News Stories (30th May - 5th June 2007)
Information and Debate
YouTube as alternative media channel for Venezuela’s counter-revolution
Radio Caracas Television has launched an online channel on YouTube in response to the Venezuelan government’s decision not to renew its broadcasting licence.
Civil Society
‘Text protest’ blocks China plant
Residents in eastern China have used mobile phones to mobilise people to campaign against the building of a chemical factory plant in Xiamen. Another article describes how the combined use of sms and blogs
allowed protestors to document continuous updates from the protest.
Democracy
Bringing politics to the people
Discussion piece about doing politics in the digital age.
Google Privacy Policy is vague
Google has admitted that its policies concerning use of data from its users need to be readdressed.
Blogger reports on political mobilisation via text message in Kenya
YouTube shut down in Morocco
The Moroccan government is suspected to have blocked the video-sharing site YouTube due to video postings from the Western Saharan Independence Movement. The site is reported to be available again, and Maroc Telecom have blamed its inaccessibility on technical problems.
Estonia accuses Russia of 'cyberattacks'
Reports of Russia launching attacks on Estonian media, government and banking sites following their decision to move a Soviet war memorial.
Culture and Education
‘Personal data’ in iTunes tracks
Personal data embedded in digital music tracks that are supposed to be free of digital rights management are raising concerns about privacy and the motivations of music companies.
EMI strikes a deal with YouTube
All four major record companies have now signed official agreements with YouTube to allow users to access music videos of their artists.
Facebook evolves from time waster to academic study
The University of Michigan in the USA is launching a course in social computing to explore the social impacts of new technological applications such as social networking sites and collaborative authoring through wikis.
Drivers of Change
City wi-fi plans under scrutiny
Analysts in the UK question the costs and sustainability of municipal wi-fi projects
Europe online 24 hours a month
New statistics about internet use in Europe from tracking company comScore.
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