Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski released a draft proposal on “net neutrality,” a strategy that aims to address concerns about the way large Internet service providers manage their networks. Today, the FCC will hold a meeting to consider adopting Genachowski’s plan. It can be watched live at http://fcc.gov/live, or with better quality, at C-SPAN.
Once again ISOC-NY is happy to be a community sponsor of the annual New York Technical Community Party, co-hosted by Bootup and Girls in Tech NYC, taking place this year at Suspenders, 111 Broadway NYC on Tuesday 21 December at 6.30pm. This event always draws a large crowd and is a lot of fun.
To attend, you must RSVP
I’m attending the NY Technical Community Party Dec. 21.
Melissa C. Beckman
The Wikipedia Day 10th Birthday Bash NYC is a celebration and mini-conference to be held on Saturday, January 15, 2011, hosted by ITP at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and also supported by Wikimedia New York City, Free Culture @ NYU and other Free Culture Alliance NYC partners.
Here is a Wiki X promo video featuring Jimmy Wales:
Kevin Bankston of the EFF reports a landmark decision issued today in the criminal appeal of U.S. v. Warshak, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers. Closely tracking arguments made by EFF in its amicus brief, the court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their phone calls and postal mail.
The court held,
Given the fundamental similarities between email and traditional forms of communication [like postal mail and telephone calls], it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection…. It follows that email requires strong protection under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise the Fourth Amendment would prove an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose it has long been recognized to serve…. [T]he police may not storm the post office and intercept a letter, and they are likewise forbidden from using the phone system to make a clandestine recording of a telephone call–unless they get a warrant, that is. It only stands to reason that, if government agents compel an ISP to surrender the contents of a subscriber’s emails, those agents have thereby conducted a Fourth Amendment search, which necessitates compliance with the warrant requirement..
The decision essentially invalidates the Stored Communications Act, so it will either be appealed up to the Supreme Court, or Congress shall have to do some fixing.
Reaction:
In another 4th Amendment court decision this week the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Obama administration’s contention that the government is never required to get a court warrant to obtain cell-site information that mobile-phone carriers retain on their customers.
In an extraordinary meeting on 6 December the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) decided to create a Working Group on Improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (http://www.intgovforum.org/) with a membership made up only of governments.
The Internet Society believes this decision sets back the model of multistakeholder cooperation under which the IGF was established, and contradicts the instructions given to the CSTD for the establishment of the Working Group
The Internet Society has joined the International Chamber of Commerce – Business Action to Support the Information Society, the Internet Governance Caucus, and many other Internet, business, and civil society organizations in sending a letter to the CSTD, asking them to retract their previous decision and to establish an appropriately constituted Working Group that ensures the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums.
Like the Internet, a multistakeholder approach has been at the core of the Internet Governance Forum’s formation and success. We hope that Internet Society Chapters and Members, as well as other organizations, will join us in signing the letter.
You may read the full letter, and see the growing list of signatories, and indicate your own support here:
A UN session: Consultations on enhanced cooperation of international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet was webcast on Tue 14 December: See archived audio/video below
Morning: (audio only)
Afternoon:
Baher Esmat, ICANN’s Manager, Regional Relations for the Middle East has provided the wording of the CSTD resolution as finalized on Dec 17 2010.
Final Text:
The Chair of the CSTD establishes a Working Group of 15 member states plus the five member states which hosted the IGF meetings plus the two member states which hosted WSIS. This Working Group will seek, compile, and review inputs from all member states and all other stakeholders on improvement of the Internet Governance Forum in an open and inclusive manner throughout the process
The Chair invites the following stakeholders to interactively participate in the Working Group, bearing in mind the the established rules of procedure of the ECOSOC, who will remain fully engaged throughout the process:
5 Business community
5 Civil society
5 Technical and academic community
5 Intergovernmental organizationsPursuant to the ECOSOC decisions 2010 226, 2010 22, and 2010 228, maximum possible assistance, the diversity of ideas, and the equal representation of stakeholders from developing and developed countries in the Working Group should be ensured in consultation with the stakeholders.
The report of this Working Group will be adopted by consensus.
In the last lecture in the ISOC-NY sponsored Computers & Society speaker series at NYU, Evan Korth presents Ken Perlin on the topic “The Future of Human/User Interfaces” at NYU on Monday 13 December 2010. This event will be videotaped for later webcast.
What: Ken Perlin – The Future of Human/User Interfaces
When: Monday Dec 13 2010 : 3.30pm – 4:45pm
Where: Warren Weaver Hall NYU Rm 109, 251 Mercer st NYC
Who: Public welcome. Photo id required.
I will attend Dec 13 330 session
On Dec 10 2010 the Personal Democracy Forum presented a Symposium on Wikileaks and Internet Freedom in NYC. Participants included Mark Pesce, Esther Dyson, Jeff Jarvis, Rebecca MacKinnon, Jay Rosen, Carne Ross, Douglas Rushkoff, Katrin Verclas, Gideon Lichfield, Micah Sifry, Jeff “Oprah” Jarvis, Arianna Huffington, Charles Ferguson, Andrew Keen, Zeynep Tufekci, Tom Watson, Dave Winer, Emily Bell, and Andrew Rasiej. Some video is below:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas, debate the role that connection technologies will play in statecraft and foreign policy, and how governments and businesses in the West should foster the spread and use of these technologies in places such as China and Iran. Posted by the Council on Foreign Relations on Nov 4. Associated essay: Digital Disruption.
As the FCC’s vote on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed Open Internet order approaches on Dec 21, Christine E. Goepp of CommLawBlog has written a brief analysis that concludes he and his staff’s options are very narrow, with opposing forces on either side that are unlikely to compromise. Even if Commissioners Copps and Clyburn compromise on Title II and go along, congressional support and judicial validation are a remote prospect.
She concludes:
.. the future of the agency’s regulatory clout looks very different depending on whether it can or can’t regulate IP-based communications. Clearly, the FCC’s practical ability to regulate services that perform telecommunications (Title II) and television (Title III) functions is likely to shrink as these types of services become increasingly delivered over IP connections. The Chairman’s legal staff is working hard to frame a case for delegated authority over ISPs that doesn’t rely on reclassification or Congress; but it doesn’t have a lot to work with.
Publisher Springer has made available pdf’s of a number of textbooks for free on their website including Guide to Wireless Mesh Networks and Guide to Wireless Ad Hoc Networks.
Pretty good deal considering the books are $89.95 otherwise!
Michael Dabbene is discussing.
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