In The News

China Squeezes PC Makers

Loretta Chao June 8, 2009
China will require all new personal computers to have software that blocks internet content by July 1. While the software need not be pre-installed – a separate disc is acceptable – this regulation creates substantial logistical and civil liberty hurdles. This exclusive Wall Street Journal story reports that personal computer manufacturers are scrambling to comply on such short notice as well as...

Irish Student Hoaxes World's Media with Fake Quote

Shawn Pogatchnik May 12, 2009
Making up fake quotes may once have been considered a school boy prank. Today, when those quotes are posted on the world’s foremost online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, and then are incorrectly attributed by numerous online news services, it becomes an experiment in how globalization monitors itself. A Dublin university student posted a fake quote of composer and conductor Maurice Jarre on Wikipedia...

Firewalls to Freedom

Rebecca MacKinnon March 9, 2009
To block popular dissent over policies, governments no longer simply rely on censorship, particularly the imperfect filters devised for the internet. Instead governments of all stripes master the art of spin – emphasizing certain topics and casting their own frame for any issue. Citizens who support government positions can tout policies and quickly blast doubters, as evident prior to the 2003 US...

Gaza Conflict Plays Out Online Through Social Media

Corey Flintoff January 15, 2009
Israel has stopped journalists from entering the war zone, but photos and reports continue to flow. As war rages in the Gaza Strip, cross-border social networking continues on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube. “Online media are conglomerating their information, and governments are getting into the act,” reports Corey Flintoff for National Public Radio. The public has changed the way it...

Mobiles Give Africa's Farmers the Chance to Set Out Their Stall

David Smith January 9, 2009
The African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and its partner Farm-Africa in Katine has developed a strategy that aims to empower the farmers of Katine in northeast Uganda by providing them with cell phones. Although cell-phone growth has exceeded initial estimates, Uganda still lags behind the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo where mobile subscriptions far exceed fixed-line...

Fragile Yet Indispensable

Nayan Chanda January 5, 2009
Damaged fiber-optic cables along the Mediterranean seabed cut internet access for almost 100 million users, and the sudden absence highlighted the service’s importance in the modern world, explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor, in his regular column for Businessworld. Modern business increasingly relies on exponential speed and volume of communications, and Chanda explains that “all aspects of...

Mice Starting to Win in the Beijing Blogosphere

Kirsty Needham December 4, 2008
Computers add to the challenges of censorship in the world’s most populated nation. “Tens of millions of mice over-ran China's internet trap this year, swamping it with chatter, nibbling towards freedom of speech,” explains Kirsty Needham, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald. China has more than 100 million bloggers, and natural disaster, political protests, business fraud and corruption...