Telecom & Technology

From malicious hackers to viruses to privacy concerns, using the Internet is “risky behavior,” but generally abstinence is not an option. While most people are familiar with some of these threats, even those in tech-savvy circles are quick to admit that they are not taking sufficient precautions to protect themselves.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, authors of The New Digital Age, acknowledge that “technology doesn't just help the good guys pushing for democratic reform—it can also provide powerful new tools for dictators to suppress dissent."

Today, a coalition of over 25 organizations, including public interest, media reform, Internet freedom, and grassroots organizations sent a letter to President Obama urging him to choose a strong public interest advocate to become chairperson of the Federal Communication Commission. Read the full text of the letter below or download a copy (pdf).

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States

Since 2009, wireless mesh enthusiasts and community networking activists from across the globe have come together for a tournament of a social nature:  "Wireless Battle of the Mesh"

The New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute joined numerous public interest groups in submitting comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with regard to prison phone rates. Read the full text of the comments (pdf) here.

Here in the United States and around the world, elected leaders seem paralyzed by information overload. Despite a wealth of information at our fingertips, high- quality, unbiased facts have become increasingly hidden in our noisy, saturated world. Worse, much of the public discourse has become routinely gridlocked, as proponents on each side of a debate regularly come to the table armed with their own “facts.” Faced with this deluge of information, the role of congressional staffers is increasingly one of fact-checking rather than fact-finding.

This paper examines the emerging global phenomenon of mobile leapfrogging in Internet access. Leapfrogging refers to the process in which new Internet users are obtaining access by mobile devices and are skipping the traditional means of access: personal computers. This leapfrogging of PC-based Internet access has been hailed in many quarters as an important means of rapidly and inexpensively reducing the gap in Internet access between developed and developing nations, thereby reducing the need for policy interventions to address this persistent digital divide.

“Information and data is the oil of our era,” explained telecom policy expert Susan Crawford at the New America Foundation on Thursday.

I’d like to begin with two different ideas of truth. The first appears to be the simplest: “It is true that 1+1=2.” The second is from the beginning of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Now, these sound like quite different ideas about truth.

What are the human rights responsibilities of information and communications technology (ICT) sector companies? Specifically, how should these companies carry out their duty to respect technology users’ rights to free expression and privacy?