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…

Categories: Uncategorized dw