Efficacy of Twitter and Facebook in Activism

Malcom Gladwell puts forth a pretty convincing argument for the types of activities social change requires, and why social networking technologies such as Twitter and Facebook won't be enough, in his article, "Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted," for the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

Gladwell outlines a few case studies throughout history that illustrate great advances for social justice. Common to these cases is severe self-sacrifice, and the reliance on friends and relatives close enough to a cause to truly sympathize with it, and contribute much time and energy to it.

In contrast, he argues that the strength of social networking such as twitter is a reliance on many weak ties. This often can increase visibility of a problem, but may not result in the localized pressure and self sacrifice by individuals to effect change.

Microsoft files patent infringement action against Motorola

I was reading the chapters on intellectual property and I thought this was an appropriate story to share.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/oct10/10-01statement.mspx

The mobile market wars are intensifying with Microsoft's newly released Windows Phone 7 handsets. I suspect there will be many more obscure patent cases in the future.

Fight P2P Surveillance with Anonymity and Encryption

An increase in BitTorrent anonymity services was recorded in the UK as governments and industries begin to battle file sharing via BitTorrent by monitoring BitTorrent traffic.
BTGuard, an anonymizer, actually makes a business of providing anonymity to BitTorrent users.

For more details, please visit this website

Apple Challenges Jury Verdict Of Up To $625.5 Million!

I come across this when I am reading the assigned chapters.
Pretty interesting.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-04/apple-challenges-625-5-million-mirror-worlds-patent-verdict.html

Scribd added Facebook "Instant Personalization"

Over the weekend, I have received following tweet from Wired megazine:

@wired: Scribd added Facebook "Instant Personalization" this week. It's a privacy nightmare, says @pgcat http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/scribd-facebook-instant-personalization/

To summarize, Scribd have added a feature that add you and all your facebook friends as participants without your consent.

You are allowed to opt out, but the default is opting in.

And of course, there is not a clear, intuitive, easy-to-find way of opting out (apparently, there is an opt out banner up at the top).

So, what do you think about companies doing these default opt-in additional features?

This cannot be stopped legally, since there is a way to opt out.

However, this can be annoying and dangerous if more companies start doing so.

Event: Businesses, Privacy Policies and Ethics

We spend a lot of time discussing what the users do in class or how it affects the users but we don't really see too much of how businesses tackle the issues of privacy policies and ethics. I'm not sure how many entrepreneurs we have here but for those who are looking to take what we have learned/know and apply it, or for those who are just curious about the flip side - how businesses should tackle privacy policies and ethics should take a look at this upcoming event discussing these issues.

http://smcyvr.com/2010/09/smcyvr-october-event-online-privacy-policy-and-ethics-with-christopher-parsons/

Freedom of Speech and Video Games

I just came across an interesting freedom of speech issue relating to video games. EA's latest shooter, Medal of Honor, is based on US forces fighting in Afghanistan. The multiplayer portion of the game allows players to play as the Taliban. This has of course caused some to get upset and the game to be blocked from sales on most US military bases worldwide. Up till now EA had defended its position but in the end EA has decided self-censor itself and rename the Taliban as "opposing forces" in multiplayer play.

http://kotaku.com/5653154/medal-of-honor-maker-defends-taliban-renaming-addresses-free-speech-concerns