US Authorities Will Help Secret Web

The American government spends millions of dollars helping activists communicate and bring down their own governments. It does so in frames of the project called Commotion Wireless, putting the fear of god into the spooks of different authoritarian regimes.

According to the local media, the project in question is aimed at undermining online filtering in such countries as Iran and Syria. Meanwhile, the biggest problem of the United States is that it receives email inquiries there which purport to be sent by pro-democracy activists from out there, but actually come from spies.

Commotion Wireless is run by Sascha Meinrath and although it gets shedloads of American money, it’s based on some of the better ideas of online community access. The project is designed in such a way that it allows a smartphone to connect with others, thus creating a “mesh network”.

Meanwhile, there are some good reasons why western governments wouldn’t like to see technology of this kind deployed in their own countries. The United Kingdom, for instance, is willing to monitor each and every email just in case it happens to relate to terrorist activities. Nevertheless, in case this sort of technology becomes available, it would mean that the only people found in the government’s database are the ordinary people.

Undoubtedly, Meinrath’s secret web will be a major headache for everyone willing to stop anything on the Internet. If this technology is enforced in Iran, Syria or China, this move will allow opposition groups to freely talk to one another. Nevertheless, it’ll also weaken regimes backed by the United States like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. You may remember that both Egypt and Libya had Internet coups, which resulted in regimes that the United States didn’t like either.

আসছে অ্যাডোবি সিএস সিক্স

সম্প্রতি ভিজুয়াল কনটেন্ট সফটওয়্যার জায়ান্ট অ্যাডোবি জানিয়েছে, শিগগিরই তাদের বহুল ব্যবহৃত ক্রিয়েটিভ সুটের পরবর্তী সংস্করণ সিএস৬ বাজারে আসছে। খবর ইয়াহু নিউজ-এর।

অ্যাডোবির এই ক্রিয়েটিভ সুটে রয়েছে ভিডিও সম্পাদনা, ছবি সম্পাদনা, গ্রাফিক ডিজাইন থেকে শুরু করে বিভিন্ন সফটওয়্যার যা দীর্ঘদিন ধরেই ইন্ডাস্ট্রি স্ট্যান্ডার্ড বলে বিবেচিত। তবে নতুন এই সুট একটু অন্যভাবে বিক্রির পরিকল্পনা করছে অ্যাডোবি। প্রতিষ্ঠানটি জানিয়েছে, একেবারে সফটওয়্যার বিক্রির পরিবর্তে মাসিক গ্রাহক ফি হিসেবে ক্রিয়েটিভ সুট দেয়া হবে। ব্যবহারকারীরা এক বছরের জন্য গ্রাহক হলে মাসিক ফি পড়বে ৫০ ডলার। এর মাধ্যমে একজন গ্রাহক অ্যাডোবির বিভিন্ন প্রোডাক্ট ডাউনলোড করতে পারবেন।

বাড়তি সুবিধা হিসেবে থাকছে অ্যাডোবি ক্রিয়েটিভ ক্লাউড সুবিধা যার মাধ্যমে ব্যবহারকারীরা তাদের সব প্রজেক্ট ফাইল ক্লাউডে তথা ইন্টারনেটেই রাখতে পারবেন। এই পদ্ধতিতে শুরুতেই শত শত ডলার খরচ না করে প্রথমে প্রোডাক্ট সম্পর্কে ধারণা পাওয়ার সুবিধা পাবেন নতুন ব্যবহারকারীরা। তবে ক্লাউড সেবা বাদ দিয়ে কেবল সফটওয়্যারটি পাওয়া যাবে কি না সে সম্পর্কে এখনো কিছু জানা যায়নি।

MegaUpload’s IPO

Before getting shut down, Kim Dotcom’s empire was preparing to “take over” the American stock market with a multi-billion dollar IPO. The cyberlocker willingly told about its project.

Before its closure, MegaUpload was guarded by a group of devoted lawyers having the only purpose to ensure the legitimacy of the service. Kim Dotcom was saying that his firm was getting ready to enter the American stock market via one of the biggest tech IPOs ever. Prior to the raid of American authorities, cyberlocker hold negotiations with the world’s largest accountancy companies, offering them to become auditors, while international banks were interested in underwriting the public offering. MegaUpload was also looking into becoming publicly listed through a reverse merger by purchasing a listed company.

According to one of the corporate advisors from Hong Kong who was helping MegaUpload with this goal, the preparations started in early 2011. The company’s management had negotiations with the largest international professional accountancy companies handling most of audits for publicly traded companies. The firms were invited to become the company’s auditor and to work together with management to help cyberlocker with an IPO. Their job was to prepare management and corporate restructuring in order to improve efficiency and management of the group, as well as to review and improve internal controls and corporate governance processes within the service.

Aside from audit, MegaUpload was also trying to convince some of the largest investment banks to help them with the IPO plan. Those were quite interested about the proposal, because as long as the cyberlocker provided the commitment and flexibility to follow the recommendations of the professional companies to get ready for an IPO, there shouldn’t have been any problems.

Indeed, the online service was growing at a fast rate and was a definite leader in its field, but in early 2012 the US government for some reason decided to shut the service down, arresting people connected to the site. However, the company’s preparations for IPO don’t fit with the “Mega-Conspiracy” concept that company’s management was accused of. These facts make industry observers wonder whether the American government even knew about MegaUpload’s plans or not. Nevertheless, the company’s plans for the future can be considered a testimony that the service truly believed in a transparent and legitimate business.

Facebook Petition Against Web Snooping

A Facebook petition has recently been launched to protest online snooping legislation suggested by the authorities, which aimed at bombarding Home Secretary Theresa May with tons of irrelevant emails.

The group named “National cc your emails to Theresa May Day” suggested to show opposition to new powers for tracking Internet communications by copying May’s address into all letters sent during one day. This protest is scheduled to start on the oncoming May Day, the 1st of May. Thus far, the group has over 13,000 members.

Although the very idea of helping the authorities in tracking online communications by copying the Home Secretary into every email sent seems tongue-in-cheek, its purpose is to emphasize the wave of public bad feelings over the too controversial plans.

The country’s authorities have faced condemnation of plans that implied creating a database of emails sent within the United Kingdom, with the excuse provided being the common reasons of terrorism and pedophiles. As for Theresa May, who approved the British citizen Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition to the United States, she is seen to be trying to push through the proposed laws as quickly as she could, paying no attention to the outcry from both civil liberties campaigners and opposition within the Coalition.

One of the Facebook group’s members admitted that he had joined the group just to protest a move to an “authoritarian society”. He believes that this Coalition government, which continues the work of the other big business party in New Labour, is only plunging the country into an authoritarian society. He claims that neither Theresa May nor her colleagues are interested in their citizens aside from exploiting and monitoring them, trying to kettle ideas. It was rightly pointed out that the web is a great invention which enables people with knowledge, while for the politicians it serves them better to keep people stupid. For example, the proposed laws, which many netizens hope won’t pass, represent an unacceptable attack on personal freedoms.

Although changing government plans might appear difficult, group members still hope that they will be able to somehow widen protests against the proposed policy. Of course, they don’t believe the move they scheduled will achieve anything, but giving Theresa May and her assistants a headache for a day is still a little victory.

Overstated Losses Due Online Crimes

A couple of Microsoft’s insecurity experts are sure that cybercrime losses are overstated. Dinei Florêncio and Cormac Herley are leading researchers at Microsoft Research, and they claim that although the idea is widespread that the global economy is losing around $1 trillion annually because of cyber crime, in fact the reality is not that impressive.

The researchers point out that if it’s possible to make a fortune by downloading and running software, there would be millions of people doing so. The experts took a look at piracy and cybercrime from an economic point and revealed that only a few criminals do well. As for the rest, they believe that cybercrime is only a low-profit struggle which isn’t even worth the effort.

Basically, such cybercrimes as spam and password-stealing feature the same economics as the fishing industry, and since fish stocks are driven to exhaustion, there will never be enough “easy money” to go around. The researchers believe that cybercrime estimates are mostly generated through using absurdly bad statistical methods, depending on the surveys made by consumers and companies.

In case 5,000 people are asked to tell about their cybercrime losses, it will only take one person to falsely claim he or she lost $25,000 due to scam to add $1 billion to the overall estimate. Taking into account that those people who never lost anything aren’t considered, the statistics for these anomalies aren’t cancelled out.

The experts explained that in cybercrime surveys they have examined 90% of the estimate came from the answers of 1 or 2 people only. According to their report, cybercrime billionaires can’t be located simply because they don’t exist. In the meantime, few people know anyone who’s lost a huge amount of money as the victims are far rarer than the exaggerated estimates would imply.

Microsoft Employee Was Given Control of a Country

While a lot of people have suspected Microsoft of pulling some political strings, it appeared that there was a place in the globe where the software giant’s employee runs the government. Al Jazeera stated that Cheick Modibo Diarra, the Microsoft chairman for Africa, was appointed Mali’s interim prime minister, whose task was to ensure that there wasn’t any new Android or Mac in the country, as well as that open source projects would disappear.

In fact, that was proved completely false. Cheick Modibo Diarra was brought in to ensure that civilian rule is restored to the West African country after March’s coup. The coup leaders that ousted Mali’s democratically elected president in March recently handed over power to a new interim civilian leader. The country’s soldiers have arrested the leader of one of Mali’s biggest political parties, Soumaila Cisse, within mere hours after an ex-prime minister was detained by military personnel. At the moment, there are some doubts as to whether they will really get a democratic government in the country, becasue all the opposition heads are locked up.

Already Cheick Modibo Diarra’s job is smaller than he believed. During the political trouble separatist rebels in northern part of the country have declared an independent state which appeared to be larger than France. And the political observers point out that it’s likely to fall to an Islamic faction willing to impose Shariah legislation in the area.

Undoubtedly, all the infighting, personal empire grabbing, and watching of the large operation falling apart would be very familiar to Cheick Modibo Diarra, with the only difference being that Mali would be much quieter than Redmond.

Facebook Introduced Groups for Schools

Facebook has recently released a collaborative campus instrument dubbed “Groups for Schools”. Thus far, only American colleges and universities are able to create groups related to their activities (like dorms, classes, or student events).

Earlier in Facebook’s life, Mark Zuckerberg tried to introduce a file-sharing service named Wirehog, but failed. However, he didn’t give up: a few days ago Facebook introduced yet another feature called “Groups for Schools”. Within the frames of this program, students are able to upload files, but with some limits. For example, they can’t upload any .exe files (this is done for obvious reason of avoiding viruses spread), and Facebook has a 25MB upload limit. Finally, Facebook will monitor all uploads in its attempt to avoid infringing files from being shared.
Meanwhile, some of the industry observers point out that the fact that the social network has bought a file-sharing service Drop.io two years ago could be a hint that Mark Zuckerberg is going to launch a cloud-based service. As for the failed project Wirehog, it was part of Facebook until 2006. Six years ago Sean Parker shut down the program to let Facebook stay online and far from copyright violation lawsuits.
However, Groups for Schools may only revive one of the key sections that Facebook has lost within the years. Everything posted inside this group can only be reached by students using their .edu e-mails to authenticate. This is actually a key feature if they do not want their future employer to see compromising photos of them at some party. Finally, Groups for Businesses can be a project in Facebook’s agenda as well, so giants such as Yammer or Google should get busy fast enough.

অ্যাপ্লিকেশনে বিজ্ঞাপন বেশি আসছে

সম্প্রতি গবেষণা সংস্থা স্ট্র্যাটেজি অ্যানালিটিক্স জানিয়েছে, বিজ্ঞাপনদাতারা ওয়েব কিংবা মোবাইল ওয়েবের চেয়ে অ্যাপ্লিকেশনের মধ্যে বিজ্ঞাপন দেয়ার দিকেই ঝুঁকছেন বেশি। বিজ্ঞাপনদাতারা চলতি বছরে ২৯০ কোটি ডলার কেবল অ্যাপ্লিকেশনে বিজ্ঞাপন দিয়েই খরচ করবেন বলেও ধারণা করা হচ্ছে। খবর রয়টার্স-এর।

ইন-অ্যাপ অ্যাডভার্টাইজিং মুলত বিভিন্ন গেম অথবা ইউটিলিটি অ্যাপ্লিকেশনের মধ্যেই প্রদর্শিত হয়ে থাকে। অর্থাৎ, ব্যবহারকারীরা অ্যাপ্লিকেশনটি ব্যবহারের সময় মাঝে মাঝে এসব বিজ্ঞাপন দেখে থাকেন। ২০০৭ সালে আইফোনের জন্য অ্যাপল প্রথম অ্যাপ স্টোর চালু করে। এর পর থেকেই বিভিন্ন ডিভাইসের জন্য তৈরি হয়েছে প্রচুর অ্যাপ্লিকেশন। প্রায় সবকিছুর জন্যই অ্যাপ্লিকেশন থাকায় ব্যবহারকারীরা মোবাইল ওয়েবের মাধ্যমে ভিজিট খুব একটা করেন না। আর এ জন্যই মোবাইল ওয়েবের পরিবর্তে বিজ্ঞাপনদাতারা ঝুঁকছেন অ্যাপ্লিকেশনের দিকে।

রয়টার্স জানিয়েছে, এর ফলে কেবল বিজ্ঞাপনদাতারাই নয় বরং ডেভেলপাররাও সমানভাবে লাভবান হবেন। সাধারণত ছোটখাটো অ্যাপ্লিকেশনগুলো বিনামূল্যেই সরবরাহ করা হলেও বিজ্ঞাপন প্রদর্শনের মাধ্যমে অ্যাপ্লিকেশন ডেভেলপাররা অল্পবিস্তর আয়ও করে নিতে পারবেন, যার ফলে আরও নতুন নতুন কাজের অ্যাপ্লিকেশন তৈরির জন্য উৎসাহী হবেন ডেভেলপাররা।

The Global BROADBAND penetration

Notes

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The data used is based on self-reported information gathered through the annual ITU surveys. Where the latest year data is not available, previous year data is used.

Disclaimer

Simplified and stylized boundary data indicative only, created using Natural Earth www.naturalearthdata.com. The designations employed and the presentation of material on this infographic do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the ITU concerning the legal status of the country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

A click to Ahead@@

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/atlas/broadbandatlas.asp

Girls in ICT @ ITU TELECOM World 2011

Girls in ICT

Job opportunities in the ICT continue to grow, and many countries and regions are predicting a shortage of qualified staff with math, science, engineering and computing skills to meet the growing demand. At the same time, many companies are looking to increase the numbers of women in the sector. This means that highly qualified women in technical fields have significant opportunities available to them.  Unfortunately teenage girls and young women often never even consider a career in ICTs.  There is a lack of awareness among students, teachers and parents on the opportunities presented by a career in ICT.

Attitudes can change when girls are invited into companies and government agencies to meet ICT professionals and see what life is like on the job.  For this reason, ITU members agreed to recognize Girls in ICT Days on the 4^th Thursday of every April in ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (Guadalajara, 2010).  ITU is also helping girls find the information they need by developing a Girls in ICT Portal with links to scholarships, training, internships, contests and awards, tech camps, on-line networks and, of course, Girls in ICT Day activities.  The Girls in ICT Portal will be unveiled in this Session.

Not only is encouraging girls to enter the ICT sector good for women’s professional development and job prospects, it’s good for business.  A broad range of organizations and companies have concluded that increasing women at the top positively impacts financial performance, while those that ignore diversity issues risk ongoing labor shortages.

Supporting the education of women and girls in the ICT sector is also in line with United Nations Millennium Development Goal 3 to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.  Not only are jobs in the ICT sector lifting women out of poverty, a more gender-balanced sector offers fulfilling mid and high-level careers, and enables highly talented women to springboard to the top of the career ladder. This is good for everyone.  As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said, “Equality for women and girls is not only a basic human right it is a social and economic imperative. Where women are educated and empowered, economies are more productive and strong.  Where women are fully represented, societies are more peaceful and stable.”

Visit the Women in ICTs Portal

M-Government: Mobile Technologies for Responsive Governments and Connected Societies

M-Government Report

Mobile phones subscriptions have outnumbered Internet connections in both developed and developing countries, and mobile cellular is becoming the most rapidly adopted technology in history and the most popular and widespread personal technology in the world. Access to mobile networks is available to 90% of the world population, and to 80 % of the population living in rural areas, according to ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database; and among OECD countries mobile subscriptions grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 10 % over the previous two years according to the OECD Communications Outlook 2009.

Given this unparalleled advancement of mobile communication technologies, governments are turning to m-government to realize the value of mobile technologies for responsive governance and measurable improvements to social and economic development, service delivery, operational efficiencies and active citizen engagement. The interoperability of mobile applications, which support quick access to integrated data and location-based services, paves indeed the way for innovative public sector governance models – also called mobile governance or m-governance – based on the use of mobile technology in support of public services and information delivery.

The report highlights the critical potential of mobile technologies for improved public governance, as well as for economic and social progress towards the achievement of the internationally agreed development agenda defined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The in-depth analysis of the prerequisites for m-government, its main benefits and challenges, the value-chain and the key stakeholders, and the checklist of concrete actions intend to sustain policy makers in monitoring and updating their knowledge on m-government, and to draw on its implications for public sector governance, public service delivery, and smarter and more open government.

Whether it is an electronic wallet card linked to a mobile phone in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, or the Philippines; voting, registration or election monitoring in Morocco, Kenya, Estonia and Ukraine; support for farmers with weather forecast information and market price alerts in Malaysia, Uganda, India and China; or co-ordination of real-time location data for emergency response in Turkey, the United States and France, mobile technologies are enhancing dynamic interactions between citizens and government, creating further opportunities for open and transparent government.

“M-Government: Mobile Technologies for Responsive Governments and Connected Societies” is a unique report as it is the result of the joint-work of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). Recognising the ubiquity of public good governance principles, and the existence of opportunities and challenges commonly shared by governments worldwide, the three organisations aim to offer a call for action to all member countries to be strategic in moving ahead in implementing m-visions that drive public sector change and strengthen its good governance.

Source: ITU web site.