Sunday, September 04, 2005

What gives?. It has been three hours since the Times Picayune's breaking news weblog reported the closure of the levee breach that caused New Orlean's flooding. Yet I don't see the news online or on TV reports. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 11:14:05 PM    comment []

Help families find the missing in the wake of Katrina: something you can do Dave: Watching Larry King, seeing how helpless people are at finding out the fate of family members, it's pitiful that we information technologists have not marshalled the systems to distribute information about survivors of the aftermath of Katrina. Following up on Doc Searls's War On Error concept, below, we ought to solve this problem as quickly as we can for Katrina and then deploy systems that make this work much better for future disasters. It's 2005, we have mastered the technology, now let's deploy it, with the intent of competence and success. Well, here's a link to the PeopleFinderVolunteer wiki. Jon posted to the online facilitation list, saying this was a place to do something: the "find someone missing" sites are all organized differently (if at all), but with only a Net connection and the ability to copy what you read into a form you can help. Just read unstructured posts about missing or found persons, and then add the relevant data to a database through a simple online form. Once more, here's a link. 11:12:55 PM    comment []

More on Scott's item of yesterday -- There Is No West Coast on the Internet (Donna Wentworth). There is Kanye West, whose remarks criticizing President Bush's slow response to Hurricane Katrina were cut from the west coast broadcast of a televised hurricane relief concert, but can't be cut from the Net. [Copyfight] 11:02:08 PM    comment []

Army Times: Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans. [Scripting News] 11:02:00 PM    comment []

Iran Rejects an Ultimatum From Europe on Its Nuclear Program. The head of Iran's nuclear negotiating team told state television that the increasing pressure on Tehran to freeze its program to make nuclear fuel amounted to "bullying." By NAZILA FATHI. [NYT > International] 10:55:06 PM    comment []

Three from Kevin: PROCEDURES TO PROVIDE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS IN AREAS IMPACTED BY HURRICANE KATRINA [.doc file] The FCC announced procedures to help emergency communications services initiate, resume, and maintain operations in the areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina. [SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission] NEWEST EXPORT FROM CHINA: PIRATED PAY TV China has become the hotbed of a new technology that distributes live television signals over the Internet, exposing the world's pay-TV operators to the kind of online piracy that has plagued the music and movie businesses. The technology, called peer-to-peer, or P2P, streaming TV, enables viewers anywhere in the world to watch cable, satellite or broadcast TV on the Web free of charge. Pirate services offer the programs to anyone equipped with a high-speed Internet connection who downloads some simple software. Underscoring the challenges for the law to keep up with technology and its global reach, P2P television is emerging barely two months after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the landmark Grokster file-sharing case, which was seen as a victory for traditional media companies. The court ruled that file-sharing companies may be liable for copyright infringement if their products encourage consumers to illegally swap songs and movies. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Geoffrey A. Fowler geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com and Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com] (requires subscription) INTERNET GOVERNANCE, WHAT DOES IT BOIL DOWN TO? [.pdf file] How's this huge, influential and potentially-useful beast called the Internet to be governed? Who is to call the shots? Carlos Afonso, strategy director at APC member RITS and member of the UN-convened working group on Internet governance takes a close look at how control of the Internet is sought to be transformed, before a crucial crossroad comes up in the next few months. This 50-page paper was commissioned by APC member Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM) as part of its WSISpapers series, also provides useful historical background on the current Internet global governance system. [SOURCE: Choike.org, AUTHOR: Carlos Afonso] 8:59:55 AM    comment []