Category: Open government
November 23rd, 2009
Internet: A threat to government or the other way around? (Part 4)
Justice systems around the world had their entire world turned upside down over the past several years because of the Internet. The basic sets of laws, often founded on a nation’s constitution are being used in ways that many forefathers never anticipated or envisioned. Republic, Dominion and Socialist government institutions around the world are all facing the same issues - often without any clear path of legal precedent.
One of the challenges facing courts is jurisdiction. Because of the very nature of the Internet, legal systems are now faced with new roadblocks that did not exist 10 years ago. Traditional methods of law enforcement and legal treaties do work and continue to be the basis of process and dealing with prosecution and trials. Interpretation of existing laws and applying them to Internet-related cases has not been a significant challenge in many cases. But there are some new aspects of what is admitted into court.
Evidence
What has shocked the system is how Internet-based materials are now used in the courts as evidence. Everything from ISP logs, website blogs, and social media sites (among others) are now being used in ways that prosecutors and jurists have never had to deal with in the past. It is also becoming a battle ground for several areas of law, particularly the integrity of evidence. This has many in the legal world concerned. It’s becoming clear that this will be an area of significant debate and will have far-reaching consequences. Internet evidence does not have look and feel of traditional evidence and, in many cases, has yet to be challenged as to its validity. Prosecutors are faced with a dilemma that impacts how and what they prosecute. This in turn has created a new source of political initiatives that are not only questionable, but in some parts of the world viewed as extreme.
Don’t have a Law yet? We’ll make one
The evolution of law and how it is created has traditionally been a slow and low priority part of the political system. No longer is that the case. Government ministers and cabinet officials appear to be fast-tracking new laws, specifically because of the Internet at a rapid pace of late. Politicians are practically tripping over themselves drafting new bills that claim that they know how to fix the problems of cybercrime and abuse. These ideas are moving at such a rapid pace that often few people actually have read the fine print. What concerns many is the advice politicians are getting on how Internet law should be created. Governments all over the world will have significant impact on such issues as free speech, Net neutrality, news, crime and governance of institutions.
Prosecution
There is not much sympathy for the courts in many parts of the world. That may soon change as news travels across the multimedia world of the Internet. Attorneys general throughout the United States are political and create their own priorities and thus control what is heard before the courts. This may have significant consequences as to the timing of how the Internet evolves and impact the economics of the service that potentially influences it’s usage for decades. In the United Kingdom, the courts will have to take into account European treaties and the European Parliament. Canada’s magistrates may strike down or uphold newly created laws that may wind up creating in-balance that could take years to reverse.
Rules await the Internet
Regulators such as the CRTC, FCC, OfCom are charting new territory in communication rules and regulations. Lawmakers are beginning to micro-manage this process. No one yet knows what the impact these new elements will have on the judicial system. It will take years before this is known and goes through several rigorous tests of the court system. Case law may take a decade or more before any true outcomes are known. By that time, a nation will have changed political administration and have new agendas that reset the cycle before some true outcomes are known. Net Neutrality will be debated and wind up before the courts in jurisdictions around the world. The results will vary like your bandwidth speed and access to content.
Global perspective
Laws of a nation are now being combined in many parts of the world. The very essence of a sovereign nation set of laws is slowly being merged into a single set by which it will adhere to. This is particularly true in Europe where the European Parliament is attempting to create laws specifically surrounding the Internet. This has the potential to create political and legal challenges for courts in how they make decisions. The consequences have significant long term impacts on how courts operate and what order of Appeals and jurisdiction as they enter cyber space with profound outcomes yet to be decided.
The Supreme Court
Supreme Court decisions have not had an impact on the Internet - but likely will. Major court decisions at local, state, and provincial levels are being appealed and many will eventually be argued before the Supreme Court. That draws concern because of how many governments nominate and select jurists to be a part of the Supreme Court framework. In general terms, the institution is politically driven and has the potential to create decisions that may in fact be contrary to the very principles that many of us take for granted. It also works in the other direction. Many a government has had policies and laws overturned by the courts. Key segments will be privacy, Internet access and tracking - along with content management tangled with identity security. It could be argued that elected government officials are not a threat to the Internet, the courts are. The counter point is that will force parliamentarians to change the law, a task far easier said than done. Compounding the problem is that the highest courts around the world have (almost) unlimited tenure until death. Jurists that will have profound impacts on the stance of governments surrounding Internet issues are in China, Pakistan, India, Russia, and the Middle East. China is unique in that it will have to eventually deal with treaties in which it is a signatory to, but no one has yet to appeal any government policies. It may soon have to. If WTO treaties are before their court system, the Internet could be next.
The court system in most democratic nations has dynamics rarely resulting in quick decisions. It may take years before government’s leaders and the lawmakers truly understand what they are dealing with. Some will fail in creating new laws that are considered extreme by many; others may actually pass the litmus test of a Supreme Court decision. History awaits the outcome.
Epilogue - it will never have an ending
So here we are; some of the files are out in the open, more need further decryption, understanding and updating. The pace of the discussion is increasing and appears to be moving along with few delays. 2010 promises to be the start of a new decade that has a few fundamental issues to resolve. The debate has begun and could be a pivotal point in how society uses and government manages the Internet.
November 22nd, 2009
Internet: A threat to government or the other way around? (Part 2)
Part II
It’s been suggested in many articles that President Obama won the U.S. election in 2008 because his campaign used Twitter, Facebook and other social media effectively over the course of the campaign that spanned two years. But this new instant social media clearly it works both ways: Bad news travels much faster, and with significantly more power, than good news ever does. Face it: People love dirt and passing on bad news more often, with negative results which tend to stick in a voters mind for a longer period of time than good news does.
The snowball effect
There’s more to it than just a story being uploaded and published on a blog or RSS feed. It goes a lot farther, much much farther. Internet news is now available in every language, where anybody who has access to a computer or smart phone is now a potential audience for ‘news’. That has politicians nervous because just how many of these stories are published with incomplete information along with confirmation that the material they are publishing is true. Harder still, once it’s published, how much effort do you put into getting a retraction if the story is inaccurate? And if the politician pushes too far, it may be perceived that there is in fact truth to the article, compounding the problem. Twitter spreads news like a virus and it’s unstoppable and often it doesn’t, if ever, post retractions or corrections at the same velocity. We thought we understood the 7/24 news cycle when the era of 200 television stations became a reality… uh no…not even close were we in understanding what this cycle means - until now.
The Spin
Bad news is also how the opposition takes aim at its targets. Once a story is in the wild, you can bet your opposite is firing out their take on a story, sometimes with twice the venom and quadruple the amount of information that can literately engulf the target. If you thought spam was a problem, political drama is going to crush it in the years to come. One question it raises is: Can we absorb it all? The politician may have an escape route after all. But there’s an old saying: If enough junk is thrown at the wall, some of it is going to stick…
The story
News is also about agendas that elected leaders want to you to vote for. Out go the press releases, RSS alerts, Twitter, blogs and social portal postings. You become engulfed in it. You can’t surf anywhere without it coming at you. Well, you can, but don’t worry; they’ll find you anyway and make sure you listen. As opposing sides pitch you why each respective side is right and the other is wrong, you wonder if they even remember what they represent you for in the first place. This onslaught of political news is ignored, absorbed and debated and the arguments and dilution of substance begins. Often it can be ugly at one extreme to complete blandness at the other. Politicians rarely remember which side of the bed they woke up on, why should it be any different trying to get a bill passed on the floor of the legislature?
What some leaders are starting to realize is that if they are not careful, their constituents will tune out. So far that’s not holding true, with the majority of western world eligible voters having access to the internet and having an email address or a cell phone with a data plan. Most troubling for elected officials are secondary news sources that create perception beyond their editorial control. These secondary sources are your friends that pass on the news, as a tweet, email, blog or text message which are condensed and revised pieces of news. This audience tends to get engaged BECAUSE it came from a source they associate with. The future might hold that people create firewall or filter rules that prevent political messages getting to them, but rarely will they reject these secondary sources of news.
Reaction to government has moved from the lawns of universities and parks to the Internet.
November 20th, 2009
Internet: A threat to government or the other way around?
Could the Internet pose a threat to government as an institution and create significant problems that shape how governing in the future occurs around the globe? Or are government a danger to users of the Internet — and vice versa?
The answer is maybe both. The internet has plunged government institutions into a very steep learning curve; creating new frontiers that many bureaucrats believe help how they run the country. For many departments, it’s been a windfall in financial savings such as publishing news, services, and many other programs. But for the actual governors of a country, it’s become quicksand or worse: the death knell for an elected official. The power brokers have found that making deals that used to be done in secret are now just about impossible to do. Getting a deal done, negotiating give and take on a bill is now leaked before the ink has even dried, because a draft is already out on the internet on some blog or news forum - like this one. Senators, Congressmen/women, parliamentarians around the world no longer worry about one single person; suddenly, anyone around them can be the next Deep Throat tell-all informer, straight from their BlackBerry to Twitter, and their career could be over.
It could be argued that the internet is the great equalizer to government and its institutions, preventing them from becoming too powerful. For other agencies, it’s an entirely new battlefront - one which they now must confront - and use.
- The Internet is the great creator and destroyer of current and next generation politicians.
- A journalist does his homework and steadfastly enshrines ethical methods.
These two statements are about to collide in a head-on crash of extraordinary proportions. When U.S. President Nixon resigned from office, it wasn’t a news story covering a week in the life of a President’s downfall. It started in June of 1971 and finally ended when he left office in August of 1974. Newspaper reporters had to maintain constant pressure on information leaking out of the White House and Defense Department for three years. Watergate was covered by some of the most respected journalists in the world and ensured that the facts pertaining to the story followed strict guidelines before publication. Those standards were what ultimately brought down a President.
Standards 2009… I don’t have time for that!
Today, a single story with enough information that is both accurate AND false can wipe out a politician in the amount of time it takes to log into a BlackBerry, type out 140 characters onto Twitter.com and you’re done like tweet….
The amount of retractions and corrections that news organizations have published has skyrocketed over the past several years. I myself have had to correct a story’s accuracy of facts. The speed of the internet has also created a conundrum that existed already in newspapers: Deadlines, which have now accelerated from several hours to ‘hit the press’ to seconds to get it online before the person across the street on his cell phone blogs it. Competition isn’t what it used to be. A single event can have devastating effects that spread and collects unwitting victims that are also elected, thus ending that official’s colleague career.
November 17th, 2009
Do former CEOs make better politicians than career diplomats?
Both Meg Whitman (E-Bay) and Carly Fiorina (HP) are entering U.S. politics in California where anything is possible. Both were high tech corridor heavyweights managing two of the largest ICT corporations in the world. Ross Perot (EDS) tried to run for President - twice. Some considered his chances weak in the beginning, yet he almost pulled it off, some analyst suggest. Former Vice President Cheney while CEO of Halliburton between 1995 and 2000, has always been in politics starting in 1969 until his retirement last year.
U.S. Governments generally elect career politicians, rising through the ranks from town councils, state legislatures and finally federal institutions. Many have careers spanning 40+ years. Congressman John Dingell of Michigan has served in office since 1955 and is the longest serving elected House member in history.
There are two other sources of diplomats. One is not too far distant from the political spectrum, the other is. The first is the military, Gen Eisenhower (President) , Gen Colin Powell (Secretary of State), and several generals since the civil war went into politics at various levels. One of the surprises in the 20th century was General Douglas MacArthur’s decision not to enter politics despite many who felt he would have won a Presidential race in 1952. Theodore Roosevelt has the distinction of serving first in politics, leaving to enter the military (1898 Spanish-American War) and reenter politics eventually becoming the 26th U.S. President from 1901 to 1909.
The other source is actors such as former President Regan, Fred Thompson (Senator), Clint Eastwood (Mayor), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Gov of California) and many others. The track records of each are likely to be debated forever.
The corporate world has not had significant leadership roles in recent U.S. elections. The question often arises as to why. The answers vary from scrutiny, pay, and general consensus; it’s easier to influence change from outside the political arena than from within. Should be an interesting news cycle watching Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina’s attempts getting elected in California. Silicon Valley may not be the safe haven they think it is. Fiorina is challenging three-term Senator Barbara Boxer (who’s been in federal politics since 1983) while Whitman is going up against the Terminator who’s been Governor since 2003.
Loading ...November 10th, 2009
U.K. minister wants enhanced monitoring of Internet usage
U.K. Home Office Minister David Hanson is pushing for further data archiving of information by Communications Service Providers, including such web portals as Facebook. In a BBC published article, the Minister responsible for Privacy, Christopher Graham, (along with several other un-named ministers) has some serious concerns with the proposal.
Home Office Ministry - United Kingdom
Not only does Minister Hanson suggest that records be accessible at the source, but also tracked by internet service providers. Such a system would require immense capital and infrastructure. Based on what the Minister desires, it would appear that he wants investigative agencies to have broader mandates in observing people and creating dossiers on anyone in the world. This suggests that the British are gearing up to have a significant electronic intelligence community, similar to the U.S. variant, the National Security Agency. While most G-8 nations have extensive archives and records, it has never been required by local internet service providers or other telecommunications companies to maintain the records to the extent the Home office is suggesting. Such systems have never been within the budget of local police agencies. Minister Hanson is possibly suggesting that these costs should be passed on to the user of the internet services through cost sharing mechanisms of the communications provider and the government through direct subsidy, using tax dollars to implement the initial construction of the platforms required. Read the rest of this entry »
November 4th, 2009
European Parliament to revisit telecom regulations
The Members of the European Parliament (MEP) are to convene once more on November 4 to discuss Internet access, along with new rules that are currently being tabled and will be the sole topic up for discussion. At the last meeting on October 6, the Council of EU Telecommunications Ministers formally rejected Parliament’s second-reading amendment on internet access, which dealt with access freedom, indirectly pointed to file sharing and creating a law on disconnecting users that do so illegally.
In a press release by the European Parliament, the Council for EU telecommunications will be discussing a variety of legal issues that have caused a stir around the world on restricting internet access.
Alejo VIDAL-QUADRAS (EPP, Spain) who heads Parliament’s Conciliation Committee delegation, said after the last of these meetings on Thursday morning: “We go into the negotiations in a spirit of compromise, but determined to defend users’ rights and committed to the development of a regulatory framework that will incentivise investment and open up the market. We will do all we can to achieve a good solution, but Council has to understand that Parliament will defend without hesitation the freedom of the citizens it represents”.
The group is reviewing a complete package of innovation, safety and other reforms in respects to telecommunications, including traditional television and radio broadcast, security, privacy, email spam, cyberterrorism, phone number portability and those with disabilities accessing technology. Currently the council is at a significant cross roads on the Internet access and file sharing, copyright and this single issue could scrap the entire telecom package being tabled and given final reading for passage.
Looming larger is how European Parliament’s new regulations and Laws would affect sovereignty of each nation’s jurisdiction with respect to enforcement. One such example: if an individual is convicted of an infraction in Spain, would that country’s court decision (if based on this new set of Laws) be then applicable to all other nations inside the EU with respect to the individual’s conviction? If it is enforceable and agreed upon by all signing nations, this may indicate that Europe is beginning to eliminate the issue of sovereignty all together.
October 30th, 2009
ZDNet Government version of Throw out the Trash Day
Friday is always an interesting day to report news. In the hit political drama series produced and written by Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing, he came up with how the White House Press Secretary got into a routine with staffers in the Communications office to gather up all the news that should be announced, but prayed nobody read about it. Well guess what, covering the news on Government issues can be the same! So every Friday, it will be Take out the Trash Day .
Here’s my take on some news that isn’t all that interesting but still made it online somewhere….
Throw out the trash day
From the New York Times - Governor of California sends secret code message (this too was a story line in one of the episode of The West Wing) - Arnold got some pretty good writers!
Wired Magazine says an ISP owner still under gag order by the FBI. Wonder if the ISP had any other news to report, like are customer connections still working?
The BBC found thieves who think copper is still worth stealing from British Telecom - an entire Kilometer ripped out from a conduit by truck!
Minister of Environment for Australia jumps onto the smart grid energy bandwagon. Soon the entire world will have governments and utility companies capable of remotely shutting off your electricity and you won’t have a choice.
Also included on the last Friday of each month, I will blog my take on the best and worst government websites. Send me an email if you find ones that I should rate. At the end of the year I’ll announce the ‘awards’ of each category.
Best Website for month of October for Content
Best Website - Organization of Content
Most innovative government website:
Worst website for Content
Worst website - Organization of content
October 22nd, 2009
Net Neutrality: Why the Internet will never be free. For anything. So get used to it
Call it Net Neutrality if you want, but it doesn’t exist, nor is it required when you already have antitrust, regulatory and other local and state, and international law in place. Choice, innovation and open access are the principles in a free enterprise competitive market, not the halls of government.
Before I start, I wish to make clear that ’Law’ is what makes our society what it is today. Without, we would have anarchy and society as we know it today would not exist. Also this is not your typical blog story, what follows is an medium depth look at the problems and challenges Net Neutrality would have on providers, users and government policy if implemented. It doesn’t ask all the questions or give solutions to every aspect in fine detail but does give the reader a general knowledge and sense of issues.
Overview - Net Neutrality - a philosophy or set of regulations?
Your government will ensure Net neutrality with whatever they believe it is. You may not like it, but it is coming. I just don’t know if the lawmakers know what they are getting themselves into. The world believes the Internet is open to everyone. Some are arguing and even demanding we need Law and the RIGHT to eliminate censorship and have choice in all its forms. The Internet is the People’s network and everyone owns it. Thus Net Neutrality would enable and ensure innovation, freedom, choice and access. Read the rest of this entry »
October 21st, 2009
Net Neutrality: Hit satire coming to a theatre near you
The world is a simple place, until someone wants to tell you what to do. The realization that not everyone believes in common ground that surrounds each of us seems to be a new discovery to some. The sanctity of individual requirements is wrapping around our lives with a plethora of effects that will have long term consequences. Hey - wake up!! Don’t go to sleep reading this post just yet! Allow me to entertain you. After all, one component of a Internet blog is to entertain, right?
Net Neutrality is a theatre stage play written in Washington D.C. and this is a glimpse of what’s happening behind the scenes. There’s a pile of actors dancing around ready to be heard by you in the audience. What you don’t know is that the audience is about to watch chaos in motion amongst the actors and not realize that many simply turn around and walk out before they even get to their seats. The show is the story about Net Neutrality that never settles down. Right off the bat, the writer has lost control of the script because of all the request for rewrites. The producer doesn’t even remember what the storyline is. I’m usually asleep by Act II if it’s Opera and if this play doesn’t figure out what it IS soon, I won’t even finish writing this blog! The story…right….about Net Neutrality, I think.
The players are the same ones we’ve become used to. Government, Corporations, and Consumers. Mixed in with those groups are the supporting actors; lobbyist, agents and the commentators. All the players described are going to make money, except one. You do know which group that is, right? Read the rest of this entry »
October 21st, 2009
Antitrust: Time to break apart the phone companies -- again?
In the global meltdown of the economy, corporate earnings are the bellwether of survival. The old adage that the strong get stronger and the weak…. they just collapse. But some corporations now control significant market share that some believe borders on antitrust violations in the U.S. In Australia, Canada and Japan, corporate consolidation has risen significantly over the past several years. There’s no indications of policy direction or change at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S, CRTC (Canada) or OFCom (U.K.). which would trigger antitrust or anti-competition hearings.
There are very few industries collecting guaranteed revenue. Utilities and financial institutions are the two biggest. Within utilities, telecommunications has had a unique blend of service ‘delivery’ since the beginning. Initially, a single entity that provided everyone the services, is what created instant monopolies. Fast forward 80 years, and antitrust had its second big challenge (after Standard Oil) with AT&T, which was broken up in the United States in 1984 and the Canadian “group” of telecommunications known as Stentor self-destructed in 1999 because regulator tariffs choked their ability to compete with new entrance into the market. Read the rest of this entry »
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