Open Government Partnership launched
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota this week announced the launch of an international partnership to promote more open government. The initiative, called the Open Government Partnership, seeks to use innovative technologies to promote government transparency and public engagement. The Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a donor collaborative, welcomed the news, which was met by scepticism in other quarters.
News | Scepticism
Fifty years of Kenyan Parliamentary debates published
The Kenyan National Council for Law Reporting, in partnership with Google Kenya, has published parliamentary records dating back to the 1960s, giving Kenyans free, electronic access to the records for the first time. The project uses the Google Books platform to display the data.
Graduated response-style copyright enforcement comes to the US
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) digests the news that a coalition of internet service providers (ISPs) and rightsholder bodies have announced a collaborative effort to curb copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks. The scheme involves ISPs alerting their customers based on notifications received from rightsholders that infringing activity is taking place. ISPs will be expected to take mitigating action, such as reducing internet speeds, against persistent offenders.
Turkmenet shines during Abadan explosion
Following the suppression of news about a still-mysterious explosion in the Abadan region of Turkmenistan reported to have resulted in high numbers of deaths, New Eurasia examines “both the struggles and discoveries of the Turkmenet during the crisis”.
EFF urges Microsoft to reconsider censored China service
The EFF publishes a short note condemning Microsoft over recent news that it has struck a deal with Chinese search market leader Baidu to offer its Bing web search results in English.
What’s Wrong with Government 2.0?
Using the profit-seeking privatisation of micro-credit as an analogy, Tom Slee sounds a warning about the limitations and risks around the open government data agenda, in this series of blog posts.
Post 1 | Post 2
The most menacing malware in history
This accomplished and compelling long-form feature from Kim Zetter at Wired charts the rise of the Stuxnet worm, its origins and target, and the security researchers who found themselves caught up in what emerged to be a story of truly international proportions.
Report: Threats in internet freedom in Russia, 2008-2011
The Agora Association have released the first of a new series of reports documenting threats to internet freedom in Russia. Types of threats enumerated in the report range from proposals to regulate the internet to defamation suits and cyber-attacks, as well as harassment, assault and murder of internet activists.
Special Feature: The World Bank and open data
This New York Times feature examines the strategic thinking behind the World Bank’s decision to open up its data.
Video: Enduring Voices
Enduring Voices, a joint project of National Geographic and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, documents endangered languages across the world: “By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth — many of them not yet recorded — may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and the human brain.”
Google+ for journalists at risk
Danny O’Brien of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists gives his initial review of new social networking platform Google+ and its utility for at-risk journalists.
Audio: Joi Ito on how to save the internet from its own success
An interview with Joi Ito that hints at some possible coming changes at the MIT Media Lab under his leadership including greater adoption of Creative Commons licences and more participation in Open Courseware.
The Barefoot Technologist 