Google has closed the doors on its search engine in China, following through on its promise to leave unless it was allowed to provide uncensored search results. But, rather than eliminating its filters on google.cn, and risking the arrest of its China-based employees, Google has redirected requests for google.cn to its Hong Kong search engine, [...]
This past week, the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan. The 360 page document is the first step in extending broadband Internet service to millions of U.S. residents. The Plan intends to influence U.S. broadband access in four ways: First, in designing policies to ensure competition among Internet service providers in order to [...]
The FCC has proposed the formation of a National Digital Literacy Corps, to assist individuals and communities without Internet access in becoming connected. Like Americorps, the Digital Literacy Corps, would target communities in the U.S. with low numbers of broadband subscribers to assist them in getting online and reaping the benefits provided by the Internet. [...]
This past week Google unveiled its own social network: Google Buzz. This isn’t Google’s first attempt at being social, Google Orkut, Open Social, and Latitude, are previously released applications designed to support online social engagement, but none have garnered much attention. Google Buzz, on the other hand, has made quite a splash in its first [...]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has discovered a new way for Web hosts to track user’s movements around the Internet without using cookies or IP addresses. Each web page request that arrives at a server contains detailed information about the user’s computer such as browser type and version, and the plugins that are installed. That information [...]
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average young american spends practically every waking moment, outside of school, on the computer, watching TV, playing video games, or tuned in to some other electronic device. If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online [NYTimes] Kids consume media as a full-time job—many getting overtime [...]
This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the importance of freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet. The speech coincidentally follows last week’s announcement by Google that it and 30 other companies and organizations were hacked by what it claims must have been the Chinese government. Google threatened [...]
Google shocked the world this week by announcing that it would rather shut down its China operations than comply with China’s censorship laws. The announcement was applauded by human rights organizations around the world, with bouquets of flowers being laid across Google’s sign at the entrance to its large Beijing headquarters. Meanwhile Google investors are [...]
A recent study funded by the U.S. Department of Education found that “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” The research included 99 independent studies over a 12 year span focusing on quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance over the same material. The New York Times reports [...]
Remember the $100 laptop from OLPC? It was the tiny laptop computer designed to bring affordable computing to school children in developing countries. Well, Sugar Labs, designer of the Sugar open-source operating system used on the OLPC XO Laptop, has refined the OS and all of the educational software it includes so that it can [...]
Ken’s Tech News Bookmarks
