A new initiative by the World Summit Award (WSA) initiative seeks to use its global multistakeholder network to push forward personal data ownership and big data issues at UN discussions. At an open discussion, the WSA invited participants to share views on issues with the current system of data use, the need for permission-based access, and steps for further action. The workshop on “Data citizen rights, my data belongs to me” was organised by the WSA on 9 June, parallel to the United Nations World Summit of the Information Society…
Read MoreTag: newsflash3
‘.brands’ become reality as first branded gTLD delegations take place
This weekend ‘.brands’ became a reality with Monash University making a little bit of history, becoming the first such application to be delegated to the DNS root. In October, WTR reported on the delegation of the first new gTLD applications to the root zone. These related to IDN applications, and subsequent delegations (and sunrises) have centred on generic strings. The announcement that Monash University’s branded TLD is now live, then, is notable for making ‘.brands’ a reality. In its application, the Australian University states that registrations in the TLD will…
Read MoreDotConnectAfrica attends Transform Africa 2013, calls for the progress of its .africa commitments to be acknowledged
DCA was invited as a delegate to the international high-level conference that was held in Rwanda from October 28 to 31, 2013 Nov. 3, 2013 – The conference was attended by over 1,500 delegates and Seven African Heads of State including among others Presidents of Kenya, Uganda, Gabon, and Burkina Faso. Other delegates included Ministers and CEO’s of blue chip firms. The summit was Co-hosted by President Paul Kagame and Dr. Hamadoun Toure, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with the aim of pooling together International participants…
Read MoreBig data pitches the EU against US government and corporates
The benefits of big data are being squashed under a steamroller of short-term corporate interests and the privacy abuses of security infrastructure, argues Joe McNamee. Joe McNamee, is the executive director of European Digital Rights (EDRi), an NGO that campaigns for civil rights in the digital environment. “What legal framework should be implemented when companies and governments increasingly know more about individuals than they know about themselves? This is the stark – and vastly underestimated – question that is facing European policy-makers in the reform of the data protection framework.…
Read MoreTips to Protect eCommerce Website Availability and Security During the Holidays
With the holiday shopping season quickly approaching, Internet retailers are gearing up for an onslaught of Web traffic — which is great, as long as they have the right measures in place to keep their customers safe and satisfied. Even one hour of downtime due to a website outage or a malicious attack can have significant impact on a retailer’s reputation and revenue, especially during the holidays, a time which the National Retail Federation says can add up to 40 percent of an online retailer’s annual revenue. With some large…
Read MoreProtecting the open Internet may require defunding the ITU. Here’s how to do it.
In the past week, two senior U.S. officials, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and Republican Rep. Greg Walden (Ore.) were quoted as saying the United States should pull funding from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), at least as a last resort, if the U.N. telecommunications body persists in its attempts to regulate the Internet. What’s the ITU? Why do people want to defund it? And what would it take to do so? Read on to find out. What’s the ITU? The ITU was founded in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, an organization…
Read MoreAlcoa, Hewlett-Packard and Bank of America to Be Dropped from Dow Industrials
Alcoa Inc., AA +1.98% Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +0.38% and Bank of America Corp. BAC +0.83% will be dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average next week, in the biggest shake-up of the 30-stock index in almost a decade. Alcoa, a Dow component for 54 years, will be replaced by athletic gear maker Nike Inc. NKE +0.64% Payments company Visa Inc. V +1.05% will replace H-P, which joined the index in 1997, and securities firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +1.77% will supplant Bank of America, which spent five years in the blue-chip benchmark. The changes, which…
Read More‘.nyc’ Domain Approved For NYC Online Addresses
NEW YORK — New York City likes to think of itself as a domain like no other, and now it’s close to being able to boast as much on the web. The city has gotten a key approval for a “.nyc” suffix online, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced Tuesday. That would mean web addresses could end in “.nyc” instead of such common suffixes as “.com” or “.org.” “Having our own unique, top-level domain – .nyc – puts New York City at the forefront of the…
Read MoreGoogle Earth for Android Gets Street View
Google has updated its Google Earth Android app to version 7.1, bringing several important improvements, most notably the support for Street View. If you want to explore the Earth from the street level, zoom into an area and the Pegman — the little yellow guy signifying the availability of Street View — will appear in the right hand corner. Drag and drop him into a street and you’ll jump right into Street View. Adapted from mashable.com
Read MoreGoogle’s EU Antitrust Settlement Offer Won’t Suit Rivals
Google Inc. (GOOG)’s offer to settle an antitrust probe with the European Union by labeling its own services more clearly in Web search results is a “non-starter” for a group of competitors such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Foundem. The companies and at least 10 other rivals that filed complaints with the EU will be able to give feedback on the remedies submitted by the Mountain View, California-based company to settle the almost three-year-old investigation. Adapted from bloomberg.com
Read More