On Copyright – Bad Assumptions lead to Bad Conclusions
Here in Hyderabad at the IGF I just got done listening to a panel titled “Overcoming Obstacles to Effective Digital Education” and while that is ostensibly a great idea for a panel, this one focused on “ examining a broader set of issues including: roadblocks stemming from protections of intellectual property...” In other words, the panel started with the assumption that Copyright is a major roadblock to effective digital education. Most of the panelists listed on the link above were [...]
Live from Hyderabad! Alphabet Soup Conference Time!
ACT has two people who have flown to Hyderabad, India to participate in multiple events built around the United Nations Economic Development arm sponsored “Internet Governance Forum” Conference. In addition to the main IGF conference, there’s the ICC/BASIS meeting, the WITSA meeting, the GigaNet meeting and a whole raft of “Dynamic Coalition” meetings. Right now in the WITSA meeting, Markus Kummer Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of the UN IGF, is giving a breakdown of the Conference to the board [...]
Facebook holds acquisition talks with Twitter
Yahoo!Tech reveals that “Social networking company Facebook recently held acquisition talks with Twitter, the micro-blogging company, the Financial Times said. The negotiations […] put a valuation of as much as $500 million on Twitter, which has become one of Silicon Valley's most closely watched start-ups, the paper said. The talks, which were first reported by the AllThingsD blog, were confirmed to the paper by two people familiar with the situation.” According to BBC News, “Sir Paul McCartney has said he [...]
Beware the Era of Financial Regulation and its Spillover onto Tech Companies
Remember being in grade school when a classmate’s rabble rousing would ruin it for everybody, and the teacher would hold back the class from going to recess? The other students would moan and groan and justifiably feel that punishing the entire class for one person’s misdeeds was unfair. This is what I fear for the tech industry, due to the trouble making of the financial crisis. If politicians turn their gaze from the financial sector to tech, they will likely [...]
Dot Com Archive helps SMEs avoid repeating the mistakes of the dot com bubble
The International Herald Tribune has an interesting article on the Dot Com Archive, an archive at the University of Maryland documenting “what did and didn't work during the flurry of business activity around the new technology called the Internet.” Yahoo!Tech reports that “fewer young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Macao and Britain, a survey of 13 countries around the world showed. Among 12 to 14 year olds, 100 percent of British youth use [...]
Final CFIUS regulations may miss their goal
On Friday, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) issued its final regulations governing national security reviews of foreign investments in U.S. businesses. These regulations formally implement amendments adopted by the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 (FINSA) to the Exon-Florio Amendment to the Defense Production Act of 1950. Almost a year ago, when CFIUS was still in the process of drafting the regulations, ACT released a paper on the importance of not unnecessarily [...]