Two views from the summit

This article reviews the objectives and results of the First Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. It includes an analysis of the discourse conducted to this point at the Summit, and of the possible outcomes.     

ICANN的政治经济学分析

ICANN即TheInternationalCorporationforAs signedNamesandNumbers ,是一个负责分配域名和IP地址等互联网资源的国际组织 ,成立于 1998年。ICANN所管理的资源都是互联网运行所必须的基本资源 :DNS、IP地址、TCP/IP协议、根服务器。因此 ,它所制定的各种政策、做出的各项决定与互联网的平稳运行息息相关。在某种意义上 ,ICANN所管理的资源关系到一个国家、一个社会在虚拟空间的主权。而目前国内对这个机构的运作方式 ,甚至对这个机构本身还知之甚少。本文力求系统整理有关I CANN的资料 ,把ICANN的背景资料 ,特别是ICANN的最新动态介绍给国内。     

Who Searches the Searchers? Community Privacy in the Age of Monolithic Search Engines

Privacy has largely been equated with every individual's right to privacy. Accordingly, current efforts to protect privacy on the Internet have sought anonymity by breaking, where possible, links with personally identifiable information (PII)—all uses of aggregated data stripped of PII are considered legitimate. This article argues that we need to use a broader concept, general or group identifying information (GII), because even aggregated data stripped of PII violate privacy at the community level. The search engine companies, or anyone else with access to their log files, can use these data to generate a moment-by-moment view of what is on the collective mind. Such a view can be used in a variety of ways, some with deep economic and even political impact. In order to frame this discussion, it is necessary to examine some of the realities of the search engine-mediated associative interface to the World Wide Web. While this interface has enormous benefits for the networked world, it also fundamentally changes a number of issues underlying various current debates about Internet governance.     

Digital Images for the Information Professional,by Melissa M. Terras. Burlington,VT: Ashgate, 2008. 245 pp. $114.95 cloth. ISBN 978-0-7546-4860-4 (cloth)

Privacy has largely been equated with every individual's right to privacy. Accordingly, current efforts to protect privacy on the Internet have sought anonymity by breaking, where possible, links with personally identifiable information (PII)—all uses of aggregated data stripped of PII are considered legitimate. This article argues that we need to use a broader concept, general or group identifying information (GII), because even aggregated data stripped of PII violate privacy at the community level. The search engine companies, or anyone else with access to their log files, can use these data to generate a moment-by-moment view of what is on the collective mind. Such a view can be used in a variety of ways, some with deep economic and even political impact. In order to frame this discussion, it is necessary to examine some of the realities of the search engine-mediated associative interface to the World Wide Web. While this interface has enormous benefits for the networked world, it also fundamentally changes a number of issues underlying various current debates about Internet governance.