Reading blogs #20
Wow! I can’t believe it I made to the 20th digest. Any feedback on those?
So, should I continue with these?
One of the biggest recent news in the domain of this site was the new agreement between the US Government and ICANN. I wrote about it before and here is a collection of other reactions (blogs and media) on this announcement.
“ICANN, Dept. of Commerce sign historic agreement” (via @RodBeckstorm) – A conversation with Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO, at Federal News Radio; the hosts expressed a lot of naivety/lack of knowledge on the subject matter or that was they way to be really nice to Rod.
“France Statement” (via IGP; French here) – The French Government has issues a response to the Affirmation of Commitments applauding the new agreement; one point that stood out to me is that they emphasize the need “to enhance the role of governments in the current Internet governance mechanisms, and particularly within ICANN” – I wonder what role do they actually envision for the governments and what does the technical community think about this.
Interesting reports, numbers, and visualizations
“A special report on telecoms in emerging markets” – The Economist is doing a good job presenting the various aspects of the phenomenon with a clear message that mobile is the king.
“What to Measure? Only 16% of the Web Is Clicking Display Ads” (via Twitter) – The online advertisers are looking for alternative ways of measuring effectiveness of online ads. What would you measure?
“Global Broadband Quality Study” – The Oxford Business School releases its second report on the quality of broadband worldwide; overall there is better connectivity, but the inequalities persist.
Interesting thoughts, ideas, opinions, and discussions
“Is Online Privacy a Generational Issue?” (via Twitter) – A Wired article raising the question of generational differences in perceptions of privacy.
“The rise of telecom diplomacy” (@evgenymorozov) – Evgeny Morozov notes in Foreign Policy that he has spotted some links between telecom investments and diplomacy in the case of Russian investments in Nicaragua and potentially Venezuela; while interesting I wonder if he is not reading too much into and I am curios about the proportion of telecom in the international trade between Russia and those countries; it seems more reasonable to me that the telecom investments are only part of package, but not the only component. What do you think?
“Under the Influence: Chinese Colonialism Works Without Ideas” – More of a book review of “China’s Safari: On the Trail of Beijing’s Expansion in Africa,” from World Politics Review; I found it thought provoking; the key idea is probably: “Unlike the Americans, with their sermons on free markets and good governance, or the imperial British before them, the Chinese come bearing little else than the pursuit of profit. In a sense, it’s leave your ideology at the door.”. The article is behind a pay-wall, but you can register for 4 months trial period.
“Cuban post offices OK’d for Internet access” – We don’t hear much about internet on Cuba, so this is interesting (and I hope not to get sued for referring to an AP article).
Talking about internet access, here is a really smart conversation between David Weinberg and John Horrigan, the authors of numerous reports from the PEW Internet and American Life project (via Diplo IG community):
“Can a laptop change the world?” – A BBC review of the OLPC project, drawing a beautiful picture of its ups and downs and trying to get at the idea of their education philosophy. And on the same subject, the Telegraph has run a long story on OLPC in Rwanda – “One laptop per child” – the only thing I could not figure is the subtitle of that article, which claimed that “One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) movement have become key factors in Rwanda’s economic growth” without providing any evidence for that in the body of the article itself… weird.
“FCC Endorses Network Neutrality” – Another break in the discussion about Net Neutrality in the US. You can also listen to Siva Vaidhyanathan discussing this development.
“Twitter.org?” – Bo Peabody’s op-ed in Washington post questioning applicability of advertising as a the main business model for social media. The core of the argument is that social media/networks are not media business, but communication business, and as such require a different approach. Ethan Zukerman published a very thoughtful response to this article in his blog – “Twitter.org? and building models for social media“.
“China Yearns to Form Its Own Media Empires” (via Twitter) – This is actually a rather interesting development and it is clearly labeled as a “soft power” diplomatic effort; i like this complexity of politics, business and diplomacy.
Simply Interesting, Fun, and Coll Stuff
“Teen’s DIY Energy Hacking Gives African Village New Hope” (via @OLPC) – A pretty amazing and inspiring story of William Kamkwamba from a village in Malawi, who on his own learned how to build windmills and generate electricity for his family and more; today he has a lot of support (and PR) behind him and there is a book coming out. Here is a video with his story:
Equally cool is this new gyrowheel, which can totally change the experience of learning riding a bike. Thank you, Veronica, for the video!
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
I don’t see a reason why, unless you are a spammer :)
I have to admit that I am a bit puzzled on that point, because I do see you leaving the same comment in tons of other blogs and at the same time, your site has been there for quite a while now and you do have content there…