Handling Internet Media Justice in Australia

According to this article, the Australian  media is prevented from mentioning the identity of a man accused of murder ibut because of Facebook and the near impossibility of such order reaching individuals posting information on social networking sites, his identity became public anyway.  Its hard to think of how to approach this issue in light of the ease of using social networking by just about anyone.  Will the orders have to go against the providers?  How will they monitor or prevent publication of some information but not other information?

Has the Web altered the legal right to privacy?

An English academic makes an interesting insight into privacy rights in this article.  If the law of privacy is based on a reasonable expectation to privacy, then how does the onslaught of personal information people share or have shared for them, change the expectation people have of their privacy?

63% of U.S. households have broadband

“An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, a 15% increases from a year earlier. April’s level of high-speed adoption represents a significant jump from figures gathered by the Project since the end of 2007 (54%).”

Article:

People eliminating cable tv

Given the abuses and monopolistic tendencies of the cable industry, I think this is good news:

“Some 900,000 U.S. homes didn’t pay for TV and relied solely on Web TV last year, according to estimates from consulting firm Parks Associates, which projects that the number will grow this year. And 8% of adults now view television shows online at least once a week, up from 6% who did so in 2008, according to a survey by the Leichtman Research Group. The same survey found that 8% of adults who watch video online now watch TV less often.

Overall, while the number of households paying for cable rose 2% last year, pay-TV growth has slowed considerably. In the last three months of 2008, pay-TV penetration grew by only 0.7%, or 220,000 homes, its lowest rate on record, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.”

Artcle:

Sunlight Foundation proposes lobbying oversight website

This sounds promising:
“Sunlight proposes a single Web site administered by the executive branch that would aggregate lobbying disclosures from officials from across the executive branch. The Web-based lobbying disclosure process allows for real time reporting, after each lobbying meeting is held with agency employees covered by disclosure rules. They would report their name and agency, the lobbyist with whom they met, any clients the lobbyist represents and other detailed information.

The online disclosure process designed by Sunlight would create a single view of all paid lobbying, allowing the public to track lobbying meetings. It would be sortable by lobbyist, official, agency, subject matter, lobbyist’s client and date. Sunlight’s proposed disclosure system would give Americans unprecedented access to monitor and analyze real time information about lobbying.”

Article

Yahoo turning TVs into computers

On the eve of the big Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Yahoo showed off its new widgets that television makers such as Sony, Toshiba and Samsung are embedding into their new models.  These widgets allow the TV viewer to click to popular sites such as Youtube, MySpace, Twitter, Amazon and others via their remotes.

What will this mean to the future of broadcast media?  Will we need 24 hour cable news?  Sure, its nice to have real-time broadcasting for big stories but all the time? If people can get attractive, real-time information without the blather of talking heads and advertising will we need so much broadcast media?  Or am I just showing my bias as someone who generally loathes television?

Article

Google product guy goes to Linkedin

I’ve felt for a long time that Google is an extremely successful one trick pony with no plan B.  If someone comes up with a technology that makes Google’s ad platfrom obsolete, there goes the company.

Now I’m not saying Linkedin is a Google killer but checkout this guy who is bailing.    Does he know something?

Article

Sunday Special: City Sites

Recently I’ve had to use the San Francisco City website and found it lacking so I’ve decided to do a tour of U.S. City websites and give them report cards.   I don’t see much in the way of other such surveys, except from 2001 so hopefully this fills a void.   I will look at four criteria:

1.  Transparency: does the city make council meeting available on the website?  What about other deliberative bodies?  Also, what about municipal contracts.  Can the public learn about the proposals vendors submitted for consideration?

2.  Feedback:  How easy is it for a citizen to register a concern about noise, traffic, garbage pick up etc.  Is it possible to see what other citizens are saying?

3.  If I need to find an obscure city agency and what its charter is and how to contact the agency, how quickly can I find it.   I will look at both browse and search features.

4.  How easy is it for me to transaction business with the municipality from the website?  Can I file a fictitious name state?  Get a business permit?  Pay my parking ticket?

I’ll start with the largest cities and work my way down the list.  Also, my report card won’t be a measure of how cities stack up against each other but against what they SHOULD be able to do given the immense and amazing Internet capabilities out there.

So next Sunday: The big apple!