Will CNN-Kutcher contest lead to Twitter business plan?
Internetnews.com has an interesting article on how the battle between CNN and Ashton Kutcher for Twitter followers may spur Twitter to “adopt its long-awaited business plan.” The Register reports that “the four defendants in The Pirate Bay versus entertainment industry trial have been found guilty in a Swedish court of being accessories to breaching copyright laws. The verdict was handed down to four men behind the notorious BitTorrent tracker site this morning in a court in Stockholm. ‘The Stockholm district [...]
ACT Event: Moving from e-Government to We-Government
Washington, DC – On Wednesday, ACT hosted an event entitled “Moving from e-Government to We-Government: Creating Processes for Transparency and Openness” in Washington, DC. The event focused on the practical issues that must be addressed in order to improve the transparency of government, and featured Andrew Plemmons Pratt of the Center for America Progress (CAP), Jerry Brito of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Braden Cox of ACT.“An open and transparent government can only be achieved through a [...]
Spam wastes enough electricity to power 2.4 million U.S. homes for a year
Yahoo!Tech writes that “[t]here are plenty of reasons to hate spammers. Add this to the list: They're environmentally unfriendly. A report [released today] by security company McAfee Inc. finds that spammers are a scourge to your inbox and the environment, generating an astounding 62 trillion junk e-mails in 2008 that wasted enough electricity to power 2.4 million U.S. homes for a year. The ‘Carbon Footprint of E-mail Spam Report’ estimated the computational power needed to process spam — from criminals [...]
EU sues UK over Phorm
According to Yahoo!Tech, “[t]he European Commission began legal action against the U.K. Tuesday over its failure to protect Internet users from Phorm -- a covert behavioral advertising technology tested by the U.K.'s biggest fixed line operator, BT, in 2006 and 2007. The move signals growing concern in Brussels over the way new Internet-based technologies are using people's personal data. In addition to taking legal action against the U.K., the Commission also issued a general warning to all 27 E.U. countries [...]
From “e”-Government to “we”-Government: ACT Open Government Event on Tuesday
ACT will host an event on open government on Tuesday, Apr 14 from 9:30 to 10:45am. It's at the newly opened Capitol Visitors Center, Congressional Meeting Room South (the new main entrance to the U.S. Capitol, is located on the East front at First Street and East Capitol Street, NE). Coffee and morning snacks will be served. Join us to discuss how we can move from merely posting information online (e-government) to a more participatory process (we-government). We’ll discuss core [...]
EU mulls granting tax breaks for cross-border research projects
According to the Financial Times, “cross-border research projects in Europe could be set for billions of euros in tax breaks under proposals that will be considered by European Union ministers in coming weeks. As part of a broader plan to step up EU investment in research, Brussels is proposing to create a group of schemes called “European research infrastructure” (ERI) projects. These would need to involve at least two member states, have legitimate research objectives, and be “non-economic” in nature. [...]