INTERNET
MSN Shuts Down Its Chat Rooms
Looking to Get Back Online
Bid to Block Anti-India Website Affects Users
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Nigeria Goes Surfing with Wheels
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Civil Society Considers Protest Action at WSIS
EVENTS
National Common Cause Meetup Day
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INTERNET
MSN SHUTS DOWN ITS CHAT ROOMS
Starting next month Microsoft will drop its chat room services in 28
countries. "Recently we have become increasingly concerned about the level
of inappropriate communication, including spam, the grooming of children by
pedophiles, and sexually explicit language and imagery in chat rooms," says
Microsoft spokesman Matt Whittingham. Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia
and Latin America will lose chat room services, but unsupervised access will
still be provided to the United States, Canada, Japan and Brazil, the
company said. In the countries retaining service, customers' billing details
and identities will be kept on record in order to track down suspicious
users. This decision has triggered a heated debate among free speech
advocates, children's rights groups, and Microsoft rivals. One analyst told
The Associated Press the changes would enable Microsoft to shed some free
users, who are a drag on profits. According to Will Doherty of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, this will contribute to the digital divide.
He says the decision will further divide the Internet community because it
will create "gated communities" where the only people who can afford to pay
for service can chat online.
SOURCE: Brudirect.com News; AUTHOR: CNN
http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/Sept03/250903/wn01.htm
LOOKING TO GET BACK ONLINE
Power outages last week due to Hurricane Isabel sent Washington DC's wired
community into frenzy. Residents went into digital withdrawal and considered
alternative means to power up their Internet services. In nearby Bethesda,
Clemens Kochinke fired up his emergency generator, plugged in his computers,
and then put a sign in his front yard that said, "Internet Access. Free
Access when Generator is on," so laptop-toting neighbors could also stay
connected by using his wireless network. "I felt if I were in somebody
else's shoes that didn't have a generator, that is what I would want," he
said. Residents took laptops to coffee shops, friends' houses with
electricity, spending long hours over the weekend trying to stay connected.
After his Tenleytown home lost power, Jim Lo Scalzo, a photographer for
National Geographic Traveler Magazine, turned his car into a makeshift
office by hooking his notebook computer and cell phone up to a power adapter
that plugs into a car's cigarette lighter. Even in the midst of a hurricane,
a generator and a wireless connection seemed to alleviate the headaches.
SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove and Yuki Noguchi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49741-2003Sep22.html
BID TO BLOCK ANTI-INDIA WEBSTIE AFFECTS USERS
India's Department of Telecommunications has ordered all Indian Internet
service providers to block a website belonging to a militant group of the
Khasi tribe in Meghalaya province. The group is struggling to transform
Meghalaya into an exclusive Khasi province. While the ISPs have agreed to
comply with the order, the US-based host of the website -- Yahoo -- has
refused. A large number of users have been inconvenienced by the ISPs
blocking all Yahoo groups or URLs, as they do not have the technological
finesse to block one subgroup. The process of blocking is surrounded by
legal controversy, as the government is not given this power under India's
Information Technology Act. "The problem is that this provision may be
misused by political powers in the regime to silence political dissent,
criticism and debate," says Cyberlaw expert Pawan Duggal. "The phenomenon of
mirror sites and emerging technologies along with intelligent minds of
netizens are likely to ensure that India's blocking adventure starts its
march on a losing note."
SOURCE: The Hindu; AUTHOR: Sandeep Dikshit
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/09/23/stories/2003092312761100.htm
DIGITAL DIVIDE
NIGERIA GOES SURFING WITH WHEELS
In Nigeria, the Internet may soon no longer be a phenomenon exclusive to
urban communities. Using VSAT satellite communication systems, a government
campaign plans to send buses from village to village, inviting people to use
the Internet aboard. "It has been tried in some schools in the federal
capital, Abuja, and the response has been tremendous," says Professor
Oladele Ajayi, Nigeria's Director-General of the National Information
Technology Agency. "After visiting boys and girls schools, the effect is
that the federal capital authorities now want their own buses to go round
the federal capital territory." Communication using landlines is not only
difficult in Nigeria -- it's often unreliable and expensive. Professor Ajayi
says that the dropping cost of VSAT satellite terminals has made the
possibility of rural services a reality. "It costs just 20m Naira (USD
$155,000) to get one bus running, including generators for use in the rural
areas and all other related equipment," he adds. The government says the
program will also create jobs, along with besides increasing computer and
Internet literacy.
SOURCE: BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3128776.stm
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
CIVIL SOCIETY CONSIDERS PROTEST ACTION AT WSIS
Members of civil society are considering several actions to protest what
they perceive as governments ignoring their input at PrepCom 3, the third
Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS). An NGO (nongovernmental organization) representative said that the
inter-governmental drafting committee had ignored 49 of 86 civil society
recommendations for the summit's Declaration of Principles. A WSIS advisor
said that the July edition of the declaration at 12 pages was too long and
uninspiring. The September version that offends civil society is seven pages
-- still unwieldy as far as conference declarations go. The Global
Information Society describes the new draft declaration as a "bureaucratic
document with more emphasis on technology and economics than on individuals
and communities." Protest actions being considered include civil society
members rolling off their chairs at a given signal -- admittedly only
half-serious -- or taking more serious measures such as walking out of the
preparatory meetings and creating an alternative declaration. Barring some
important breakthroughs in the next few days, Prepcom 3 will not have a
draft declaration to present at WSIS in December.
SOURCE: SABC News; AUTHOR: Steven Lang
http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/internet/0,2172,66273,00.html
EVENTS
NATIONAL COMMON CAUSE MEETUP DAY
Common Cause has organized the National Common Cause Meetup on Media
Consolidation for October 8, 2003. Common Cause supporters across the
country are invited to meet up to review the successes thus far and the
challenges ahead in their campaign to overturn the FCC's new media ownership
rules. Meetup is an online community that organizes local gatherings on a
number of topics. When a national Meetup day is arranged through Meetup.com,
community members vote on the location and agenda of the meeting in their
own community. Meetups take place in local cafes, bars and restaurants, and
have become a grassroots phenomenon since the site launched in 2002. Common
Cause has suggested the following topics for discussion: why control of the
media matters to you, the media in your community and its impact, and what
you can do to keep the momentum going.
SOURCE: Common Cause; CONTACT: Melissa Roberts
To register for a Meetup in your community, go to
http://commoncause.meetup.com and enter your zip code.
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