Posts from — May 2004

Why I like my picture. . .. This is wrong and really funny. And sort of in keeping with the identity theme of this evening…. [hipteacher]

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it is pretty funny

Congressman Boucher's eminently reasonable idea. Tomorrow I'll be in DC (sigh) testifying before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection about Congressman Boucher's Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act. Testimony here. Essential message to follow:

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well if there is one bill this year that you should support, it is this one, i'd say. there will likely be more, but this seems to be foundational to the economic, intellectual, and cultural well-being of the u.s. and the world.

ITU Virtual Conference on International Cooperation on Countering SPAM.

On the 30th of March 2004, the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau's (BDT) Regulatory Reform Unit (RRU) held a Global Regulators Excahnge (G-REX) virtual conference on regulatory cooperation on spam. The virtual conference was moderated by Dr. Bob Horton, Acting Chairman, Australian Communications Authority. The conference participants (PDF) united regulators responsible for countering Spam from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Jordan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as the European Commission. The virtual conference was held following a recommendation made during the 2003 Global Symposium for Regulators that BDT launch a discussion on frameworks for international cooperation on countering Spam. A summary of discussions and outcomes of the conference is available (PDF).

The presentations made at the virtual conference included:

• State of Spam (PDF), Dr. Enrique Salem, President and CEO, Brightmail – USA
• Anti-Spam Activities in Japan (PDF), Mr. Toshihiko Shibuya, Deputy Director, Telecommunications Consumer Policy Division,
  Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications – Japan
• The Australian Spam Experience and Views of Good International Cooperation (PDF), Dr. R. Horton, Acting Chairman,
  Australian Communications Authority – Australia
• KISA's Anti-Spam Activities and Proposals for International Cooperation (PDF), Mr. Jaeil Lee, Vice President, Electronic Transaction security and Data protection Division, Korean Information Security Agency – Rep. of Korea
• ITU and Spam (PDF), Mr. Paul Alexander, Head of International Communications Policy, Department of Trade and Industry – UK

A group of working-level officials from six countries who are pursuing closer co-operative action which may involve the drafting of a multilateral framework for cooperation has been created. Representatives of ITU Member States interested in contributing to the working group lead by Bob Horton, can send an e-mail to treg@itu.int. 

The ITU is organizing an ITU WSIS Thematic Meeting on Countering Spam from 7 to 9 July 2004, in Geneva, Switzerland.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

well, for those of whom track my apple exploits at length, the tibook is once again in the shop, the new server is almost completely in, and thus things are normal. this time apparently i have discovered a whole new region of problems with tibooks.

Past US diplomats criticize Bush's handling of Mideast

Over 60 former US diplomats and civil servants signed a letter issued to US President George W. Bush Tuesday, contending that his “unqualified support” for Israeli policies is undermining the United States' credibility and foreign relations in the region, as well as placing the country's citizens abroad at risk.

[Politics in the Zeros]

A triumph of French genius over French engineering.

That's what my old friend Julius Ruff called Citroën automobiles. This was back in the sixties, when we were both in college. In those days your iconic Citroëns were the 2-cylinder 2cv and the aerodynamic DS. The 2cv had windows with hinges, bug-eye headlights, less curb weight than a large motorcycle and accelleration that Car & Driver called “eventual.” The DS had headlights that turned with the steering wheel, a brake that was a button on the floor and a failure-prone hydraulic system that controlled most of the car's fluid systems. Both were distinctive to extremes matched by no other cars, ever.

For some reason I woke up at 3-something this morning, thinking about that quote. I found it nowhere on the Web, so I had to write it down.

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

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Doc hits on an important point here. i call it hubris. but really it is when engineering hits the road in a very real way. when you get a committee of technical engineers together to build something as complex as a car, you get one of the most fantastic cars around. it isn't that this was the only example involved. maserati partnered with citroen for one or two amazing examples of hydrolicization. now….. why. why did those hydraulic enabled cars come about? it is a fantasic story about nations and design and perfection and engineering. if you have access to the story, you just smile, else you say the 'ds' is 'different', such is life.

CLIPDAQ.

I'm proposing a new index called CLIPDAQ for the ongoing measurement of technology adoption. The CLIPDAQ index would be an aggregate index based upon regional and global sales of paper clips and as such represents an ideal inverse index for the measurement of technology adoption and the proliferation of the 'paperless office'.

I propose that the base CLIPDAQ index value is based in 1969, shortly after the notion of the paperless office originated from Xerox in Palo Alto and by collating paper clip sales statistics since 1969, we can not only derive the current CLIPDAQ index for future comparative purposes, but we can also plot the historical rise of technology adoption.

Why paperclips? No other artifact or business tool has been around for so long in an untouched, un-evolved state and which can also be directly and inversely correlated with the proliferation, adoption and successful deployment of information technology in the business environment. We could look at PC sales or printer sales for example, but indicies or formulae based upon such items would be too complex to compute with accuracy as they can often be used by multiple users and for many different purposes which could well result in an inaccurate or distorted index. An index derived from paperclip sales on the other hand, represents the most pure metric for the measurement of the rise of the paperless office over the last thirty-five years.

[memoria technica]

IRC is Evil. Anytime there is a relatively new mode of communication, its blamed for all things conceivable. A NY Times article takes aim at IRC as a breeding ground for file sharing, child porn and, god forbid, hackers. It specifically takes aim… [Ross Mayfield's Weblog]

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irc is evil, wikis are evil…. all really interesting informational environments are evil. why? it is because they enable something established power systems reject, and that is new relations of power and knowledge. it is undeniable that irc is evil and that wikis are evil and the reason they are evil is that they empower people that the normalizing structures don't identify as beneficents.

Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) 1.1 Working Draft Published. Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) 1.1 Working Draft Published
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-P3P11-20040427/
http://www.w3.org/P3P/

The P3P Specification Working Group has released the second public Working Draft of the “Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.1 (P3P 1.1).” P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Version 1.1 has new extension and binding mechanisms based on suggestions from W3C workshops and the privacy community. This has been added to Privacy Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog. [Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant]

Security Clearance Backlog Proves Costly. Washington Times: Security Clearance Backlog Proves Costly The government’s backlog of defense security clearances, estimated to be as much as 270,000, is raising the salaries… [Outside the Beltway]

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as i recall…, i received my clearance about 6 months after i left my MP duties.