The Characteristics of Network Society
The Characteristics of Network Society is an electronic paper written as a wiki that explores the panorama of networks and its main consequences on our society. By touching 5 main relevant points, it pans through economics of networks, culture, politics and law it represents a good solid review of the book "The Wealth of Networks" of Yochai Benkler.
The first part talks about the peer production and the necessary elements needed in order to make it successful and some examples on how can peer production be successful. consequently the first part analizes some of the economical consequences, economical efficency and aspects of peer production.
Another chapter treated in the wiki is about individual and cultural freedom in network society.In this section the concept of freedom is treated in relation with the rise of new technologies and new possibilities offered by networks that are asking for a change in laws.
A different thing is represented by political laws. The following chapter explains how and why Political freedom has different needs and is more complicated to be treated.
The following part treats of justice and social ties in the networking society. Although the two subjects seem very distant one to the other, the page is well built.
The last part of the wiki describes what the policies of freedom are in this moment. The chapter makes a dinstinction between phisical, logical (the type of messages vehiculated through machines) and content layer (the content communicated between humans but only through electronical devices)
http://wealthofnetworks.pbworks.com/
Visualizzazione post con etichetta Ethics and New Media. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta Ethics and New Media. Mostra tutti i post
domenica 20 dicembre 2009
On Social engineering
While browsing through the internet looking for material about social engineering i could read few examples on possible social engineering tecniques and i've found out how many similarities those techniques have to the psychological technologies used in fields such as NLP.
NLP is a controversial "side" of psychotherapy that started in the late 60s and is being developed and used by many professionals, politicians and communicators all around the world. Its tecniques, extremely powerful when used for creating suggestions into somebody's mind, are subject of ethical discussions since long time.
Derren Brown uses many of those tecniques during his tv shows on Bbc4.
Video1
Video2
I believe that such techniques, applied to online environment, represent the basics of social engineering.
My personal opinion on how social engineering could be diminuished is to create information about it, alert people about the risks that exist in the online (and offline) world and to try to change their treshold of trust towards other people asking for personal relevant information.
NLP is a controversial "side" of psychotherapy that started in the late 60s and is being developed and used by many professionals, politicians and communicators all around the world. Its tecniques, extremely powerful when used for creating suggestions into somebody's mind, are subject of ethical discussions since long time.
Derren Brown uses many of those tecniques during his tv shows on Bbc4.
Video1
Video2
I believe that such techniques, applied to online environment, represent the basics of social engineering.
My personal opinion on how social engineering could be diminuished is to create information about it, alert people about the risks that exist in the online (and offline) world and to try to change their treshold of trust towards other people asking for personal relevant information.
The Online World of Crime and Fraud
one of the frauds that mostly got my attention (as it's somehow the one that i mostly could see) is phishing.
It's essentially a very easy system, which can be done in many different ways. In one of the most common ways, the criminal sends a large amount of emails to a large list of addresses of possible victims. The email looks like an official mail, often from the address of a real bank institute or credit card institute, and is asking the victim to visit a website where will be asked for details of the credit card or bank account.
When the victim clicks on the link inside of the email, he/she then goes to a fake page where the details inserted will be stored into the criminal's database.
One interesting technology that tries to solve this problem uses a central server that can collect information about fake websites and alerts the users of this directly into their browser. This technology, integrated into firefox and other browsers, is being used also by Google in its Google Chrome browser
It's essentially a very easy system, which can be done in many different ways. In one of the most common ways, the criminal sends a large amount of emails to a large list of addresses of possible victims. The email looks like an official mail, often from the address of a real bank institute or credit card institute, and is asking the victim to visit a website where will be asked for details of the credit card or bank account.
When the victim clicks on the link inside of the email, he/she then goes to a fake page where the details inserted will be stored into the criminal's database.
One interesting technology that tries to solve this problem uses a central server that can collect information about fake websites and alerts the users of this directly into their browser. This technology, integrated into firefox and other browsers, is being used also by Google in its Google Chrome browser
The Networked World: about the applicability of nonmarket production
Looking at nonmarket productions i have to honestly admit i've been for long time extremely suspicious, but i started lately revising my opinion, perhaps due to a different approach to the subject.
My biggest concern is connected with the singularity of those successfull stories. Although nonmarket productions may feel attractive for what they represent (as Linus Torvalds describes the possible motivations for them as survival, social position and entertainment) i believe they are mostly suitable for large scale produsctions, where people can feel part of something "big". In short, i believe that not only the porpouse of the production should be something clear that represent positive ideals, but it also has to reach a relatively well dimensioned scale to be appealing to many people and let them feel they are contributing to something which will finally be giving a positive contribution. (for example, Linux, Wikipedia and many others rely a lot on their non-branded brand)
My biggest concern is connected with the singularity of those successfull stories. Although nonmarket productions may feel attractive for what they represent (as Linus Torvalds describes the possible motivations for them as survival, social position and entertainment) i believe they are mostly suitable for large scale produsctions, where people can feel part of something "big". In short, i believe that not only the porpouse of the production should be something clear that represent positive ideals, but it also has to reach a relatively well dimensioned scale to be appealing to many people and let them feel they are contributing to something which will finally be giving a positive contribution. (for example, Linux, Wikipedia and many others rely a lot on their non-branded brand)
Challanges in the global information society
The paper of Pekka Himanen "Challenges to the Global Information Society" talks about the new trends on information society. By considering the scenario from a global point of view, he first considers 4 groups of countries, represented by America, Europe, Asia and the poor developing countries. By briefly analyzing the economical implications of the current social system, he tries to explain how it would be possible to avoid the fall of welfare state.
in a second part of his paper, Himanen points out the values that should be considered when connecting the welfare state and information society. Among all the 10 points, space is given to freedom, creativity and meaningfulness.
He then highlights the key points of social developement and gives 4 concepts that should constitute the basics:
1. A creative economy
2. A creative welfare society
3. Humanly meaningful development
4. A global culture
The paper, which gives practical advices on how new laws should help the information society reach well-being, gives a strong importance to re-thinking our rules creatively and with by considering sustainibility.
I personally enjoyed the broad view of the paper, although it seemed to be that in certain points it could have focused a bit more and gone a bit more into details
in a second part of his paper, Himanen points out the values that should be considered when connecting the welfare state and information society. Among all the 10 points, space is given to freedom, creativity and meaningfulness.
He then highlights the key points of social developement and gives 4 concepts that should constitute the basics:
1. A creative economy
2. A creative welfare society
3. Humanly meaningful development
4. A global culture
The paper, which gives practical advices on how new laws should help the information society reach well-being, gives a strong importance to re-thinking our rules creatively and with by considering sustainibility.
I personally enjoyed the broad view of the paper, although it seemed to be that in certain points it could have focused a bit more and gone a bit more into details
lunedì 30 novembre 2009
on software licensing landscape. What could it look like in 2015?
It's interesting to read again the story of how Microsoft could achieve the position is in right now, and it's interesting to think of how software could look like in 5 years.
In my opinion the landscape is facing structural changes which will affect tremendously the way software is being produced and delivered. In fact, the more big companies invest in cloud computing, the less there will be the need for software to be downloaded. The danger for big software corporations is somehow still very far but yet real. Companies such as Google are constantly investing in software to be run on their server, without any licence needed for the users (instead, an agreement of use) and soon they will deliver a whole operating system that will only rely on web services.
It is interesting to see how other companies are reacting to this. Microsoft, for example, had to develop an "online office" to face Google Docs, and this is a clear sign that something is changing (especially if we consider that Office has always been one of the most profitable softwares for Microsoft)
My prediction is, therefore, that lots of software and services will move on the web and follow its rules and economics. Companies will continue looking for user's lock in and will try to offer free solutions with "pro" payment possibilities or ad based services.
On the other hand, some companies will continue developing "proper" software and probably offer it as commercial software.
In my opinion the landscape is facing structural changes which will affect tremendously the way software is being produced and delivered. In fact, the more big companies invest in cloud computing, the less there will be the need for software to be downloaded. The danger for big software corporations is somehow still very far but yet real. Companies such as Google are constantly investing in software to be run on their server, without any licence needed for the users (instead, an agreement of use) and soon they will deliver a whole operating system that will only rely on web services.
It is interesting to see how other companies are reacting to this. Microsoft, for example, had to develop an "online office" to face Google Docs, and this is a clear sign that something is changing (especially if we consider that Office has always been one of the most profitable softwares for Microsoft)
My prediction is, therefore, that lots of software and services will move on the web and follow its rules and economics. Companies will continue looking for user's lock in and will try to offer free solutions with "pro" payment possibilities or ad based services.
On the other hand, some companies will continue developing "proper" software and probably offer it as commercial software.
lunedì 2 novembre 2009
On Hacker's ethic
Hacker's ethic (or at least some of its principles) are indeed spreading through the world's culture and are in my opinion dominating many the aspects of the web.
In fact, when considering webpages or web applications, we can mostly agree on the fact that most of the information we can find on the internet is free. and together with applications, information (news) and software, we can find images, videos and music that can all be considered -legally- free.
The idea that content, and generally speaking intellectual property, should be shared and made available to the world is also at the basics of the creative commons. Not only creative commons support the spread of information on a free basis but they also boost the production of new culture by supporting the use of the shared information.
Together with creative commons, many business models support the content sharing. think of many online journals, newspapers and (in a even more evident way) the whole blogosphere!
In fact, when considering webpages or web applications, we can mostly agree on the fact that most of the information we can find on the internet is free. and together with applications, information (news) and software, we can find images, videos and music that can all be considered -legally- free.
The idea that content, and generally speaking intellectual property, should be shared and made available to the world is also at the basics of the creative commons. Not only creative commons support the spread of information on a free basis but they also boost the production of new culture by supporting the use of the shared information.
Together with creative commons, many business models support the content sharing. think of many online journals, newspapers and (in a even more evident way) the whole blogosphere!
lunedì 19 ottobre 2009
On Echelon
The advance of intelligence systems like Echelon has reached an impressive growth and somehow resembles the structure of the internet itself for its ability to process data.What looks majestic to me is the dimension of this system. Trying to imagine the proportions and the quantity of information that is circulating around the world, it seems that a constant increasing amount of information is being everyday vehiculated through modern digital media.
Reflecting upon Echelon, its existence and its role in our society leaves me with an aura that contains at the same time elements of fiction (I can't help thinking of the American series 24 and NSA's role in it) and of the gigantic proportions that a system like this requires to work. It's easy to relate the need of such a system with bigger ones. If commercial powers such as google, yahoo (jee i can't believe i'm talking about yahoo in 2009, feels so old school :P ) need so much processing power to index and analyze just a portion of internet's data, how impressive would be a system that can actually process not only internet "static" data but also its dynamic information such as chat, VoIP and all the other possible streams that run through the internet? (not counting all the other media available in the world -i think of satellites, radio, sms…-)
This leads me to think that the financial effort which needed for an efficient system that could filter our world's information is impressive and that the UKUSA treat has been a natural consequence of a need -not just of physical coverage- but also of covering the expenses of such a big system.
Considering this and today's importance of information i'm wondering how richer countries could have a superior knowledge over world's information and how could this lead them to acquire even a higher status in the world's power. If it's indeed true that countries such as Switzerland can develop systems which could be similar to Echelon, will they ever be able to catch up with almost 60 years of expertise by the UKUSA?
Reflecting upon Echelon, its existence and its role in our society leaves me with an aura that contains at the same time elements of fiction (I can't help thinking of the American series 24 and NSA's role in it) and of the gigantic proportions that a system like this requires to work. It's easy to relate the need of such a system with bigger ones. If commercial powers such as google, yahoo (jee i can't believe i'm talking about yahoo in 2009, feels so old school :P ) need so much processing power to index and analyze just a portion of internet's data, how impressive would be a system that can actually process not only internet "static" data but also its dynamic information such as chat, VoIP and all the other possible streams that run through the internet? (not counting all the other media available in the world -i think of satellites, radio, sms…-)
This leads me to think that the financial effort which needed for an efficient system that could filter our world's information is impressive and that the UKUSA treat has been a natural consequence of a need -not just of physical coverage- but also of covering the expenses of such a big system.
Considering this and today's importance of information i'm wondering how richer countries could have a superior knowledge over world's information and how could this lead them to acquire even a higher status in the world's power. If it's indeed true that countries such as Switzerland can develop systems which could be similar to Echelon, will they ever be able to catch up with almost 60 years of expertise by the UKUSA?
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