youtube.com problems

This weekend Youtube.com was temporarily shut down due to the Pakistan government officials believing that the site was airing digital images that were putting down the Islamic religion. Originally the shutdown was just for Pakistan but accidentally the entire website was put out of order while trying to apply the censorship. Critics believe that the “mix-up” was not so accidental but more a way of Pakistan showing that it was in power of this site and they could eliminate one of the most popular websites with ease. I think that the excuse of having negative images of the Islamic faith is a mere excuse to have a slight power trip and show the rest of the world that they had power. Most people do not know where websites are based out of or how they are controlled so when things like this happen it can be a red flag to users. There is somewhat of a trust factor with the internet because so much information is available out there. A nation state or other adversary could stir up diplomatic trouble by toying with this sort of trust built into the Internet. What would our government make of it if all of a sudden all traffic destined for .gov domains wound up in China or North Korea? We do not stop to think about these things when we are using the internet day to day and it can be an eye opener to see incidents such as the youtube.com closing. We should be wary and think about how we use the internet and what we allow to be made public.

2-14

A committee of Dallas City Council members unanimously recommended Tuesday that city libraries install Internet monitoring software on its publicly accessible computers. At first the committee had considered using more restrictive filters that actively block Web content, such as pornography. There has been much concern with the content of internet web pages being accessed in the public libraries and this new monitoring software should help to eliminate the possibility of internet misusage. The recommended monitoring software would send an electronic message to librarians and Internet users alike when possibly inappropriate content is accessed on a public library computer. There are instances when a site must be accessed for research and is not necessarily pornography, but this new software will alert the librarians allowing them to make a decision whether or not the material is appropriate. The proposed monitoring software would allow library patrons to choose whether to continue to the selected Web sites after being notified, on-screen, that they've accessed potentially objectionable content, such as sexually explicit images. The software would also automatically send a message to a librarian's computer when suspected inappropriate content is accessed on the Internet. Librarians could then request an Internet user to stop accessing material they deem in violation of the library's internal service policy.
I think that this software is a smart way of monitoring the usage of the internet in the public setting. It is one thing for someone to view inappropriate material on their own computer but to do so at a public library where children or someone who may object to such material is not acceptable.

Middle East Blackouts

Multiple internet blackouts overseas are beginning to concern those in the global internet community. The cable breaks have been causing a growing buzz on technical blogs and drawing attention from conspiracy theorists, who suspect everything from information warfare to terrorism to sabotage by the United States to take out Internet connections to Iran, whose connectivity indeed has been pretty much blacked out for most of the past week. Personally I think that it is coincidental that these blackouts are occurring in the Middle East, but that is just my opinion. Many skeptics believe that the US has sabotaged lines and cables to affect the Middle East, especially Iraq and Iran. These blackouts have affected over 80 million internet users. A group of workers says that it will take about two weeks to repair the problems in the fiber optic cables that have been the cause of the blackouts.
Many believe that these blackouts are not an accident and that it could be a terrorist attempt to cripple banks and other information systems over seas. Despite all the conspiracy speculation, such breaks are not without precedence. In December 2006, seven of the eight Internet cables connected to Taiwan were damaged by an earthquake. Internet communications in much of Asia were disrupted for weeks. However, these blackouts have been a wake up call, and have focused on the vulnerability of the over seas systems. I don’t think that it is a terrorist action or a attempt at sabotaging the internet for those in the middle east but I could be wrong. Over the next few days officials will be investigating the situation further.

2-5

We as college students are surrounded by information yet we do not take advantage of the research capabilities we are supplied with. I agree with the point being made in the article “Information Navigation 101” on the point of college students being somewhat oblivious when it comes to research material and where to go to find accurate information. My first year I had no idea that we had so many resources available in the library and relied on Google or other public websites to draw information. As freshman on the baseball team we were all required ten hours of study hall per week but none of us used the library and the databases that were available because we either did not know how to use them, or we did not know that they were available. I would have classified myself as illiterate as far as scholarly research materials are concerned. A lot of websites seem as if they are scholarly and are good sources, but there is no proof that the information is accurate and can be used in papers etc.
UNCW should implement an information literacy program like Cal State Fullerton did which would allow incoming freshman to gain a solid base for evaluating information and have a chance to be more literate as far as researching. After four years I know which programs are helpful and which type of sites are not helpful in research. But if a class was offered or even mandatory for new students there would be much more information being taken in and a better chance for education.