Fascinating informal discussion at the Berkman Center this morning about the effect the next billion users will have on the Internet. What will it mean if and when standards are no longer driven by the US and Europe? Which devices will dominate? Whose routers? Will the new dominant hardware come with control hooks built in? (As noted in the discussion, CALEA and Intel‘s burned-in DRM capability show that it’s not only non-US/EU states that want to control and/or monitor communications.) Will GSM becomes the basis for non-mobile communication? Will government filtering of access become the unassailable norm?

By the way, Googling “China’s effect on the Internet” (with the quotes) turns up zero hits.

Rebecca has a scary post about the Chinese effort to control all blogs. She cites a report from Reporters without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today at the Chinese government’s announced intention to close down all China-based websites and blogs that are not officially registered. The plan is all the more worrying as the government has also revealed that it has a new system for monitoring sites in real time and spotting those that fail to comply…

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Global Voices has set up a Bloglines page that aggregates feeds from “bridgebloggers” — bloggers giving insight into their countries. Very interesting to poke around in. For example, From the Rock in Libya has been writing about trying to reconnect with a friend after communication was cut off by sanctions. At Amarji – A Heretic’s Blog the Syrian author Ammar Abdulhamid gives a vivid picture of the life of dissent. And at Indonesia – Everyone’s Tagged Photos you’ll find Flickr’s Indonesia tagstream. . [Technorati tags: blogs GlobalVoices]

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He’s on it tomorrow night, Tuesday, talking about why Everything Bad is Good for You. He promises to blog about it afterwards…

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From the Tampa Tribune:

Hundreds of cases involving breath-alcohol tests have been thrown out by Seminole County judges in the past five months because the test’s manufacturer will not disclose how the machines work.

All four of Seminole County’s criminal judges have been using a standard that if a DUI defendant asks for a key piece of information about how the machine works – its software source code, for instance – and the state cannot provide it, the breath test is rejected, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday.

Prosecutors have said they do not know how many drunken drivers have been acquitted as a result. But Gino Feliciani, the misdemeanor division chief in the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office, said the conviction rate has dropped to 50 percent or less.

[Thanks to Brad Rosen for the link.] [Technorati tag: opensource]

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Rocketboom’s report today includes a substantial clip from the theatrical smash “Ring Tone,” starring my daughter. (Well, it’s theatrical in the “theater of your mind” sense.) And don’t miss the tap dancing at the end of the RocketBoom report.

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The Chanuka blog by Pampauka in Kenya explains that Chanuka in Swahili means ” lighten up! get into action! Complain less and Act more.”

Oddly, in Hebrew it also means “lighten up,” but in the literal sense :) [Technorati tag: chanukah]

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There’s an unsettling post by Black Looks on Amnesty International’s Nigeria: Unheard Voices on violence against women in Nigeria. She writes: “The kind of violence taking place in Nigeria is hardly different from elsewhere but what is different and important is how Nigerian women are dealing with the violence.” Apparently there are a number of programs that provide free access to legal help. She concludes: “Nevertheless, none of these projects or initiatives can be of much use unless victims of violence can access the services and there is a high profile awareness…” [Technorati tag: Nigeria]

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David Berlind, in the course of researching his genealogy, came across Yizkor (memorial) books, a type of citizen journalism in which the life and lives of European Jewish communities are recorded. More than that, he discovered how the Net can stitch together memories against the will of the strongest, most malevolent forces.

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Apparently “Ring Tone Dancer” is one of the leaders in the Contagious Media contest. I prefer the version my daughter and I made a few months ago. And, no, I am not biased in the least.

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Chuck Olsen made a good documentary called “Blogumentary.” Now someone is trying to bully him out of the name. Not being a lawyer, I don’t know who has legal rights to the name, but now that I’ve seen how this new guy responds to a civil inquiry, I have asked him to drop me from his list of interviewees.

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