RIAA Stops Prosecuting Individual File Sharers

According to a Wall Street Journal article, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) will cease prosecution of individuals who download copyrighted music and instead focus on limiting file sharing services. The RIAA had focused on young people, attempting to force higher education institutions to divulge personal Internet habits of its students. K- 12 schools have felt threatened by these practices and many have implemented network policies that prohibit file sharing -- even legal file sharing.

Exposure of the draconian investigative and legal practices of the RIAA against individuals, often children, has led to a public outcry against RIAA practices. The RIAA has also lost a number of recent legal decisions in which their questionable, probably illegal, practices have been rejected by the courts. Read the brief Slashdot article here (don't forget to read the always interesting and entertaining comments).

Educator's Guide to Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials Released by Temple University

A wonderful fair use guide for educators has been released by the Temple University Media Education Lab. The report offers an exceptionally clear and balanced resource for teachers and administrators as they struggle with copyright issues that the authors make simple and clear. It's all good news for teachers and kids! Download the report (pdf) here, and visit the Media Education Lab website to view videos and other reports that help schools break through the fog of fear and doubt that overzealous or misinformed enforcers have created. The copyright page with the videos and resources of the Media Education Lab is here. The guide has been reviewed and approved by a number of stakeholder organizations and copyright-savvy lawyers.

China is 2nd Largest (and Fastest-Growing) Internet Domain

A Verisign report on the state of Internet top level domains (TLDs) shows that China is now the second largest TLD after the .com domain. China (.cn) is also the fastest-growing domain; their 76% growth in 2008 far surpasses the growth of other major domains which have grown no faster than 16%. Read the Slashdot article.

Germany Contributes 100,000 photos to Wikipedia

The German National Archive announced this week that it intends to make eleven million digitized photographs from German history available to Wikipedia for public use. The first 100,000 are already prepared with catalog information, and the others will follow as they are ready. The archive contains photos from pre-Nazi Germany as well as from the Holocaust and the World Wars. Read the article.

China Mandates Linux for Internet Cafes

The Chinese government is mandating that Red Flag Linux be installed in all Internet cafe computers. This move highlights two trends. The first is obviously the expansion of linux as a viable mainstream operating system. The second is a concern by Chinese citizens that the Chinese government may use their linux version to further control and monitor the Internet activities of its citizens. Check out the AP article and visit the Red Flag Linux website.

IBM's Prediction: Five Technologies that Will Change Live in the Next Five Years

IBM's "Five in Five" predictions range from thin-film solar technology that generate economical electricity from asphalt and building surfaces to $200 personal gene maps that identify your personal susceptibility to disease and medical conditions. Check out the short Dr. Dobb's video on all five (there's a brief commercial message in the beginning):  

Major Study Supports Kids' Online Gaming and Social Networking

A three-year UC Irvine study funded by the MacArthur Foundation suggests that online gaming and social networking are beneficial to children by teaching them basic social and technical skills necessary for their futures. Download the full report (PDF) here, or read a brief San Francisco Examiner article describing the study that interviewed hundreds of teenagers and observed thousands of hours of hours of their online activities. The report suggests that a generation gap has prevented school and government leaders from recognizing important benefits of these activities ... activities which many have successsfully banned from school.

The Last Word on 2008 Voting Security

Here's an O'Reilly interview by James Turner of Dr. Barbara Simons, newly-appointed member of the Board of Advisors to the Federal Election Assistance Commission. Dr. Simons in the ONLY computer scientist on the board! The interview presents the perspective of a computer, security, and statistics expert on the current state of technology-assisted voting in the United States. She discusses high-profile state reports that document serious problems with the voting systems sold by major companies (e.g., Diebold), the role of open-source software, and the ways of establishing an easily-auditable paper trail for voting. http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2008/11/a-2008-e-voting-wrapup-with-dr.html.

Russian Schools Standardize on Open Source Software

The Russian Federation Ministry of Education announced that all Russian school computers will be configured with open source software within one year. If individual schools wish to use commercial software, they will have to purchase it themselves. This dramatic announcement was precipitated when the principal of a Russian school was charged with software piracy after unauthorized copies of Windows were found in his school. If convicted, he would likely have been sentenced to hard labor in a Siberian work camp. Former President Gorbachev appealed to Bill Gates, and then-President Putin declared that a Russian educator would never again be threatened by commercial vs. education conflict. Read a brief article here. This is the largest school system to move to all open source software. They did so after several successful pilot projects. This suggests that it may be a reasonable option for other schools or nations.

Study from Princeton and Lehigh University Researchers Expose Voting Machine Weakness

A slashdot article informs us of a well-researched study from Princeton and Lehigh Universities that exposes many weaknesses in a popular brand of electronic voting machine. Rather than applaud their efforts to strengthen voting security, industry and government officials have attempted to supress their findings. It's an issue that affects entire nations deeply from those that have done it well (Brazil) to those that have done a sadly inadequate job (USA). The article contains several links, including a video showing the evidence of serious security flaws.

Tutoring with Creativity and Caring to Change Children's Chances

Pulitzer Prize nominee Dave Eggers was recently honored with the coveted 2008 TED prize. Watch his 24-minute presentation, Once Upon A School, about a successful model for a tutoring center that has changed the lives of thousands of kids and is spreading from city to city. Be ready for a story that includes pirates and time travel! If you care about kids, you'll want to see this! Click here to learn more about Eggers.

Senate Passes Bill to Reduce School Internet Filtering

The long-running debate about it, how, and when to protect school children from inappropriate Internet content and contacts has taken a new turn. The Senate has passes a bill that emphasizes educating students about the safe use of Internet services such as social networking and chat rooms rather than just attempting to restrict access to these potentially valuable sites. Students would also learn about cyberbullying under the legislation. The legislation was supported by ISTE and CoSN, and you can learn more about it in this ISTE article.

$100 Laptop Piloted in New York City Schools

In a New York Sun article, a pilot project is described in which students in two urban elementary schools will receive the same low-cost XO laptop designed for 3rd world children. While it's not an "in depth" description of the project, the school system's IT Director is interviewed, and several points of view are presented. One goal of the project is to make the laptops available to other city principals to order for their students. A study will be conducted to explore the effect of the pilot. A similar project in underway in Birmingham, Alabama, in which 15,000 XO laptops are being given to all students in grades 1 through 8. Birmingham completed a successful pilot last year.

eBook Readers proliferate and advance

Amazon is ready to release the second version of its Kindle ebook reader, ebook software for the iPhone rivals Kindle in popularity, and Sony has released at least the third version of its reader. The OLPC XO computer's ebook reader is in use by nearly a million children around the world. Imagine an ebook reader that costs less than $100, weighs less than a pound, and can access all of the textbooks used during 12 years of school. Do you know about e-ink technology and pace of innovation of e-book readers? Check out these links to see how far we've come and some new designs that will be ready in 2009 and 2010: Evolution of e-Books (slide show at Forbes.com), Future of E-Books (Forbes.com article), Amazon Kindle 2 (article and photo), More Kindle 2 photos, Second Generation XO from OLPC .. eBook reader for 75$,

Major Open Source Validation in Court Case

Until now there have been few legal tests of Open Source licensing and the legal principles on which they are based. Sites like Wikipedia, services like Creative Commons, open courseware such as that at MIT, and software like Linux all rely on a web of previously untested legal licenses to protect them and their content. The court ruled that exceeding the terms of a license, including an open source license, unleashes the full protection of copyright law. Read the short announcement (and great commentary) at Slashdot. Read the full story in this October 3, 2008, Datamation article.

IT Workers in Great Shape During Downturn

Believe it or not, across the nation (and probably the world), the current economic downturn has affected IT workers least. From the article, Overall technology employment is up in America and the wages associated with it are up. This is a good time to be in the IT field, and its a great field to direct our student toward. Of course, the skills needed in IT change quickly, so those in the field are the ones who continue to learn. Read the full September 5, 2008, AP article at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ECONOMY_TECHNOLOGY?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Internet Coming Soon to a Refrigerator and Toilet Near You

Welcome to the Internet of Things. Cisco and 25 other companies have formed a consortium to develop standards for IP-accessible appliances for homes, hospitals, schools, and businesses. Imagine your home thermometer alerting your doctor when you have a fever, or your refrigerator placing an order at Wegmans Online to replace your milk, or your sump pump sending you e-mail reporting water in the basement. Read the Cisco press release and check out the IPSO Alliance website at ipso-alliance.org. Add RFID tags to schoolbooks, basketballs, grocery items, and we get a system. ... Good system? ... Bad system?

The Legality and Morality of Surveillance of Ordinary Citizens

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a watchdog organization for our electronic rights, has filed suit against the US Government, accusing it and its leaders of illegal surveillance against innocent American citizens. Similar issues occur in schools with surveillance cameras, locker searches, and other practices that are commonly used by adults, but that may students think are unfair. The lawsuit brings this issue into the adult world: does an institution have the right to routinely invade the privacy of citizens claiming that such surveillance is necessary to protect us. Check out the article at http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/09/17-0. (If you don't know about the EFF and it's work, you should!)

$200,000 Copyright Infringement Damages against Individual Thrown Out

The first jury awarded Capitol Records over $200,000 in damages against a woman who did illegally download some music, but with no intent to damage the company or to profit from her copyright infringement. A judge ruled that the making available argument, a key RIAA-promoted issue, is not applicable. Read the very clear explanation of the issues involved on this Recording Industry vs. The People blog post. This is what schools, parents, and teachers fear, and it's important that they both understand the issues and also the motivation behind potential legal action. Here's the link to the specific September 24, 2008 post: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#6666659042120040719

Evolution of a Candidate's Technology Position

Follow the link to see the evolution of Barak Obama's position on technology issues. Notice two specific changes. The first is the addition of science so that the new position statements cover science and technology. The second is the elimination of net neutrality as a stated position. Here's the link: http://versionista.com/diff/JAS9LMr5qU7q8BSroV8KzQ/. (note: this implies no endorsement of any political party, position, or viewpoint.)

Preparing Network Services for the Pandemic

Responsible institutions have disaster plans to keep mission-critical operations functioning in the event of a disaster. A global pandemic is expected at some point even though no one knows when it will strike and how severe it will be. Federal recommendations tell schools to expect to be closed for up to four months in a mandatory quarantine scenario. Responsible schools in the far east, middle east have plans to continue school online during extended closings. Southern U.S. states like Louisiana have been working on this model ever since Hurricane Katrina. Here's an article that shares how telcos and ISPs are planning to keep their IT operations working when the worst happens: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/091808-telcos-pandemic.html?hpg1=bn.

Computer Voting Machine Problems

After the "hanging chad" election disaster in Florida in 2000, the Supreme Court was needed to resolve a close and still-disputed presidential election. The U.S. Congress rapidly passed a law that required all elections to use electronic voting machines. As the systems were designed and purchased by communities across the nation, security experts were raising concerns over the reliability and security of these proprietary systems. In the election of 2004, the critics were proven correct in their concern that the voting computer systems were not well designed and were not secure. As we approach the election of 2008, these problems remain unresolved even though computer security experts long ago pointed out the problems and suggested reasonable solutions. Read a recent article on the problem at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/voting.problems/index.html?iref=werecommend. To see the problems yourself, check out this YouTube video by Princeton researcher posted in 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZws98jw67g.

Computer Games May Help Teens Be Better Citizens

According to a recent study (PDF) by the Pew Internet & American Life project, playing computer games can provide benefits to teens. No serious negatives were found in teen's game playing. This is good since 97% report playing computer games; 75% playing at least once a week. Check out a brief MSNBC report of the study at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26726230/. The report closes with a positive message, “If we’re careful, we can harness young people’s interest in video games, and use them to connect them to a range of valuable experiences.”

Gigabit Wireless Networking On the Way?

A Network World article (9/11/08) reports on the formation of an IEEE group to develop a specification for gigabit wireless ethernet. This comes as the IEEE is finalizing their 100 megabit/sec standard, called 802.11n. A source for the article suggests that we may see gigabit wireless ethernet products in about three years. This kind of information is very useful to consider for long-range plans. While the information and dates are not really accurate, the general direction and trend of the technology often is very helpful to the planner. Read the article at http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/091108-ieee.html?hpg1=bn

Crowdsourcing Excerpt and Video

The Internet has given people the ability to collaborate on scales never before imagined. A new book, Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe, discusses how this is changing the model for some businesses. It is possible that this could also change the model of education (following the theory of Paolo Freire, and educational writer from the 70's). Here's an article, 3 minute video, and excerpt ... http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2008/09/crowdsourcing_excerpt

5 Years of RIAA Copyright Lawsuits

The RIAA are the "music police" who have made online file sharing (of copyrighted music) into a national issue that impacts every high school and college. Here's a one-page summary of the questionable status of the RIAA's crusade at ... http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/proving-file-sh.html. This is an important issue because it addresses intellectual property rights and individual privacy rights against a backdrop of centuries of copyright law that NEVER targeted personal uses of copyrighted material. This will be a hot topic for years to come!

Which Candidate Has an Education Agenda?

Listen to a very short plea from the founder of an American technology company for a national priority to prepare our kids to compete globally. It's short and to the point at ... http://www.bigthink.com/features/726

Candidate Positions on Technology Issues

Where do Obama and McCain stand on issues of interest to techno-geeks (like us)? Here's an Ars Technica article that presents statements and voting records of both candidates. In a technology-empowered world, these are very important issues that don't receive TV coverage (but they will affect the future of you and your children). Vote for the future that you believe in!

US No Longer World's Internet Hub?

The U.S. developed the Internet, but more recently, the U.S. government has acknowledged that it intercepts and analyzes Internet traffic that moves through its networks (we call this spying). Users in other nations increasingly are routing their Internet traffic around the U.S. to protect the privacy of their communication. This seems to be another example of the unintended consequences of government action that appears to be arrogant to outside observers. Read the Slashdot reference and article on this change in pattern in Internet traffic.

The Future of DRM

Digital Rights Management technologies have been praised and cursed as a solution to copyright enforcement. In practice, computer and media users have found that they are restricted in how they can use the media they have purchased or licensed. This can also be an issue for schools. Here's a Slashdot reference to an article that chronicles the failures of DRM and suggests that it may pose less of a problem in the future.

Scripting Languages in 2008

Most computer science classes teach either Java or a variant of C, both industrial-strength languages used by full-time programmers. Scripting languages like javascript, python, perl and ruby, are a class of languages that may be easier to learn, easier to use, and many be useful for small, everyday tasks of non-professional programmers. From CIO, here's an article on the state of scripting langauges in 2008. Some educators think that students can learn a scripting language as an introductory language; they can graduate to a full-fledged computer science language if they wish to continue.

Embedding a YouTube Video

Here's a cool 4th of July family outing at a popular park.