McD Makeover
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/does-going-upscale-sense-mcdonald...
Sent from my iPhone
Brian runs Prequent, Inc., a Silicon Valley technology public relations agency. Check out the agency at www.prequent.com.
New York Times Warns Employees Not to 'Unpublish' Articles [Internal Memos]
GAWKER | FEBRUARY 4, 2011
http://pulsene.ws/Ym0W
The Facebook's stand installed near the 'Caravan of Freedom', at the government's square in Tunis, Tunisia on January 28, 2011. Although the Tunisian government monitored Facebook, the social network was considered a key tool used in the recent uprisings. (Nicolas Fauque / Abaca)
By Wilson Rothman
While most people, including most Egyptians, took Internet access for granted as a constant, the suddenness of Egypt's Internet shutdown raises the question: Is access to the Internet a human right?
The vast majority of urban Egyptians, 78 percent, feel that it is, according to a BBC World Service survey conducted in December 2009 in Egypt's largest cities. In fact, 55 percent responded that they "could not cope without it." Ironically, only 6 percent of the surveyed Egyptians felt that state censorship of Internet content was a chief concern — the same percentile as the U.S.
But when the Internet is taken away, as it has been in Egypt, people feel as though their rights have been stripped.
"It's freedom of expression that is a long-standing core right," Neil Hicks, international policy adviser for Human Rights First, told msnbc.com. "Restriction from the Internet is a violation of the right of free speech."
But the Internet has increasingly become the core medium for speech, especially speaking out against one's government. "This is particularly so in repressive countries where other means of communication have long been controlled by the state," Hicks said. "The Internet and social networking that it permits have enabled activists to get around those traditional forms of censorships."
Even in regimes where the government uses sophisticated technologies to monitor Internet communications, there is a net gain for to free speech. "We saw that in Tunisia. The government was monitoring Facebook posting, and using snooping technology to crack down on the protests," said Hicks. Yet, he adds, "The communication powers that these technologies permit are greater than the danger."
Outrage around the world centers on this issue. Cynthia Wong, international project director for the Center for Democracy & Technology, released a statement criticizing companies for complying with a demand that so clearly violates understood rights: "Egypt's actions demonstrate how vulnerable mobile and Internet access companies are to pressure from government to take actions that directly harm human rights," she wrote.
"While we appreciate that some companies involved have acknowledged their role, events unfolding across the region underscore how critical it is for companies operating in these risky environments to have robust strategies to push back on government demands inconsistent with rule of law and respect for human rights."
According to the BBC World Service survey, 79 percent of the 27,000 respondents, across 26 countries world wide, do think access to the Internet is a fundamental right. Most Americans feel that it is, too.
advertisement
advertisementBut when the same question was posed by our friend Joel Johnson on the tech blog Gizmodo, the comments were far from unilateral. In fact, many commenters responded — thoughtfully — that Internet access can't possibly be a right:
"I can't classify media access as a right to every human," said commenter Riff-Raff. "Clean water, shelter, and adequate food to prevent starvation should be rights to every person; sadly they are not, in any country. There are far too many steps to accomplish first before Internet access can be considered a human right."
Another commenter, _Stormin, put it into economic context: "It's no more a right than a computer, electricity, a home, and a job to pay for those things."
Despite the surprisingly overwhelming mass of naysayers, there were reasonable arguments in support of this right.
"If we can't communicate, we can't organize, if we can't organize, then we are reduced to power of a single individual," said commenter gary_7vn. "Without the ability to communicate we are nothing."
Perhaps the most cogent argument in support came from commenter John Addis: "There are certain technological advances that are such leaps forward in human evolution that they do, in fact, become human rights. Vaccines, for example. Potable water. I believe the Internet has become one as well."
Though it's clearly a debate that has no single good answer, most would agree that something considered a constant, when stripped away, creates a massive vacuum of insecurity. Says the BBC World Service study, "Egyptian users are more likely than others in the Africa/Middle East region to indicate a dependence on the Internet." Though they were keen to observe that dependence before, they've probably never felt that dependence quite like they do now that it's unavailable.
Still, Hicks said, the closure may not have as great an impact as the Egyptian government may have hoped. "It may be a case, in Egypt, of shutting the door after the horse has bolted." The people are mobilized, they are acting. In many regards, the Internet has already done its job.
So, what do you think? Is Internet access your right? Or a privilege?
More on the crisis in Egypt from Technolog:
• 'This is about social networks that are beyond the reach of Mubarak'
• What the Egyptian government doesn't want you to see
• Infograph: Egypt drops off the Internet
Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman, or join our conversation at the Technolog Facebook page.
More than 30 billion links, notes, photos and other types of content get posted on Facebook each month.
Predictions 2011
January 3, 2011By John Battelle
In
the eighth version of my annual predictions, I'll try to stay focused and clear, the better to score myself a year from now. And while I used the past two weeks of relatively fallow holiday time as a sort of marination period, the truth is I pretty much just sat down and banged these predictions out in one go, just as I have the past seven years. It works for me, and I hope you agree, or at least find them worth your time. So here we go:
1. We'll see the rise of a meme which I'll call "The Web Reborn" - a response to the idea that mobile and apps have killed the web as we know it. In fact, we'll come to realize that the web is the foundation of nearly everything we do, and we'll start to expect, as consumers, that all our service providers honor and build in basic principles of "web friendliness" - data portability and user-controlled identity most important among them. Call it a return to the original principles of "Web 2.0".
2. Voice will become a critical interface for computing (especially mobile apps). This is just not true now, but in a year's time, there will be a handful of very popular apps that are driven by voice, and in particular, by weaving together voice, text, and identity.
3. DSPs (Demand Side Platforms) will fade into the fabric of larger marketing platforms. In the end, DSPs are the handle by which we understand the concept of technology-driven ad networks. And those have been with us for over a decade. Exchanges, DSPs, SSPs, etc. are all important, but in the end, what matters is that advertisers have scale and efficiency, and consumers have control.
4. Related, MediaBank will emerge as a major independent player in the marketing world, playing off its cross channel reach (outside of digital) and providing an alternative to the conflicted digital platforms at Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo. I could imagine a major tech or telco player trying to buy MediaBank as the world realizes that marketing is, in essence, a massive IT business (among many other things).
5. The Mac App Store will be a big hit, at least among Mac users, and may well propel Mac sales beyond expectations.
6. Related, Apple will attempt to get better at social networking, fail, and cut a deal with Facebook.
7. Also related, Apple will begin to show signs of the same problems that plagued Microsoft in the mid 90s, and Google in the past few years: Getting too big, too full of themselves, and too focused on their own prior success.
8. Microsoft will have a major change in leadership. I am not predicting Ballmer will leave, but I think he and the company will most likely bring in very senior new talent to open new markets or shift direction in important current markets like media/marketing/social.
9. The public markets will be surprisingly open to major new Internet deals, despite the current rise of "private IPOs" and the growing belief that the IPO process is broken. In the end, there's just too many good reasons for public companies to be, well, public. (See Gurley).
10. The tablet market will have a year of incoherence. Apple will dominate with the iPad due to a lack of an alternative touchstone. Google will focus on providing a clear, consistent experience through Android for tablets and mobile, but it will take a third party to unify the experience. I don't see that happening this year.
11. "Social deals" will morph to become a standard marketing outlet for all business, and by year's end be seen as a standard part of any marketer's media mix. Groupon will lead here, but nearly every major player will have an offering, often by partnering with leaders. I'm tempted to say Facebook will abandon its own Deals offering for a deal with Groupon, but I'm not sure that will unfold in one year.
12. Related, Groupon will fend off an acquisition by a major carrier, probably AT&T or Verizon. It's possible they'll sell, but I doubt it.
13. Facebook will decline as a force in the Internet world, as measured by buzz. The company will continue to be seen as Big Brother in the press, and struggle with internal issues related to growth. Also, it will lose some attention/share to upstarts. However, its share of marketing dollars and reach will increase.
14. Related, we'll see major privacy related legislation in the US brought to the floor of Congress, and then fail for lack of consensus. But that will drive a significant shift in how our culture understands its relationship to the world our industry is building, and that's a good thing.
I'd love to keep going, but I think those are the major ones, at least from my vantage point. Thanks for reading, it was a great year. I'm not going to make predictions about my own work this year, as I've got too much inside knowledge on that topic! Let me know your thoughts in comments, and have a great 2011!
Related:
Today things have completely reversed. The latest technology goes to consumers first, followed by small enterprises that behave like consumers, then larger ones, then the military. The stunning reversal is one of many profound side effects of broad scale Internet adoption.
Clear thinking from Ben Horowitz.
 Steve Rubel (@steverubel)10/15/10 1:58 AM RT @avinash: 25 hours of video is uploaded every 1 minute to YouTube. [It still astonishes me that people have so much to share!] #data |
