The State of The Internet

The State of The Internet has tons of amazing infographs that really applied the data to physical locations for me. For example,"While 71% of the people in developed countries are online, only 21% of those in developing countries have access so far. In spite of such regional disparities, the Internet continues to become faster and more affordable overall. As the number of users increases, so does the sheer amount of money, information and opinions exchanged online. When it comes to the Internet's future, most specialists are optimistic: 64% of them believe the flow of information online will remain mostly free rather than falling under the control of powerful institutions and 81% believe the Internet will enhance human intelligence."
The State of The Internet has also provided me with other interesting facts, such as the locations of 3 major Internet backbones: DE-CIX The Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange in Frankfurt, TAT-14 an underwater cable connecting New Jersey and much of Europe, and the VSNL Tata Communications Limited in Mumbai. These Internet backbones are critical to infrastructure, for example, ex-president Mubarak leveraged a backbone in Egypt to cut off Internet to the entire country. Speaking of which, The State of The Internet also has a nice infograph showing which countries censor their citizens Internet access (China is excluded for some reason). For example, both Saudi Arabia and Burma heavily censor their sites, only allowing traffic for government approvied sites, which greatly hurts the global economy. Other places like Syria, totally shut down access to the web in a blatant violation to human rights. This is where I'm concerned. As a whole, as one Internet, we need make the world aware of these censorship actions. The State of The Internet is doing it's part, what are you doing to spread awareness and fight censorship?

Stop Internet Censorship: Stop "Protect IP Bill"

Despite it's name, The Protect IP Bill, is a dangerous legislation that would give government the power to censor and block web sites it deemed 'controversial'. The bill has mad massive reworkings since it's inception as COICA, but still remains as maleficent and blatant censorship. It has had numerous opponents: Google stood up against the bill, Senator Ron Wyden saw through it, Anonymous attacked it, and recently, over 90 professors of law at major universities signed AGAINST this bill. So why is this bill so evil? The Protect IP Bill would force Internet providers, search engines, and credit card companies actively cut service to any party the government decided to black list. Freedom of information is important, and people are actively trying to encroach on our freedoms all the time. We all have to take a stand, before our freedoms are taken from us. The best way to fight censorship is simple: spread awareness!

Originally posted on Lockboxx.

Independent Cyber News

With all the news media recently about hacking, and so many different perspectives floating around, I thought it was extremely important to get a professional, independent perspective. Freedom of information is a valuable concept, and can only truly come about when grass-roots individuals, who are unswayed by political or corporate agenda, give honest opinions and research. Blogging is a fantastic channel for this, as anyone can create an account and publish their works instantly. Unfortunately, this creates the problem of telling the quality works apart from "run-of-the-mill reporting", which is where search engine optimization comes in. These 'stand alone' blogs don't get the same indexing as blogs with corporate backings, or hack news sights that irresponsibly chase the latest release. No, these quality works must be sought after if you want to attain the real story. Thats where I come in. I believe the independent thinkers of our day should have an equal voice, not drowned out by the major news organizations. Here I attempt to bring a digest of well researched information, that links to other independent research across the web. Freedom of information needs a pure future, without the corruption and political sway of major governments. Help support the cause by spreading the word, following the blog, and learning every day.

Originally, posted on Lockboxx.