In The News

The Pedal-Powered Internet

Clive Thompson December 15, 2002
For many people in the world, talk of globalization and new telecommunications technology is irrelevant; the world’s poorest don’t have enough to eat, let alone access to the Internet. But in Laos, an American nonprofit organization is working with Laotian farmers to set up a computer that they can use to check weather patterns and rice pricing. The farmers have no electricity or phone service...

Microsoft to Share Windows Code with India

Pragati Verma December 13, 2002
Fear of losing a huge market and a software development market may be pushing Microsoft to do what it hates doing – share with select customers its closely guarded software secrets. The fact that the Indian government is seriously considering the wide use of networked computers for administration could open up a huge market. In Asia, Microsoft has shared the Windows source code with only select...

A Jurisdictional Tangle

December 10, 2002
A high-court ruling in Australia may make it possible to sue a publication for libel from halfway around the world. An Australian businessman sued the Dow Jones Company using the libel laws in his home state of Victoria, claiming that because he could access the Wall Street Journal website from Victoria, any libelous material on that website could be prosecuted under Victoria’s jurisdiction....

China Has World's Tightest Internet Censorship, Study Finds

Joseph Kahn December 4, 2002
"Defying predictions that the Internet was inherently too diverse and malleable for state control, China has denied a vast majority of its 46 million Internet users access to information that it feels could weaken its authoritarian power." That's the conclusion of a new survey of internet use in China done by a team of researchers at Harvard University. The six-month study found...

Pew Survey Finds America’s Global Stature Diminished

December 4, 2002
The globalization of media and the information technology revolution have made American actions visible to the entire world. In a wide-sweeping survey of 38,000 people in 44 countries – a feat accomplished in large part thanks to globalization – the Pew Foundation finds a gloomy image of the US overseas. From the state of American democracy to America's unilateralist stance in the...

Business Key to Internet Use in Poor Nations

Frances Williams November 18, 2002
Regional and global supply chains need to be linked in order for business-to-business internet commerce to expand. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Unctad, reported that poor countries lack the needed infrastructure and skilled labor to establish and expand the business-to-business sector worldwide. Although Africa and Asia enjoyed internet use growth rates of almost 46%...

The Internet: China's Window to the World

Guo Liang November 18, 2002
Why would the Communist Party, which attempts to censor all media in China, allow and even encourage Chinese citizens to surf the internet? So that people can explore the world, of course! Helping Chinese people learn about the world is the big goal, according to President Jiang Zemin. But the cat-and-mouse game played by censoring authorities and news-hungry Chinese reveals the tensions...