Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion USD. Surely. Certainly. Maybe. It’s complicated. Regardless, the news have exploded in tech and mainstream news, everyone has a take. Musk announced that he would be a champion of free speech, prompting cheers from the right (who think that this means that Read more…
Digital colonialism describes the domination of Western companies in the provision of digital services in developing countries. These tend to be overwhelmingly US-based, and can be found in messaging, social media, search, music, storage, hosting, and domain names. While other names have been used to describe the phenomenon, the term Read more…
EFF has publicised a report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which details a new policy by US border police in which agents ask Muslim Americans returning home for travels abroad for social media handles, but also going as far as asking for access to mobile phones through handles, Read more…
If you have been interested in the evolution of digital content, you may remember the Long Tail. This was a theory that saw life as an article by Chris Anderson in Wired magazine, and then as a hit book released in 2006. The theory states that so-called brick-and-mortar shops only Read more…
I’ve started reading “The Internet is not the answer” by Andrew Keen (a full review will be forthcoming), and listened with interest to the interview by the always astute Aleks Krotowski in The Guardian’s Tech Weekly podcast. One of Keen’s comments during the interview, and from what I can see Read more…
The Long Tail is dead. The Long Tail is a theory penned by Wired editor Chris Anderson which states that the rise in digital markets, and the slow demise of brick and mortar shops, particularly in media and entertainment, will translate into more spending and viewing of smaller niche markets. Read more…
I have been toying with an impossible idea. Can the Internet be rebuilt? I am starting with a simple premise: the current Internet is broken. It is no secret that many of the protocols that make up the Web were not designed to accommodate a network such as the one Read more…
One of the most interesting stories that has emerged from the NSA surveillance scandal is, in my opinion, the revelation that the intelligence agency has been using some of the data collected to conduct social network analysis (SNA) on the general population. This is a topic that is discussed in Read more…
On April 18, 2013, the US House of Representatives passed the Bill H.R. 624, also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). An earlier version of the bill had been passed already by the US HR, but did not pass the Senate (for earlier analysis of the Read more…
Jen breaks the Internet The Internet is currently slowed down because of a massive DDoS attack against one anti-spam organization. At least this is the story being reported everywhere, from the New York Times to The Guardian. Or is it? Spamhaus is a non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting unsolicited communications Read more…