China, North Korea, Burma…they’re places where protest has been crushed. But yesterday people demonstrated against Net censorship in virtual locations from those countries. Organized by the group Reporters Without Borders, the first Online Free Expression Day invited people to create avatars and take part in demonstrations in virtuallocations where protest would not be allowed in the real world. In a statement RWB said, “From now on, we will organize activities every 12 March to condemn cyber-censorship throughoutthe world. A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites." “Today, the first time this day is being marked, we are giving allInternet users the opportunity to demonstrate in places were protests are not normally possible. We hope many will come and protest in virtual versions of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square,Cuba’s Revolution Square or on the streets of Rangoon, in Burma. At least 62 cyber-dissidents are currently imprisoned worldwide, while more than 2,600 websites, blogs or discussions forumswere closed or made inaccessible in 2007.” UNESCO had originally supported the demonstration, but later withdrew its support. RWB lists 15 countriesas Internet Enemies (Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe) which censor Net use and imprisondissenting voices. Another 11 – Bahrain, Eritrea, Gambia, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen – are classed as “countries underwatch.”
Tag Archive: Libya
Cyber Demos Protest Online Censorship
OLPC Notebook Begins Production
Mass production on the OLPC XO low-cost notebook computer has begun at Quanta Computer’s factory in Changshu, China, only a couple weeks after the project admitted a production delay. The start of production actually came sooner than the OLPC effort anticipated: the new schedule called for production to begin November 12. Children should start receiving machines this month; last month, the OLPC project confirmed its first official order for 100,000 notebooks from Uruguay.
Libya in Deal for 150,000 Classmate PCs
Intel and Microsoft have inked a deal to supply Libya’s education ministry withh 150,000 of Intel’s Classmate PC laptop computers. The systems are designed for educational use in developing markets and compete with the One Laptop Per Child project; like the OLPC XO’s final pricetag, the Classmate PC costs about $200 to build.
According to Reuters, the deal was announced in the Libyan press in August, but Intel and Microsoft haven’t discussed the deal outside Libya. Intel spokesperson Agnes Kwan said neither Intel nor Microsoft are subsidizing the cost of the notebooks, but did not reveal how the country is paying for the notebooks.
OLPC To See General Release?
The One Laptop Per Child Project might have just seen its first XO units come off the assembly line for developers and testing in developing nations, but the project’s backers are already floating new plans to offer the inexpensive machines for sale to the general public—so long as consumer also buy one for use in the developing world.
Quanta Builds First 1,000 OLPC Laptops
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) effort has reached a major milestone: Shanghai’s Quanta Computer has pushed the first 1,000 XO laptop computers off its assembly line to begin environmental testing and software refinement.
The idea behind the One Laptop Per Child initiative is to improve the educations of children around the world—and especially in developing nations—by putting low-cost, energy-efficient, open-source, network-capable computers in the hands of children and teachers so they can more readily access information and knowledge. The units till be sold to governments to be issued to children on a one-computer-per-child basis. Spearheaded by the MIT Media Lab’s Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC project has not been without its challenges and setbacks—not to mention skeptical tongue-lashings from the likes of Microsoft’s Bill Gates—but the project continues to move forward.
Nations Named ‘Enemies of the Internet’
As part of its 24-hour online demonstration against online censorship, international watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders has released a list of 13 nations it dubs “enemies of the Internet” for restricting speech and suppressing freedom of expression on the Internet. And the organization is also inviting visitors to sound off to Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang regarding the company’s involvement in the Chinese Internet market.
ICANN Quietly Raises Internet’s .IQ
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last week quietly turned over administration for Iraq’s top-level domain (.iq) to Iraq’s newly-established National Communications and Media Commission.
Administration of Iraq’s top-level domain had been undefined since the shutdown of Texas-based InfoCom Corporation in 2002 on charges the company had been funnelling money to a member of the Islamic extremist group Hamas. InfoCom had been assigned regulation of the ".iq" top-level domain in 1997; the company sold computing technology and Internet hosting services to clients in the Middle East, and at one time hosted Web sites for Arabic news network Al-Jazeera.
