A new study attempts to shatter perceptions that Web surfers at the office are just slackers trying to avoid work. In fact, it turns out everyone does it, from senior managers to entry-level employees -- and researchers figure that means management attempts to clamp down on Internet use may be missing the mark.
My "Internet Evolution" column: What's the truth about municipal WiFi?
It hasn’t been a good 12 months for the proponents of municipal WiFi. Many publications are writing about the “death” or, at least, the failure of many municipal WiFi efforts.
Earthlink’s abandonment of the business — for which it created a specific venture and won multiple city contracts — has helped to spark the large number of articles. It’s a complicated issue, and there isn’t one specific reason why large-scale WiFi systems have had problems.
However, this isn’t the end of WiFi for cities. There are potential opportunities in smaller cities, for vertical market applications and also as a component of other telecommunications networks.
For more information, check out my column, including some of the interesting links to other articles provided in the comments.
Three Strikes, Three Countries: France, Japan and Sweden
The music and movie industries have been making a concerted attempt to introduce a "three strikes" rule for Net users in many countries simultaneously — pressuring ISPs to throw their customers offline, possibly permanently, if the rightsholders report that they have been infringing.
The furthest ahead in its plans is France. IFPI lobbied for, and applauded France's Olivennes Report, an agreement brokered last year between the ISPs, rightsholders and the French government to enforce such a system. (Denis Olivennes, the author of the report, is also the director of FNAC, France's largest record shop chain).
The Olivennes agreement (translated here) and the law that is expected to reinforce its proposals later this year, essentially bypass due process in favor of a governmental authority that will take complaints from rightsholders, and suspend individuals net use on the say-so of those complaints:
This authority will be given the personnel and technical means to warn and to sanction. On the basis of a complaint from righholders, directly or via structures entitled by law to investigate infringements of rights, it will send out in its name, via the Internet service providers, electronic warning messages to the owner of the subscription. In cases of repeat infringement, it will apply, or will refer the matter to the judge in order to have applied, sanctions against the owner of the subscription. These sanctions will range from the suspension of access to the Internet to the termination of the Internet subscription.
This authority will have the power to apply sanctions on access providers who do not respond, or do not do so in a diligent manner, to its injunctions. It will publish monthly statistics on its activities; o This authority will also have, under the control of the judge, the ability to request technical providers (hosting services, access providers, etc.) to take any measures necessary to prevent or put an end to injury caused by the content of an online communication service.
The French authority will also compile a public list of citizens banned in this way: a public list of those who will be exiled from the Internet. ISPs must also co-operate with rightsholders to introduce "effective filtering" and monitoring technology.
In other words: the due process and privacy rights of users are sacrificed in the search to stamp out infringement, and a disproportionate punishment (being thrown off the major communications system of the 21st century for a few corporate accusations) put in place for those accused of the crime. Banning from the Internet is something that until now has been reserved for those who the courts feel are dangerous hackers; now it will be wielded by the entertainment industry.
The Japanese scheme is "voluntary", with no governmental involvement, but the agreement is hardly voluntary for Net users: the Japanese proposal has been agreed to by four major ISP groups, representing almost all of the broadband market: the consent of an effective monopoly.
In both Japan and France, no consideration has been made of how such a powerful and automatic banning system would affect everyday Net users, or the wider infrastructure. Many have noted that "three strikes" could end open wi-fi, or mesh networks; that companies and individuals could be framed by malicious third parties, or disgruntled insiders; that the agreements turn ISPs against their own users, encouraging them to filter and monitor their customers' traffic.
The Swedish government, in rejecting "three strikes", noted that shutting down an Internet subscription was "a wide-reaching measure that could have serious repercussions in society". That's the kind of wider policy consideration that France and Japan needs to consider. This is more than a fight between the entertainment and broadband industries: this is about infrastructure, and citizen's access and freedoms online. But right now, some countries seem to be falling over themselves to discover its disadvantages — without any true investigation into what will happen to their citizens or their networks if they do.
Do You Really Want Your Car To Be A Rolling WiFi Hotspot?
Apparently Chrysler is looking to turn your car into a rolling WiFi hotspot, allowing you to connect to the internet both for the sake of accessing information, but also for providing it (such as traffic info). Of course, automakers have talked about internet access in cars before, but it hasn't gone very far -- so unless you brought your own EVDO card, you weren't doing much. But is there really a strong demand for such things? As some analysts note, it seems like the automakers may be "leapfrogging the market," when they should be focused on making cars work better with the gadgets we already have. This is a problem that has come up before. Automakers love to build new technology into their cars in order to control the experience, but that's not what consumers want. Having an MP3 player is nice, but it's easier if you can just use your iPod. Having a built in GPS system is cool, but the new Garmin has a lot more features. Working with consumer electronics devices that people buy seems like it may be a lot more sensible than trying to recreate the wheel. And, then, of course putting WiFi connectivity in cars may eventually lead to xkcd-style scenarios:
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