http://www.newswireless.net/ Latest Newswireless Headlines en Copyright Newswireless.Net Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:46:12 +0000 News "The whole idea of what a homeless service is, is a soup kitchen," one of the representatives for The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields said yesterday. "The whole idea of what a homeless service is, is a soup kitchen," one of the representatives for The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields said yesterday.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/t_uedy1dWmo/9481 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9481 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:19:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9481 News The right to access, correct, and delete personal information held about you and the right to bar data collected for one purpose from being reused for another are basic principles of the data protection laws that have been the norm in Europe since the EU adopted the Privacy Directive in 1995. This is the Privacy Directive that is currently being updated; the European Commission's proposals seem, inevitably, to please no one. Businesses are already complaining compliance will be unworkable or too expensive (hey, fines of up to 2 percent of global income!). I'm not sure consumers should be all that happy either; I'd rather have the right to be anonymous than to be forgotten (which I believe will prove technically unworkable), and the jurisdiction for legal disputes with a company to be set to my country rather than theirs. Much debate lies ahead. The right to access, correct, and delete personal information held about you and the right to bar data collected for one purpose from being reused for another are basic principles of the data protection laws that have been the norm in Europe since the EU adopted the Privacy Directive in 1995. This is the Privacy Directive that is currently being updated; the European Commission's proposals seem, inevitably, to please no one. Businesses are already complaining compliance will be unworkable or too expensive (hey, fines of up to 2 percent of global income!). I'm not sure consumers should be all that happy either; I'd rather have the right to be anonymous than to be forgotten (which I believe will prove technically unworkable), and the jurisdiction for legal disputes with a company to be set to my country rather than theirs. Much debate lies ahead.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/WPljeWkuPQI/9471 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9471 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:17:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9471 News "Why hasn't the marvelous happened yet?" The speaker ? at one of today's "unconference" sessions at this year's UK Govcamp ? was complaining that with 13,000-odd data sets up on his organization's site there ought to be, you know, results. "Why hasn't the marvelous happened yet?" The speaker ? at one of today's "unconference" sessions at this year's UK Govcamp ? was complaining that with 13,000-odd data sets up on his organization's site there ought to be, you know, results.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/OeVA0I4pOCM/9461 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9461 Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:21:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9461 News You have to think that 2012 so far has been orchestrated by someone with a truly strange sense of humor. To wit: You have to think that 2012 so far has been orchestrated by someone with a truly strange sense of humor. To wit:

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/6UlXVuNv06w/9451 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9451 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:52:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9451 News Yesterday's news that the Ramnit worm has harvested the login credentials of 45,000 British and French Facebook users seems to me a watershed moment for Facebook. If I were an investor, I'd wish I had already cashed out. Indications are, however, that founding CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in it for the long haul, in which case he's going to have to find a solution to a particularly intractable problem: how to protect a very large mass of users from identity fraud when his entire business is based on getting them to disclose as much information about themselves as possible. Yesterday's news that the Ramnit worm has harvested the login credentials of 45,000 British and French Facebook users seems to me a watershed moment for Facebook. If I were an investor, I'd wish I had already cashed out. Indications are, however, that founding CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in it for the long haul, in which case he's going to have to find a solution to a particularly intractable problem: how to protect a very large mass of users from identity fraud when his entire business is based on getting them to disclose as much information about themselves as possible.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/TDfjXaOLVrY/9442 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9442 Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:09:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9442 News My father was not a patient man. He could summon up some compassion for those unfortunates who were stupider than himself. What he couldn't stand was ignorance, particularly willful ignorance. The kind of thing where someone boasts about how little they know. My father was not a patient man. He could summon up some compassion for those unfortunates who were stupider than himself. What he couldn't stand was ignorance, particularly willful ignorance. The kind of thing where someone boasts about how little they know.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/vFoJlyBuQqc/9432 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9432 Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:42:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9432 News Back in about 1998, a couple of guys looking for funding for their start-up were asked this: How could anyone compete with Yahoo! or Altavista? Back in about 1998, a couple of guys looking for funding for their start-up were asked this: How could anyone compete with Yahoo! or Altavista?

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/n0X2wleMqII/9422 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9422 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:59:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9422 News In the late 1970s, I used to drive across the United States several times a year (I was a full-time folksinger), and although these were long, long days at the wheel, there were certain perks. One was the feeling that the entire country was my backyard. The other was the sense that no one in the world knew exactly where I was. It was a few days off from the pressure of other people.I've written before that privacy is not sleeping alone under a tree but being able to do ordinary things without fear. Being alone on an interstate crossing Oklahoma wasn't to hide some nefarious activity (like learning the words to "There Ain't No Instant Replay in the Football Game of Life"). Turn off the radio and, aside from an occasional billboard, the world was quiet. In the late 1970s, I used to drive across the United States several times a year (I was a full-time folksinger), and although these were long, long days at the wheel, there were certain perks. One was the feeling that the entire country was my backyard. The other was the sense that no one in the world knew exactly where I was. It was a few days off from the pressure of other people.

I've written before that privacy is not sleeping alone under a tree but being able to do ordinary things without fear. Being alone on an interstate crossing Oklahoma wasn't to hide some nefarious activity (like learning the words to "There Ain't No Instant Replay in the Football Game of Life"). Turn off the radio and, aside from an occasional billboard, the world was quiet.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/CbdHLZB3GWA/9421 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9421 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9421 News What if ? I say, what if? ? a country in which government IT projects have always been marked as huge, expensive, lengthy failures could transform itself into a country where IT genuinely works for both government and the people? What if the cheeky guys who founded MySociety and made communicating with your MP or looking up his voting record as easy as buying a book from Amazon were given the task of digitizing government? The guys (which I use as a gender-neutral term) who made e-petitions, PledgeBank, and FixMyStreet? Who embarrassed dozens of big, fat, failed government IT projects? What would that look like? What if ? I say, what if? ? a country in which government IT projects have always been marked as huge, expensive, lengthy failures could transform itself into a country where IT genuinely works for both government and the people? What if the cheeky guys who founded MySociety and made communicating with your MP or looking up his voting record as easy as buying a book from Amazon were given the task of digitizing government? The guys (which I use as a gender-neutral term) who made e-petitions, PledgeBank, and FixMyStreet? Who embarrassed dozens of big, fat, failed government IT projects? What would that look like?

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/KLTQPgbL_VU/9411 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9411 Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:47:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9411 News "This House fears the rise of artificial intelligence." "This House fears the rise of artificial intelligence."

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newswireless/~3/4m-TM6ST76s/9401 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9401 Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:42:00 +0000 http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/9401