Records: "Minnesota Online District (Trial) Case Records - Minnesota District Courts offer an online case inquiry tool for statewide electronic case records, called MPA Remote, which stands for Minnesota Trial Court Public Access Remote view. MPA Remote is a public-view version of the Minnesota Court Information System (MNCIS), the computerized case management system used by Minnesota District Courts to track and manage cases. MPA Remote contains replicated public case data from MNCIS. Upon inquiry, MPA Remote displays case information for public viewing, including register of actions, calendars, judgments, and orders and notices prepared by the court."

101 Best Web Freebies - BusinessWeek.com scoured the Internet for the most useful free products and services available online that you probably don't know about, by Douglas MacMillan. This 45 screen slideshow includes graphics and links to recommended products by category - tech tools, personal finance, career, entertainment, print media, research, health, online learning, PC security.

This series is a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and Research Center for Information Law at University of St. Gallen. Authors, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser.

Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age, James Waldo, Herbert S. Lin, and Lynette I. Millett, Editors, Committee on Privacy in the Information Age, National Research Council.

The Internet Singularity, Delayed: Why Limits in Internet Capacity Will Stifle Innovation on the Web - "In this research study, Nemertes performed an independent in-depth analysis of Internet and IP infrastructure (which we call capacity) and current and projected traffic (which we call demand) with the goal of understanding how each has changed over time, and determining if there will ever be a point at which demand exceeds capacity....findings indicate that although core fiber and switching/routing resources will scale nicely to support virtually any conceivable user demand, Internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate for supporting demand within the next three to five years. We estimate the financial investment required by access providers to bridge the gap between demand and capacity ranges from $42 billion to $55 billion, or roughly 60%-70% more than service providers currently plan to invest. It’s important to stress that failing to make that investment will not cause the Internet to collapse. Instead, the primary impact of the lack of investment will be to throttle innovation” both the technical innovation that leads to increasingly newer and better applications, and the business innovation that relies on those technical innovations and applications to generate value. The next Google, YouTube, or Amazon might not arise, not because of a lack of demand, but due to an inability to fulfill that demand."

Press release: "Thomson Healthcare, publisher of the definitive drug resource for physicians, the Physicians’ Desk Reference...announced the launch of PDRhealth.com, an online health Web site for the more than 80 percent of consumers that use the Internet to search for health information. Developed for consumers, PDRhealth.com is based on the same information platform that Thomson Healthcare uses to create the world’s largest and most trusted database of prescription drug information, Physicians’ Desk Reference. This drug information is paired with comprehensive diagnostic tools in the new PDRhealth.com, putting critical health information into the hands of consumers."

EPA News release: EPA has developed two tools that let computer users "see" air quality information on a virtual globe. Both tools are available to the public starting today...The first tool is part of the new "Air Emission Sources" Web site, which is designed to make emissions data for six common pollutants easy to find and understand. Based on the latest National Emissions Inventory, the site uses charts and Google Earth files to answer a user’s questions. Users can look at overall emissions, emissions by type of industry, or emissions by largest polluter. Want to know what industry emits the most sulfur dioxide in your state? Select your state from a map, pick a pollutant, and the site creates a chart showing you emissions by industry. Want to "see" which refineries in your state emit the most sulfur dioxide? Use the "tilt" feature in Google Earth to quickly find the largest emitter. Then click on the balloon to get more details about emissions from that facility. EPA also is providing Air Quality Index (AQI) information in the Google Earth format. Use the AQI tool to quickly see air quality across the country, then click on a specific location to see that city’s AQI forecast and current levels of ozone or particle pollution. The AQI is EPA’s color-coded tool to inform the public about daily air pollution levels in their communities. EPA, in collaboration with state and local governments, provides AQI forecasts and conditions for more than 300 cities across the United States."

• Air Emissions Sources Web site


• View information in Google Earth format about which facilities emit any of six common pollutants


• See AQI forecasts and current conditions


• View air quality information in Google Earth format


• EPA is also using the Google Earth platform to display Acid Rain Program data

Coalition of Journalists for Open Government: "The Department of Energy, in a new rule covering Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII), said that it will eliminate the “Non-Internet Public” designation that has kept some 5,400 documents available in reading rooms but not on the Internet. The agency said much of the information is already available online and the NIP marker “does not enhance security or safety.” It said it would allow 60 days in which the status of any individual document could be challenged before being posted."

Gender differences in the use of computers and the Internet - Issue number 119/2007: "The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has become an essential feature of both economic and social activity across Europe. In nearly all European countries and in all age groups, however, men are more regular users of both computers and the internet than women and many more men than women are employed in computing jobs throughout the EU."

Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom Review: Information For Veterans Who Served In Iraq And Afghanistan And Their Families (October 2007). Articles in this issue include: VA Researchers Develop New Prosthetic Ankle; VA Brings Mental Health Programs To Primary Care Settings; VA's Suicide Hotline Begins Operations; How To Apply For Disability Compensation from VA; Where To get Help.

"The IPCC has launched the first three volumes of its assessment report “Climate Change 2007” and is currently finalizing its Synthesis report [Fourth Assessment report ("AR4"]. The Synthesis Report [was] launched in Valencia, Spain, 17 November 2007 during a press conference."

The Future of Reading, by Steven Levy, Newsweek, November 17, 2007: "...the Kindle...has the dimensions of a paperback, with a tapering of its width that emulates the bulge toward a book's binding. It weighs but 10.3 ounces, and unlike a laptop computer it does not run hot or make intrusive beeps....with the use of E Ink, a breakthrough technology of several years ago that mimes the clarity of a printed book, the Kindle's six-inch screen posts readable pages... (The Kindle gets as many as 30 hours of reading on a charge, and recharges in two hours.)...E-book devices like the Kindle allow you to change the font size: aging baby boomers will appreciate that every book can instantly be a large-type edition. The handheld device can also hold several shelves' worth of books: 200 of them onboard, hundreds more on a memory card and a limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon. Also, the Kindle [costs $399] allows you to search within the book for a phrase or name...Some of those features have been available on previous e-book devices, notably the Sony Reader. The Kindle's real breakthrough springs from a feature that its predecessors never offered: wireless connectivity, via a system called Whispernet. (It's based on the EVDO broadband service offered by cell-phone carriers, allowing it to work anywhere, not just Wi-Fi hotspots.)"

McAfee Avert Labs Top 10 Threat Predictions for 2008, Authors: McAfee Avert Labs, USA November 16, 2007.

"The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) issued its first library statistics report on state library agencies, on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 2006. The State Library Agency Report for FY 2006 [released November 2007] includes a wide array of information on topics such as libraries’ Internet access, services, collections, staff, and revenue, and is used by state and federal policymakers, researchers, and others."

Press release, November 15, 2007: "IT security and control firm Sophos has revealed new research into the use of other people's Wi-Fi networks to piggyback onto the internet without payment. The research, carried out by Sophos on behalf of The Times, shows that 54 percent of computer users have admitted breaking the law, by using someone else's wireless internet access without permission. According to Sophos, many internet-enabled homes fail to properly secure their wireless connection with passwords and encryption, allowing freeloading passers-by and neighbours to steal internet access rather than paying an Internet Service Provide (ISP) for their own. In addition, while businesses often have security measures in place to protect the Wi-Fi networks within their offices from attack, Sophos experts note that remote users working from home could prove to be a weak link in corporate defenses."

"We are pleased to announce the launch of the Carbon Monitoring for Action database at www.carma.org. CARMA provides the world’s most detailed and comprehensive information on carbon emissions resulting from the production of electricity. Power sector emissions make up 25% of the global total, 40% of carbon emissions in the United States, and are a primary cause of global warming. CARMA is a product of the Confronting Climate Change Initiative at the Center for Global Development, an independent and non-partisan think tank located in Washington, DC."

"America Recycles Day — celebrated on November 15 — is a national campaign to encourage all Americans to produce less waste, reuse and recycle more materials, and buy more recyclable products. All of these actions help to conserve energy, preserve natural resources, and reduce emissions. The U.S. currently recycles about one third of its waste, which represents a significant increase from 15 years ago. To continue this positive trend and participate in local events for America Recycles Day, visit the National Recycling Coalition."

The University of Arizona Artificial Intelligence Lab Dark Web project: "Based on our actual spidering experience over the past 5 years, we believe there are about 50,000 sites of extremist and terrorist content as of 2007, including: web sites, forums, blogs, social networking sites, video sites, and virtual world sites (e.g., Second Life). The largest increase in 2006-2007 is in various new Web 2.0 sites (forums, videos, blogs, virtual world, etc.) in different languages (i.e., for home-grown groups, particularly in Europe). We have found significant terrorism content in more than 15 languages...We believe our Dark Web collection is the largest open-source extremist and terrorist collection in the academic world."

National Alliance to End Homelessness: This report details the number of homeless veterans by state, how housing and lack of housing contributes to the problem, and strategies to prevent and end homelessness for veterans.

• "In 2006, approximately 195,827 veterans were homeless on a given night—an increase of 0.8 percent from 194,254 in 2005. More veterans experience homeless over the course of the year. We estimate that 336,627 were homeless in 2006.


• Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people. They represent roughly 26 percent of homeless people, but only 11 percent of the civilian population 18 years and older. This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed, and have a lower poverty rate than the general population."

Kaisernetwork.org: Decreasing Reimbursements for Outpatient Emergency Department Visits Across Payer Groups From 1996-2004, Annals of Emergency Medicine, November 2007: "The study finds that the share of emergency department charges paid was consistently lowest for Medicaid beneficiaries and the uninsured and was consistently the highest for visits by privately insured patients. The study also finds that declines in the proportion of payments to charges over the eight-year period tended to be greater among insured patients, and reimbursements declined the least for the uninsured."

National Center for Education Statistics, Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2005: "This report includes national and state summary data on public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with an introduction, selected findings, and several tables. The report, based on data from the Public Libraries Survey for fiscal year 2005, includes information on population of legal service area, service outlets, library collections and services, full-time equivalent staff, and operating revenue and expenditures. The report includes several key findings: Nationwide, visits to public libraries totaled 1.4 billion, or 4.7 library visits per capita. The average number of Internet terminals available for public use per stationary outlet was 11.2."

Alliance for Public Technology's new report, Broadband Initiatives: Enhancing Lives & Transforming Communities (72 pages, PDF)

Follow up to previous postings on the domestic surveillance program and AT&T's alleged participation, today's article in the Washington Post, A Story of Surveillance - Former Technician 'Turning In' AT&T Over NSA Program, by Ellen Nakashima: "...Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician...alleged that the NSA set up a system that vacuumed up Internet and phone-call data from ordinary Americans with the cooperation of AT&T. Contrary to the government's depiction of its surveillance program as aimed at overseas terrorists, Klein said, much of the data sent through AT&T to the NSA was purely domestic."

Byting Back -- Regaining Information Superiority Against 21st-Century Insurgents, RAND Counterinsurgency Study -- Volume 1: "U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to exploit information power, which could be a U.S. advantage but instead is being used advantageously by insurgents. Because insurgency and counterinsurgency involve a battle for the allegiance of a population between a government and an armed opposition movement, the key to exploiting information power is to connect with and learn from the population itself, increasing the effectiveness of both the local government and the U.S. military and civilian services engaged in supporting it. Utilizing mostly available networking technology, the United States could achieve early, affordable, and substantial gains in the effectiveness of counterinsurgency by more open, integrated, and inclusive information networking with the population, local authorities, and coalition partners."

Press release: "According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate. In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 178 million, a ten percent increase."

Press release: "A federal judge today ruled on a preservation motion filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ordering that telecommunications companies must preserve any evidence of collaborating with the government in illegal spying on ordinary Americans. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ordered the telecommunications companies to halt any routine destruction of documents or to arrange for the preservation of accurate copies. On December 14, each party must provide the court with confirmation that the court's order has been carried out. The court order did not require the government or the carriers to reveal whether or not they had any relevant evidence."

"The OECD broadband portal provides access to a range of broadband-related statistics gathered by the OECD. Policy makers must examine a range of indicators which reflect the status of individual broadband markets in the OECD. The OECD has indentified five main categories which are important for assessing broadband markets...Penetration (actual lines); Usage (household surveys); Coverage and Geography; Prices; Services and speeds."

The New Yorker: Digitization and its discontents, by Anthony Grafton, November 5, 2007

"For the seventh year, FOREIGN POLICY partners with A.T. Kearney to measure countries on their economic, personal, technological, and political integration. Find out who’s climbing the ranks, and who’s sliding down."

"The Internet is becoming increasingly embedded in everyday life. Drawing on an expanding array of intelligent web services and applications, a growing number of people are creating, distributing and exploiting user-created content (UCC) and being part of the wider participative web. This study describes the rapid growth of UCC and its increasing role in worldwide communication, and draws out implications for policy. Questions addressed include: What is user-created content? What are its key drivers, its scope and different forms? What are the new value chains and business models? What are the extent and form of social, cultural and economic opportunities and impacts? What are the associated challenges? Is there a government role, and what form could it take?"

The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change, Kurt M. Campbell, Jay Gulledge, J.R. McNeill, John Podesta, Peter Ogden, leon Fuerth, R. James Woolsey, Alexander T.J. lennon, Julianne Smith, Richard Weitz, and Derek Mix, November 2007

"The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Singapore, respectively. The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report. This year, over 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 131 countries."

"The Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School is pleased to present the results of the sixth year of our project, "Surveying the Digital Future." The six years of longitudinal research comprise an absolutely unique data base that completely captures broadband at home, the wireless Internet, on-line media, user-generated content and, now, social networking. This year's report contains a large module looking at on-line communities and social networking in great detail. Readers can compare the social networking data and correlate it to six years of attitudes and behaviors on-line. As usual, the report continues to track off-line media use, purchasing both off-line and through e-commerce, social and political activity and a wealth of other data."

Press release: "A nationwide survey released [November 1, 2007] by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows the number of Americans who hold anti-Semitic attitudes remains constant from its 2005 findings, demonstrating once again that "anti-Semitic beliefs endure in America." The 2007 Survey of American Attitudes Towards Jews in America, a national telephone survey of 2,000 American adults conducted October 6 through October 19, found that 15% of Americans - or nearly 35 million adults - hold views about Jews that are "unquestionably anti-Semitic," compared to 14% in 2005. Previous ADL surveys over the last decade had indicated that anti-Semitism was in decline (graph). Seven years ago, in 1998, the number of Americans with hardcore anti-Semitic beliefs had dropped to 12% from 20% in 1992. The survey was released at the annual meeting of the League's National Commission."

"The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) has released a research report on the growth of low income children in the South’s public schools. The report finds that public schools in the region have enrolled a majority of low income students in each of the last three years (2004-2006) and today the South is the only region in the nation where low income students are 50 percent or more of public school enrollment."

"The United Nations, Google and Cisco today unveiled a pioneering online site that tracks progress towards decreasing global poverty by 2015, a global campaign known as the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. Visit the website at www.mdgmonitor.org"

Press release: "Online video-hosting services like YouTube have ushered in a new era of free expression online, as well as vigorous copyright enforcement efforts. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of leading public interest groups issued a "Fair Use Principles" document that sets out six concrete guidelines designed to minimize the collateral damage that copyright enforcement efforts may inflict on video creators who are "remixing" copyrighted material into new video
creations."

Press release: "Today, the Progress and Freedom Foundation released a new report on inadvertent filesharing by the authors of Filesharing Programs and "Technological Features to Induce Users to Share," a groundbreaking analysis published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in March of 2007. This new report, Inadvertent Filesharing Sharing Revisited: Assessing LimeWire's Responses to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, seeks to enhance understanding of the causes of inadvertent sharing by analyzing (1) recently released data that the distributors of the program LimeWire gave to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform before its July 24, 2007 hearing on inadvertent sharing, and (2) the efficacy of efforts to improve the LimeWire program since the Committee's hearing. The authors conclude that law enforcement should investigate whether filesharing programs deliberately perpetuate inadvertent filesharing."

Press release: "The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which has been declining since August, fell further in October. The Index now stands at 95.6 (1985=100), down from 99.5 in September. The Present Situation Index decreased to 118.8 from 121.2 in September. The Expectations Index declined to 80.1 from 85.0. The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households...Consumers' short-term expectations eroded further in October. Consumers expecting business conditions to worsen in the next six months rose to 13.8 percent from 11.9 percent. Those anticipating business conditions to improve declined to 13.7 percent from 15.7 percent."

"The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, archi­tectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research."

"Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online -- at least 17% more than average adults."

"On Oct. 22, 2007, the InterAcademy Council released a new report, commissioned by the governments of Brazil and China, identifying and detailing the scientific consensus framework for directing global energy development. Lighting the way: Toward a sustainable energy future lays out the science, technology and policy roadmap for developing energy resources to drive economic growth in both developed and developing countries while also securing climate protection and global development goals. For more information on the report, see the press release or the IAC's Lighting the way brochure and further background information. To view or download the full report, click here."

Press release: "The latest Taking Stock report from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) reveals that a continued decline in releases of toxic chemicals to the environment—15 percent for the United States and Canada from 1998 to 2004—is being driven by a group of industrial facilities that are the largest generators of emissions. The CEC report, however, also reveals that the leading role of the largest waste-producing facilities stands in stark contrast to a substantial increase in chemical releases and transfers by a much larger group of industrial facilities that report lower volumes of emissions."

Press release: Several of the world’s leading Internet and media companies today announced their joint support for a set of collaborative principles that enable the continued growth and development of user-generated content online and respect the intellectual property of content owners. The principles serve as a comprehensive set of guidelines to help user-generated content (UGC) services and content creators work together towards their collective goal of bringing more content to more consumers through legitimate channels. The principles acknowledge a collective respect for protecting copyrights and recognize that filtering technologies must be effective and are only a part of what is necessary to achieve this goal. The companies supporting these principles include CBS Corp., Dailymotion, Fox Entertainment Group, Microsoft Corp., MySpace, NBC Universal, Veoh Networks Inc., Viacom Inc. and The Walt Disney Company."

"The Spartan Internet Political Performance (SIPP) Index is the first quantitative metric to measure the Internet-wide performance of each Presidential candidate for the 2008 election. The Index is comprised of over 650 quantitative factors measuring the level of support and how well each candidate is connecting with individuals across the Internet. The score for each candidate represents their overall Internet market share."

"The Arctic Report Card 2007 is introduced as a means of presenting clear, reliable and concise information on recent observations of environmental conditions in the Arctic, relative to historical time series records. It provides a method of updating and expanding the content of the State of the Arctic Report, published in fall 2006, to reflect current conditions...Collectively, the observations indicate that the overall warming of the Arctic system continued in 2007. There are some elements that are stabilizing or returning to climatological norms. These mixed tendencies illustrate the sensitivity and complexity of the Arctic System."

Press release: "Innovations being developed for commercial use also have the potential to play a major role in protecting the country and improving our ability to respond to and quickly recover from a catastrophic event, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Reform Institute. From the Storefront to the Front Lines: The Private Sector and Homeland Security Investment (28 pages, PDF) examines commercial technologies that are currently being utilized in the homeland security arena." [Homeland Security Digital Library]

National Space Society: Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security - National Security Space Office Interim Assessment Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study, October 10, 2007

"DogsInDanger.com is a nonprofit national shelter outreach program at the forefront of a grassroots movement trying to help shelters save the lives of millions of innocent dogs...Shelters are the last line for millions of innocent dogs. The public has no idea of the magnitude of this national tragedy. The sad reality is that over four million dogs are killed each year in shelters...DogsInDanger.com believes in the power of compassion, and that Americans would do more to help and adopt shelter dogs, if only they knew how many dogs shelters were forced to euthanize. We also believe that shelters don’t really want to euthanize dogs, if they had any other option. Simply put, we have chosen a path of technology [locate a specific breed within a radius of your zipcode, and view shelter contact info, website, photos of dog] as a means of connecting these scared, abandoned shelter dogs with the loving homes they deserve."

Pew Internet & American Life Project: "This morning's NPR story, Patients Turn to the Internet for Health Information, featured data from [Pew's] e-patients report, but also some research that has been conducted at the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS) at the University of Wisconsin. CHESS researchers Robert Hawkins and Suzanne Pingree talked about how breast cancer patients in their study seemed to benefit from being directed to doctor-approved health information online."

ICANN: "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will launch an evaluation of Internationalized Domain Names next week that will allow Internet users to test top-level domains in 11 languages... The evaluation is made possible by today’s insertion into the root of the 11 versions of .test, which means they are alongside other top-level domains like .net, .com, .info, .uk, and .de at the core of the Internet. Next Monday, 15 October 2007, Internet users around the globe will be able to access wiki pages with the domain name example.test in 11 test languages — Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil...More information on the IDN program is available here."

Assessing the Value of Information and Communication Technologies to Modern Terrorist Organizations, by Bruce W. Don, David R. Frelinger, Scott Gerwehr, Eric Landree, Brian A. Jackson

Press release: "Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt...The top 10 strategic technologies for 2008 include: Green IT; Unified Communications; Business Process Modeling; Metadata Management; Virtualization 2.0; Mashup & Composite Apps; Web Platform & WOA; Computing Fabric; Real World Web; Social Software."

62 Days + Almost 3 Billion Pings + New Visualization Scheme = the First Internet Census Since 1982: "Researchers at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, one of the birthplaces of the Internet decades ago, have just completed and plotted a comprehensive census of all of the more 2.8 billion allocated addresses on the Internet -- the first complete effort of its kind in more than two decades, they say."

Press release: "The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released its latest report on the internet's impact on health and health care, "E-patients with a Disability or Chronic Disease." The new survey data nails down what many people have long suspected - people with chronic conditions are disproportionately offline, but once they are online, they are just as enthusiastic as other internet users. After detailing their general online interests, the report focuses on how this special population uses the internet to gather health information. Not surprisingly, once they are online, people with chronic conditions are avid e-patients. The report also shows that e-patients with chronic conditions do not lack for information about their health concerns, but they are frustrated by the process of finding the right information at the moment they need it."

"Two of the key findings from this year’s Global Security Survey revolve around an organization’s people and a paradox that has been around for years. The weakest link in an organization’s security is its people. An organization’s people include employees, customers, third parties and business partners. And of those people, the highest number of breaches are perpetrated via the customer. Even though information security incidents are grabbing the attention of business executives and boards, these individuals do not yet feel that they “own” the problem. In their estimation, the execution of solutions is the mandate of IT. This information security paradox has been alive and well for years; the 2007 security survey confirms just how widespread it is."

Government Technology: "After over two decades of close interaction with the technology researchers, developers and business industries in New York City, the Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation (ITAC) has released a report regarding the nature and depth of the tech sector in NYC. According to Kunal Malhotra, director of legislation and budget to Council Member Gale A. Brewer, the report contends that: The technology workforce (227k) ranks only behind financial services (313k) and healthcare (366k); The NY metropolitan statistical area is the nation's largest center of high-technology employment, outranking better-known technology centers such as Silicon Valley, Seattle and Boston..."

NOZA: "We have built a searchable database containing more than 26 million charitable donation records (growing by 1,000,000 records monthly). Charities access our database through our website and search for prospective donors for their organizations...Highlights of the new site include: fewer steps to find the data you’re looking for; streamlined navigation; additional sorting and viewing options; the ability to save records in folders if you are logged in; new content for prospect researchers and foundation grant records are now absolutely free." [Peter Scott's Library Blog]

WORLD PUBLICS WELCOME GLOBAL TRADE – BUT NOT IMMIGRATION (144 pages, PDF)- "The publics of the world broadly embrace key tenets of economic globalization but fear the disruptions and downsides of participating in the global economy. In rich countries as well as poor ones, most people endorse free trade, multinational corporations and free markets. However, the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey of more than 45,000 people finds they are concerned about inequality, threats to their culture, threats to the environment and threats posed by immigration. Together, these results reveal an evolving world view on globalization that is nuanced, ambivalent, and sometimes inherently contradictory."

Google: "On October 13th and 14th, Googlers, our friends and family, and a lot of other folks around the world will be heading out to clean up our local parks, beaches, trails and other hot spots. Each of these projects will make a small difference to a specific neighborhood. Together, we hope to have a global impact, and make a real difference in how lots of people view themselves and their communities. Want to get involved?"

Press release: "Joined by nationally recognized medical providers, health-management device manufacturers and patient advocacy organizations, Microsoft Corp. today launched Microsoft® HealthVault, a software and services platform aimed at helping people better manage their health information. The company outlined its vision for ways that HealthVault can bring the health and technology industries together to create new applications, services and connected devices that help people manage and monitor their personal health information...The HealthVault platform is available to people for free at http://www.healthvault.com."

Press release – "Further expanding public access to its intellectual riches through the most popular Web destinations, the University of California, Berkeley, announced today (Wednesday, Oct. 3) that it is making entire course lectures and special events available, free of charge, on YouTube. UC Berkeley is the first university to make videos of full courses available through YouTube. Visitors to the site at youtube.com/ucberkeley can view more than 300 hours of videotaped courses and events. Topics range from bioengineering, to peace and conflict studies, to "Physics for Future Presidents," the title of a popular campus course. Building on its initial offerings, UC Berkeley will continue to expand the catalog of videos available on YouTube."

The New Yorker: The Administration’s plan for Iran, by Seymour M. Hersh

Press release: "U.S.-based Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental group, in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland, [September 12, 2007] issued their Top Ten list of the world's most severely polluted places. Overall, the Top Ten sites lie in seven countries and affect a total of more than 12 million people."

Washingtonpost.com: "Beginning today and continuing through Wednesday, staff writer Rick Atkinson describes the effort by the U.S. military to combat the improvised explosive devices used by insurgents in Afghanistan and iraq from 2002 until now. Part one describes the effort through the summer of 2004. The series is drawn from more than 140 interviews over the past six months with military and congressional officials, contractors, scientists and defense analysts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Washington and elsewhere. Most agreed to speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity. Ten senior officers or retired officers, each of them intimately involved in the effort to combat IEDs, were asked to review the findings for accuracy and security considerations."

Press release: "In celebration of International Right to Know Day the National Security Archive's Mexico Project is launching a new Web site dedicated to its Transparency and Freedom of Information Program. The Web site features a new publication on the week-long media initiative Mexico Abierto, which launched its first edition during the week of March 11-17 of this year. With our partners at the Consejo Ciudadano del Premio Nacional de Periodismo, we are now preparing for the second edition that will be celebrated in March 2008. The Web site also includes a multi-media section with pictures, news publications and video clips of forums and delegations in Mexico. The Archive's Mexico Project has been actively involved in the movement for freedom of information rights in Mexico since 2001--a struggle which achieved its first success with the enactment of a landmark freedom of information statute in June 2002. The project supports the work of citizens' groups promoting greater transparency, openness and accountability in government. To this end, the Archive works closely with scholars, lawyers, freedom of information activists, NGOs, human rights groups and the press to design strategies for advancing the people's right to know in Mexico."

Cyberinfrastructure, Data, and Libraries, Part 1 - A Cyberinfrastructure Primer for Librarians, by Anna Gold, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, D-Lib Magazine, September/October 2007, Volume 13 Number 9/10.

Press release: "Dell today became the first major computer manufacturer to commit to neutralizing the carbon impact of its worldwide operations, a significant extension of its global climate policy and environmental stewardship. “Never before in the history of business have we seen such a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment,” Michael Dell, the company’s chairman and CEO, said here today during a policy forum organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies...The company also announced a new program called “Plant a Forest for Me” that enables organizations worldwide to join together with Dell and share best practices, partner and facilitate the planting of millions of trees in sustainably managed reforestation projects. This program is a continuation of the “Plant a Tree for Me” program for consumers."

The mission of OneWebDay is to create, maintain, advance and promote a global day to celebrate online life: September 22.

Press release: "Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today slammed a Bill introduced into the Senate which would give members of the Australian Federal Police powers to ban access to Internet content. The Communications Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism Related Internet Content) Bill 2007 would, if enacted, give senior members of the Australian Federal Police powers to ban access to Internet content which they "have reason to believe": encourages, incites, or induces the commission of a Commonwealth offence; or was published in part to facilitate the commission of such an offence; or that it is likely to have the effect of facilitating the commission of such an offence."

The Forbes 400: "One billion dollars is no longer enough. The price of admission to this, the 25th anniversary edition of the Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The collective net worth of the nation's mightiest plutocrats rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion."

Press release: "New higher-resolution lunar imagery and maps that include NASA multimedia content now are available on the Google Moon Web site. Updates include new content from the Apollo missions, including dozens of embedded panoramic images, links to audio clips and videos, and descriptions of the astronauts' activities during the missions. The new content is overlaid on updated, higher-resolution lunar maps. Also added are detailed charts of different regions of the moon suitable for use by anyone simulating a lunar mission."

"The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight tonight. The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect...In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free."

"Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them never yet recorded—will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works. National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots—the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages—and documenting the languages and cultures within them."

Press release: "Today the National Security Archive publishes a collection of documents concerning the use of U.S. reconnaissance satellites to collect data on targets within the United States over the last four decades. This new publication follows the August 15, 2007, revelation in the Wall Street Journal that the United States is planning to expand the use of reconnaissance satellites over the United States in support of civil agencies (those outside of the Defense Department and Intelligence Community) in response to recommendations by an independent study group. Obtained primarily through the Freedom of Information Act and archival research, the declassified documents published today describe a number of uses for which U.S. reconnaissance satellites have been employed, including evaluation of satellite performance, mapping, disaster relief, and assistance to Environmental Protection Agency investigations."

US Courts: "The success of the federal judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is well documented: Hundreds of millions of pages of court documents retrieved online each year by customers who numbers are approaching 750,000. Less attention, however, has focused on PACER's impact on court staffs. "It's definitely changed the way our office does business, and I think it's been a change for the better," said Monica Menier, clerk of the bankruptcy court in the Middle District of Louisiana."

"The Project for Excellence in Journalism released an interesting study showing how the news agenda of online news viewers differs from the agenda of mainstream reporters and editors. The study examines the content of several dozen major news organizations during a week last spring and compares it to the top stories submitted and voted on at Digg, Reddit and in the social booking site Del.icio.us as well as the top stories viewed at Yahoo and emailed from Yahoo's newspages. The research can be found here." [Amanda Lenhart]

Press release: "Disaster preparedness information in Illinois has become more readily accessible thanks to a new disaster preparedness Web site that has been released by the Blagojevich administration. The Ready Illinois Web site offers comprehensive information on steps people can take before emergencies happen, what to do once a disaster has occurred, and tips for recovery after the event. In addition, during a large-scale disaster, current information about the situation and details about such things as shelters and road closures can be posted on the site to help people access needed information. The Ready Illinois Web site contains sections that address what to do Before an Emergency, During an Emergency, and After the Emergency respectively. Additionally, throughout the Web site there are links to dozens of state and federal Web sites that contain additional helpful information for emergency preparedness, response and recovery."

The Internet Tax Freedom Act and the "Digital Divide" by Michael Mazerov, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Proponents of the "Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act" argue that banning state and local taxes on Internet access is key to encouraging more households to subscribe and incentivizing companies to make broadband more widely available. Considerable real-world evidence refutes this claim."

"Fair Use exceptions to U.S. copyright laws are responsible for more than $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the United States, according to the findings of an unprecedented economic study released today. According to the study commissioned by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and conducted in accordance with a World Intellectual Property Organization methodology, companies benefiting from limitations on copyright-holders’ exclusive rights, such as “fair use” – generate substantial revenue, employ millions of workers, and, in 2006, represented one-sixth of total U.S. GDP. The exhaustive report, released today at a briefing on Capitol Hill, quantifies for the first time ever the critical contributions of fair use to the U.S. economy. The timing proves particularly important as the debates over copyright law in the digital age move increasingly to center stage on Capitol Hill."

ALA: "Ever-growing patron de