Wednesday, September 28, 2005
2 internet shops near school closed
ANGELES CITY -- The Special Operations and Monitoring Office (Somo) of the City Mayor's Office (CMO) has closed down two internet shops in Barangay Lourdes North West (LNW) in Angeles City.
Somo officer-in-charge Enrico Sangil said they padlocked the establishments for "allegedly operating without necessary permits from the City Government."
Sangil said both the management of Grasang Tao Internet Cafe and One Internet Cafe, situated near the Aldersgate Ecumenical School Incorporated at Agapito Street, were also found to be allowing minors to play computer games during school hours.
He said the CMO received a letter, addressed to Mayor Carmelo Lazatin, from one Tarcilla Anacleto, Aldersgate school administrator, asking assistance about the two internet cafés operating near their school.
Anacleto claimed "the stalls with videoke or computer games are only allowed to operate with a certain radius or distance from any school establishment."
She said their school is really affected because the two internet shops were both operating during school hours.
With this, Lazatin immediately directed the Somo officials to look into the complaint.
According to Sangil, his team discovered that the shops had been operating sans permit and allows school children to play computer games during school hours.
Sangil's team, accompanied by the Angeles City police, implemented the mayor's closure order against the establishments.
The Somo has already closed down some 27 different business establishments in July 2005 alone. Most of the establishments are operating without permits. (RGN)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Soth Africa :Universal Service Agency launches telecentre
Moneyweb: South Africa's leading source for independent investment information
Universal Service Agency launches telecentre
Universal Service Agency (USA), in collaboration with Mafube Local Municipality, will be launching Qalabotjha Multi-Purpose Community Centre (MPCC) on 23 September 2005. The launch will be attended by various dignitaries including Mr. Roy Padayachee, Deputy Minister of Communications, Ms. Cheryl Gillwald, Deputy Minister for Correctional Services, Mr. Ralebenya, Qalabotjha Mayor, Dr. Sam Gulube, CEO Universal Service Agency, and representatives from Cell C, Telkom and Nedcor.
Tasked with creating an enabling environment, building capacity and implementing the necessary interventions in under-serviced communities for the promotion of universal service and access, USA has developed containerised Internet enabled telecentres. The Qalabotjha MPCC launch forms part of USAs 2005 strategy plan that includes the establishment of Community ICT Centres and facilities in rural areas. The launch of Qalabotjha is a distinctive project as it represents the first centre to be rolled out through corporate sponsorships in collaboration with the local Municipality and USA.
The Qalabotjha MPCC, located in Qalabotjha Township near Villiers, has a population of approximately 40 000 residents and the installation of the additional ICT services makes affordable and reliable service provision a reality for the communities of Villiers, Frankfort, Cornelia and Tweeling. The students from the six schools (three Primary and three Secondary Schools) around the area will also benefit in the services provided by this MPCC.
The design of the Tele-container encompasses the use of low voltage equipment and advanced insulation to assist in reducing power consumption and heat emission. The energy efficiency is accomplished through state of the art technology design of the entire unit. The ICT consists of a service counter, table and six chairs; Telkom has donated 21 computers with Internet access; USA donated a state of the art photocopier, colour printer, blinds and air-conditioner; cellphone operator Cell C donated five telephone lines (Community Public Phones) and sponsored the launch of the centre. The participation of private entities such as Telkom, Nedcor and Cell C have made the dream of ICT services a reality for the community of Qalabotjha.
Established by the Communications Ministry under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the USA is responsible for providing access to phones and other information services to all South Africans. USA chief executive Sam Gulube says, "Our services are not only about extending telephony to the most rural areas of South Africa, but also to address the social and economic situation of our country and help to create jobs and alleviate the strain of poverty. Although the South African government is focused on disease, crime and poverty, education should not be pushed aside. A patchy infrastructure and a computer illiterate workforce will hinder growth."
Universal Service Agency launches telecentre
Universal Service Agency (USA), in collaboration with Mafube Local Municipality, will be launching Qalabotjha Multi-Purpose Community Centre (MPCC) on 23 September 2005. The launch will be attended by various dignitaries including Mr. Roy Padayachee, Deputy Minister of Communications, Ms. Cheryl Gillwald, Deputy Minister for Correctional Services, Mr. Ralebenya, Qalabotjha Mayor, Dr. Sam Gulube, CEO Universal Service Agency, and representatives from Cell C, Telkom and Nedcor.
Tasked with creating an enabling environment, building capacity and implementing the necessary interventions in under-serviced communities for the promotion of universal service and access, USA has developed containerised Internet enabled telecentres. The Qalabotjha MPCC launch forms part of USAs 2005 strategy plan that includes the establishment of Community ICT Centres and facilities in rural areas. The launch of Qalabotjha is a distinctive project as it represents the first centre to be rolled out through corporate sponsorships in collaboration with the local Municipality and USA.
The Qalabotjha MPCC, located in Qalabotjha Township near Villiers, has a population of approximately 40 000 residents and the installation of the additional ICT services makes affordable and reliable service provision a reality for the communities of Villiers, Frankfort, Cornelia and Tweeling. The students from the six schools (three Primary and three Secondary Schools) around the area will also benefit in the services provided by this MPCC.
The design of the Tele-container encompasses the use of low voltage equipment and advanced insulation to assist in reducing power consumption and heat emission. The energy efficiency is accomplished through state of the art technology design of the entire unit. The ICT consists of a service counter, table and six chairs; Telkom has donated 21 computers with Internet access; USA donated a state of the art photocopier, colour printer, blinds and air-conditioner; cellphone operator Cell C donated five telephone lines (Community Public Phones) and sponsored the launch of the centre. The participation of private entities such as Telkom, Nedcor and Cell C have made the dream of ICT services a reality for the community of Qalabotjha.
Established by the Communications Ministry under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the USA is responsible for providing access to phones and other information services to all South Africans. USA chief executive Sam Gulube says, "Our services are not only about extending telephony to the most rural areas of South Africa, but also to address the social and economic situation of our country and help to create jobs and alleviate the strain of poverty. Although the South African government is focused on disease, crime and poverty, education should not be pushed aside. A patchy infrastructure and a computer illiterate workforce will hinder growth."
1500 Cyber Cafes bring true information to Morocco people
In Morocco the Internet is putting the censors under greater duress
Commentary by Mohammad Ibahrine
Monday, September 26, 2005
In Morocco the Internet is putting the censors under greater duressBy Mohammad Ibahrine Commentary by Monday, September 26, 2005While satellite television often attracts the lion's share of analysis about new media and their effect on prospects for democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, another technology may already have had at least as large an impact: the Internet. In Morocco, where the regime has severely constrained, controlled or silenced independent print media through direct and indirect censorship, the Internet has become an important instrument for unrestricted flows of information, which in turn is leading to the emergence of a more vibrant public sphere.The degree of Morocco's connectivity to the Internet is surprising. For a country that established its first Internet connection in 1995, Morocco has now about one million users from a population of about 32 million - one of the highest growth rates in the Arab world. The spread of cybercafes (now numbering over 1,500), as well as of Voice Over Internet Protocols for inexpensive long-distance phone calls, are helping to spread Internet use.Since the introduction of the Internet in the political field in Morocco in the late 1990s, government ministries, political parties, and Parliament have been online. The same holds true for activists and civil society groups, which have a long tradition of developing and using independent media to promote their interests and facilitate communication.Among the most important cases of political use of the Internet in Morocco was that of Abdul Salam Yassine, leader of Al-Adl wa al-Ihsan (Justice and Charity), a leading Islam-oriented political organization. Internet use for political purposes gained momentum in 2000 when the organization launched a Web site (www.yassine.net) to publish an open letter in many European languages after the regime banned independent newspapers for publishing it. Entitled "To whom it may concern," the voluminous memorandum criticized the regime of King Hassan II and urged King Mohammad VI to redistribute the late king's wealth. Yassine's Web site featured information resources, news and audio and video clips, thus breaking the chains of censorship.A separate but related recent case that shows how the Internet is facilitating political communication in the face of growing authoritarian tendencies was that of Nadia Yassine, daughter and unofficial spokesperson of Abdul Salam Yassine. In an interview published last June 2 in Al-Usbuiyya Al-Jadida, a Moroccan weekly, Nadia Yassine criticized authoritarian regimes and expressed support for a republic. She was charged with damaging the monarchy and, if found guilty, may face heavy fines and up to five years in prison. Following the charges, Nadia Yassine launched a Web site in Arabic, English and French (www.nadiayassine.net) containing detailed information about her life, ideas, and activities (including audio clips of her public lectures - for example one given at the University of California at Berkeley), as well as the full text of the interview that resulted in the case against her. The Web site has received numerous e-mail messages of support, mostly from highly educated Moroccans. Nor have Islamists been the only ones to use the Internet to circumvent government constraints. Since January 1998 progressive intellectual and human rights activist Mahdi Elmandjra, denied access to regular Moroccan media, has used his Web site (www.elmandjra.org) and e-mail lists to disseminate information and alternative viewpoints. Elmandjra recently launched the "Baraka Movement," similar to Egypt's "Kifaya" movement, which opposes despotism and monopoly of authority. In using his electronic networks with international and national human rights organizations, he is able to quickly publicize abuses, rights violations and repressive practices. He perceives information sharing as an important feature of political participation, as it empowers marginalized individuals and civil society groups to overcome regime censorship. Since 1998 his Web site has had more than 400,000 hits, a large number of visitors for a personal site in the Arab world. Internet-based political activism in Morocco is still nascent, but it is growing at a fast pace and is likely to play an increasingly important role in accelerating political pluralism. The Moroccan regime is not ignorant of the power of the Internet and is attempting to stifle its effectiveness via legal constraints, such as the 2003 anti-terrorism law as well as technical methods such as filtering and blocking sites. But such methods ultimately are ineffective; even when a Web site is shut down, there are still e-mail list serves and blogs to take up the cause.Mohammad Ibahrine is a lecturer in international and comparative communication studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. This commentary is reprinted with permission from the Arab Reform Bulletin Vol. 3, issue 7 (September 2005) www.CarnegieEndowment.org/ArabReform (c) 2005, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Commentary by Mohammad Ibahrine
Monday, September 26, 2005
In Morocco the Internet is putting the censors under greater duressBy Mohammad Ibahrine Commentary by Monday, September 26, 2005While satellite television often attracts the lion's share of analysis about new media and their effect on prospects for democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, another technology may already have had at least as large an impact: the Internet. In Morocco, where the regime has severely constrained, controlled or silenced independent print media through direct and indirect censorship, the Internet has become an important instrument for unrestricted flows of information, which in turn is leading to the emergence of a more vibrant public sphere.The degree of Morocco's connectivity to the Internet is surprising. For a country that established its first Internet connection in 1995, Morocco has now about one million users from a population of about 32 million - one of the highest growth rates in the Arab world. The spread of cybercafes (now numbering over 1,500), as well as of Voice Over Internet Protocols for inexpensive long-distance phone calls, are helping to spread Internet use.Since the introduction of the Internet in the political field in Morocco in the late 1990s, government ministries, political parties, and Parliament have been online. The same holds true for activists and civil society groups, which have a long tradition of developing and using independent media to promote their interests and facilitate communication.Among the most important cases of political use of the Internet in Morocco was that of Abdul Salam Yassine, leader of Al-Adl wa al-Ihsan (Justice and Charity), a leading Islam-oriented political organization. Internet use for political purposes gained momentum in 2000 when the organization launched a Web site (www.yassine.net) to publish an open letter in many European languages after the regime banned independent newspapers for publishing it. Entitled "To whom it may concern," the voluminous memorandum criticized the regime of King Hassan II and urged King Mohammad VI to redistribute the late king's wealth. Yassine's Web site featured information resources, news and audio and video clips, thus breaking the chains of censorship.A separate but related recent case that shows how the Internet is facilitating political communication in the face of growing authoritarian tendencies was that of Nadia Yassine, daughter and unofficial spokesperson of Abdul Salam Yassine. In an interview published last June 2 in Al-Usbuiyya Al-Jadida, a Moroccan weekly, Nadia Yassine criticized authoritarian regimes and expressed support for a republic. She was charged with damaging the monarchy and, if found guilty, may face heavy fines and up to five years in prison. Following the charges, Nadia Yassine launched a Web site in Arabic, English and French (www.nadiayassine.net) containing detailed information about her life, ideas, and activities (including audio clips of her public lectures - for example one given at the University of California at Berkeley), as well as the full text of the interview that resulted in the case against her. The Web site has received numerous e-mail messages of support, mostly from highly educated Moroccans. Nor have Islamists been the only ones to use the Internet to circumvent government constraints. Since January 1998 progressive intellectual and human rights activist Mahdi Elmandjra, denied access to regular Moroccan media, has used his Web site (www.elmandjra.org) and e-mail lists to disseminate information and alternative viewpoints. Elmandjra recently launched the "Baraka Movement," similar to Egypt's "Kifaya" movement, which opposes despotism and monopoly of authority. In using his electronic networks with international and national human rights organizations, he is able to quickly publicize abuses, rights violations and repressive practices. He perceives information sharing as an important feature of political participation, as it empowers marginalized individuals and civil society groups to overcome regime censorship. Since 1998 his Web site has had more than 400,000 hits, a large number of visitors for a personal site in the Arab world. Internet-based political activism in Morocco is still nascent, but it is growing at a fast pace and is likely to play an increasingly important role in accelerating political pluralism. The Moroccan regime is not ignorant of the power of the Internet and is attempting to stifle its effectiveness via legal constraints, such as the 2003 anti-terrorism law as well as technical methods such as filtering and blocking sites. But such methods ultimately are ineffective; even when a Web site is shut down, there are still e-mail list serves and blogs to take up the cause.Mohammad Ibahrine is a lecturer in international and comparative communication studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. This commentary is reprinted with permission from the Arab Reform Bulletin Vol. 3, issue 7 (September 2005) www.CarnegieEndowment.org/ArabReform (c) 2005, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Wired News: Chinese Authority to decide on whats healthy news for Internet postings
Post All the News That's Healthy Associated Press02:34 PM Sep. 25, 2005 PTBEIJING -- China said Sunday it is imposing new regulations to control content on its news websites and will allow the posting of only "healthy and civilized" news. The move is part of China's ongoing efforts to police the country's 100-million internet population. Only the United States, with 135 million users, has more. The new rules take effect immediately and will "standardize the management of news and information" in the country, the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday. Sites should only post news on current events and politics, according to the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Information Industry and China's cabinet, the State Council. The subjects that would be acceptable under those categories was not clear. Only "healthy and civilized news and information that is beneficial to the improvement of the quality of the nation, beneficial to its economic development and conducive to social progress" will be allowed, Xinhua said. "The sites are prohibited from spreading news and information that goes against state security and public interest," it added. While the communist government encourages internet use for education and business, it also blocks material it deems subversive or pornographic. Online dissidents who post items critical of the government, or those expressing opinions in chat rooms, are regularly arrested and charged under vaguely worded state security laws. Earlier this month, a French media watchdog group said e-mail account information provided by internet powerhouse Yahoo helped lead to the conviction and 10-year prison sentence of a Chinese journalist who had written about media restrictions in an e-mail. As part of the wider effort to curb potential dissent, the government has also closed thousands of cybercafes -- the main entry to the web for many Chinese unable to afford a computer at home. Authorities in Shanghai have installed surveillance cameras and begun requiring visitors to internet cafes to register with their official identity cards. The government also recently threatened to shut down unregistered websites and blogs, the online diaries in which users post their thoughts for others to read.
Seminar Introduces Online Games : Brunei
BruneiDirect.ComSeminar Introduces Online Games
by Azaraimy HH Bandar Seri Begawan -
Cyber cafe owners, operators and personnel from the Brunei Telecom Department were introduced to the next generation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, (MMORPG) games during a seminar at Sheraton Utama Hotel. It was organised by Bru-Haas Sdn Bhd with official sponsors from Intel, www.e Games.com.my, Terra ICT and Concept Computer. The seminar familiarised cyber cafe owners with MMORPG games available for free downloading and playing at www.eGames.com.my. The games during the hands-on experience were Ran Online, GTH, Survival Project. Knight Online and a musical game called O2JAM; a crowd favourite in Malaysia and Singapore. The highlight Supreme Destiny, a fantasy world where players can become one of the supreme heroes with paranormal power and ability. Organisers revealed there would be an upcoming worldwide competition with $20,000 worth of prizes for players of Supreme Destiny, including PSP, and Xbox sets. Terra Game Supervisor and the Game Master of Supreme Destiny, U Hong, who said these games originated in Korea. The games have big followers in Singapore and Malaysia after they were translated in English. Unlike World of Warcraft (WoW) in the East Asian market, these games are free. The graphics and game play do not contain as much detail as the premier games of WoW But they are equally brilliant and less lagging for Asian fans because the servers are operated from Malaysia. The free cost of obtaining Supreme Destiny will help attract followers due to its attractive game features.
by Azaraimy HH Bandar Seri Begawan -
Cyber cafe owners, operators and personnel from the Brunei Telecom Department were introduced to the next generation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, (MMORPG) games during a seminar at Sheraton Utama Hotel. It was organised by Bru-Haas Sdn Bhd with official sponsors from Intel, www.e Games.com.my, Terra ICT and Concept Computer. The seminar familiarised cyber cafe owners with MMORPG games available for free downloading and playing at www.eGames.com.my. The games during the hands-on experience were Ran Online, GTH, Survival Project. Knight Online and a musical game called O2JAM; a crowd favourite in Malaysia and Singapore. The highlight Supreme Destiny, a fantasy world where players can become one of the supreme heroes with paranormal power and ability. Organisers revealed there would be an upcoming worldwide competition with $20,000 worth of prizes for players of Supreme Destiny, including PSP, and Xbox sets. Terra Game Supervisor and the Game Master of Supreme Destiny, U Hong, who said these games originated in Korea. The games have big followers in Singapore and Malaysia after they were translated in English. Unlike World of Warcraft (WoW) in the East Asian market, these games are free. The graphics and game play do not contain as much detail as the premier games of WoW But they are equally brilliant and less lagging for Asian fans because the servers are operated from Malaysia. The free cost of obtaining Supreme Destiny will help attract followers due to its attractive game features.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Phillipines: Beware of unscrupulous groups raiding Internet cafes--OMB - INQ7.net
Beware of unscrupulous groups raiding Internet cafes--OMBFirst posted 04:06am (Mla time) Sept 23, 2005 By Erwin Lemuel OlivaINQ7.net THE OPTICAL Media Board (OMB) on Thursday warned local businesses, Internet café shop owners in particular, to beware of unscrupulous groups raiding cafes without proper identification or search warrants.The OMB said local establishments should look out for groups using the name of the Philippine National Police (PNP), OMB, and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to seize computers and extort money.OMB chairman Edu Manzano stressed that the PNP, OMB, and the NBI do not conduct raids without proper documentation and coordination with local enforcement units. Manzano has advised local establishments to ask the supposed "raiding" groups to produce proper identification, search warrant, mission order, or inspection order."The raiding team should [be] leaving a signed receipt or inventory of items taken into custody as well as copy of the order or warrant. The law enforcement officer serving the order or warrant should be clearly identified," Manzano said.OMB made this statement in behalf of the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team composed of three government agencies in partnership with Business Software Alliance, a global industry association representing software companies.The law enforcement agencies denied on Wednesday that they have started conducting raids on Internet cafes and computer shops after September 15 anti-piracy campaign deadline expired.There have been unconfirmed reports of raids conducted by in some provinces and cities outside Metro Manila.The Business Software Alliance entered into a partnership last month with the NBI, OMB, and PNP to help in the enforcement campaign against violators of the intellectual property rights of BSA's members, among them large software firms like Microsoft.The group had given local businesses a 30-day grace period, starting August 15, to stop using unlicensed software.The OMB told INQ7.net earlier in a telephone interview that it has not conducted any raids of Internet shops, stressing that anyone claiming do so in the agency's name is "unauthorized.""Those reports are not true," OMB lawyer Marivic Benedicto told INQ7.net. She said the OMB does not raid Internet shops since this does not fall under its mandate. "We only raid retail shops using optical discs like DVDs to violate intellectual property rights of private stakeholders," she said.Benedicto said the OMB has received reports of alleged raids of Internet shops in Marikina City and Olongapo City. "But we don't know who are conducting these raids," she said.Meanwhile the NBI said that most of the reported raids in the provinces are hearsay. The NBI has not conducted any raids yet since the deadline expired only recently. Raids would likely start next week.Ronald Chua, chairman of the BSA Philippines committee, said the association’s members have not initiated raids with the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team either."Since the start of the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team countdown on August 17 until today, September 20, neither the Business Software Alliance nor its members have initiated any enforcement action with the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team," Chua said in statement. "BSA does not conduct enforcement actions on its own. The law enforcement agencies do. All enforcement actions by these agencies are done with proper documentation," Chua said. He warned the public from unscrupulous persons pretending to be from the BSA or its member companies."Please call our hotline, 819-5897 (Metro Manila) or 1-800-1-888-8787 (outside Metro Manila), if you have any doubts on the authenticity of the raid or on any communication sent to your office pretending/claiming to be from the BSA or its members," Chua said.©2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Cafes lose P250-T in wake of raid reports: Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro - Philippines
Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro - Cafes lose P250-T in wake of raid reports:
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Cafes lose P250-T in wake of raid reports
By Ryan Rosauro
Ozamiz Correspondent
OZAMIZ CITY -- Around P250,000 in revenues from computer rentals and internet airtime were lost by Internet cafe operators here as they rushed to temporarily close shop after word spread authorities are rounding up establishments that are not using licensed operating systems software.
According to an officer of the local association of Internet shops, most of the cafe operators stopped operation since Friday afternoon until Monday.
He said relatives, friends, and fellow businessmen from Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro, and Iligan tipped them off about the joint operation of the Optical Media Board and National Bureau of Investigation.
Following the reported raids in other Mindanao cities, it was widely speculated that Monday was set for establishments here.
Around 100 Internet cafes operate in the city with an average of 12 units for rental, doing business for at least 10 hours a day.
Occupancy rate is estimated at 60 percent.
Those who opened shop were using Linux, an open operating system, but it cannot support a host of tasks like Internet gaming so business is low, a caf� owner explained.
Linux can only effectively support Internet chatting, he added.
In good faith
In light of this, the operators are asking government to help them obtain licensed operating systems software at a low cost in order for their business to continue without fear of legal sanctions.
'We entered this business and intend to continue with it in good faith and so we appeal to government to help us in this regard,' another officer"
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Cafes lose P250-T in wake of raid reports
By Ryan Rosauro
Ozamiz Correspondent
OZAMIZ CITY -- Around P250,000 in revenues from computer rentals and internet airtime were lost by Internet cafe operators here as they rushed to temporarily close shop after word spread authorities are rounding up establishments that are not using licensed operating systems software.
According to an officer of the local association of Internet shops, most of the cafe operators stopped operation since Friday afternoon until Monday.
He said relatives, friends, and fellow businessmen from Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro, and Iligan tipped them off about the joint operation of the Optical Media Board and National Bureau of Investigation.
Following the reported raids in other Mindanao cities, it was widely speculated that Monday was set for establishments here.
Around 100 Internet cafes operate in the city with an average of 12 units for rental, doing business for at least 10 hours a day.
Occupancy rate is estimated at 60 percent.
Those who opened shop were using Linux, an open operating system, but it cannot support a host of tasks like Internet gaming so business is low, a caf� owner explained.
Linux can only effectively support Internet chatting, he added.
In good faith
In light of this, the operators are asking government to help them obtain licensed operating systems software at a low cost in order for their business to continue without fear of legal sanctions.
'We entered this business and intend to continue with it in good faith and so we appeal to government to help us in this regard,' another officer"
Monday, September 19, 2005
Proliferation of computer centres: The fears, the gains : Nigeria
Proliferation of computer centres: The fears, the gains
Chidi Okpara • Sunday, September 18, 2005
The computer as we know it today has come a long way. There is no place you go today and you won’t see a computer being used in one form or the other. Its importance in the day-to-day running of individual and corporate bodies’ activities, has made it imperative for people to be computer literate. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines the computer as an automatic device capable of solving a problem by executing a prescribed program, or series of instructions.
Computes were first used in the 1940s in a few research laboratories and by the late 1960s had become commonplace tools in data processing for government, business and industry. Early use of computers at universities and in the military was for scientific and engineering calculations and also data analysis. Today, most industries and businesses use the computer for a multiplicity of operation while the civil engineering firms use it for design studies and proposals preparation among others. Indeed, the computer can be put into several uses by different establishments. It can be wisely used for research and information processing in such professions as law and medicine and sometimes in stock market analysis. The importance of the computer in today’s world has made many look at the computer revolution as being more significant than the industrial revolution.
Because of the numerous uses of computer, many establishments can hardly operate effectively today without the computer. Any secretary that lacks the knowledge of computer is either sent for training to update his or her knowledge he or she risks his or her job. Aside this, many industries, corporate bodies have made the knowledge of computer as a pre-requisite for employment. Thus the fear of losing ones job, the desire for job seekers to be on an advantaged position had propelled many to seek for the services of computer instructors or teachers who can impact the knowledge effectively.
It is not an exaggeration, to say that the computer has become an indispensable part of every society the world over.
Expectedly, many individuals and firms have cashed in on the demands for computer literacy to establish computer training and internet centres. The essence is for individuals, firms and corporate bodies to equip themselves and staff to meet with the global challenges.
Today, there are many computer training centres on our streets and roads, while many more are still springing up. While one may not rule out the contribution of these computer training centres to the development of mankind in recent times, one can emphatically state that all may not be well with the way some centres are being managed. There is need for proper coordination of these training centres. The Agency for Adult and Non-formal Education which responsibility it is to see to the coordination, may have failed in its duty to ensure that these training centres are brought under one umbrella, for proper management and coordination. And if possible as some have suggested, to draw a proper curriculum for the operators as is the case with the formal education system managed by the Ministry of Education.
There is need to ensure that there informal education/training centres springing up everyday are managed properly.
In his office the Director of Rivers State Agency for Non-formal Education, Mr. Augustine Dogala noted that it has been the desire of the Agency to ensure that computer training centres come under one umbrella. He said sometime ago the Agency had planned through a Non-Governmental Organisation for literacy support services an umbrella NGO for all the extra moral schools including computer and catering schools to serve a demand notice to all the computer training centers operating in the state for them to come and register but the effort was aborted along the line. He said, however that plans are underway for the Agency to constitute a committee to this effect.
According to him, when the agency is through an awareness will be created, through the radio, television and any other media to reach the concerned training centres for compliance with the directives that would be given by the Agency. Asked what he thinks would be some of the criteria for the registration, Mr. Dogala said, to qualify for registration, the training centres must ensure they have competent instructors, at lest two or four computes as a start, and good learning environment. Also he said, the proprietor or proprietress should be able to spread the time for their candidates for all to be accommodated and give them maximum time while on the computer. He said the Agency, also plans to monitor the centres to ensure compliance with the guidelines.
The agency, he said, also plans to close down any computer centre that would not comply with its directives.
On why the registration of the centres is important, the Director pointed out that by not registering, the centres have failed to contribute to the state economy, adding that they should be made to contribute their quota to the state treasury. Mr. Dogola who said he will soon hand over to a new director, urged the computer centres to ensure they register when the time comes for a proper organisation of the centres as according to him, every Nigerian needs a quality computer education.
Speaking on the importance of ensuring proper management of the computer training centres, Ms. Datie-Ikoko, Ebiikio the client liaison officer Net-Express Cyber Cafe at Aba Road stressed the need for the computer training and internet centres to have good service providers. She noted that time for accessing information or downloading information from computers differ in some centres because of the way some internal connections are done at some computer training centres.
Commenting on the proliferation of computer training centers, Ebiikio, blamed individuals that engage in business simply because they feel others are making money through that business. According to her, some people that open computer training centres do not know much about the operation of the computer, and wondered how they would be able to impart its knowledge to others. As she puts it, “people just want to join as computer training centre owners because they love the money accruable from it.” She said that based on her position, when such people come to her for counsel, she usually advised them against opening a computer training centre but instead to look for other business to avoid wasting peoples’ money. She said any one that wants to own a computer centre should know the professional aspect of it.
Asked if she is in support of registration of computer training centres and internet services, Ebiikio who is also the Marketing Executive East, Net-Express Cyber Cafe in affirmative said the registration would ensure that the training centres give their students effective training as they would be given guidelines on how to operate… For the internet cafe, she said the registration would help to check fraud.
Commenting on the importance of computer training centres, Mr. Israel James, Manager LAYINFT Global Services, a computer training centre along UST Road, said computer knowledge has helped reduce the rate of unemployment in the nation. According to him, the computer aids in correcting spellings and in sentence construction. The computer he said also helps one to articulate and arrange things and have a sense of management which could help one in life. Also he said the computer trainers have helped to develop mankind and made communication easier among people.
On whether he agrees to the registration of the training centers, Mr. James said he has no problem with that but would like the government to assist the training centres by providing them with more computers to assist them develop human resources, which is their ultimate goal.
Mr. Richard Nwakanma, a computer instructor with El-computer another computer training centre said that in the near future, the computer trainers would have succeeded in building the future of Nigerians. He said an easy communication within and outside the country would go a long way into enhancing business operation and activities as individuals and corporate bodies need it for efficient communication and feed back.
Some people interviewed that have passed through some of these computer training schools narrated their experiences. Mr. Henry George, a third year law student of UST said that the spread of the computer training schools centers have been of great benefit to individuals and corporate bodies. According to him many people, himself inclusive have come to know the importance of computer and so a few computer training center to him may not be able to accommodate all the people. He is however of the opinion that computer training proprietors before opening a computer centre should have at least 20 computers for their centre. They should equally seek the services of professional personnel as instructors to empower their candidates.
For John James who has completed his computer training, and is seeking admission into Uniport to study Chemical Engineering, the computer training centre is a welcome development. He did not have anything to complain about where he did his training, but is aware that some computer centers do not have enough computers for their students. Also he said some don’t have enough computers instructors as in some cases he said it is one teacher that handles all the students in a particular training centre. Aside this, he observed, some of the centers don’t have good systems and lacked the technical know-how to impart the knowledge very well. He is, however, happy that the computer training centres generally have slashed down on their tuition fees.
For Darlington Ihemanma, who just enrolled for a three-month training course with a computer training school, the management of the centre has time schedule for the lectures, making the students fit well into the programme. Ihemanma, who wishes to open his own computer training centre or get a job wants individuals to utilise the opportunity provided by the schools to update their knowledge in computer.
Onyinyechi Uzoma, also running a programme with a computer training school has nothing to complain about her centre. Already she says she has gone through the preliminary stage of computer education and is hoping to get a job with it.
That the computer schools have been of benefit to mankind cannot be over-emphasised. But its proliferation has been a source of worry to many who feel that some centres are out there to extort money from individuals without imparting the knowledge as should be expected. A situation where only one teacher would be attending to about 10 students does not augur well with the tenets of knowledge impartation.
Again, most times, poor management of the computer systems has led to system breakdown making the students stay longer than required. The reason for this is that some computer training centres are not qualified to operate and so don’t deserve patronage.
These schools should be encouraged to give way to those that are serious with the training. Moreover, there should be an umbrella body for the training centres for effectiveness and maintenance of standard. Unfortunately, the Agency which has the responsibility to ensure the system is improved upon has done virtually nothing to beef up development of human resources through computer literacy. Most of the computer training centres confirmed this as they said no one has brought to their notice the need to register the centres before operation. The Agency for Adult and Non-formal Education needs to live up to its responsibility in the interest of all.
The Ministry of Education, however, confirmed that plans are underway to providing and ensuring that the non-formal education centres are made to operate under supervision. To this end, early this year, the Commissioner for Education, Ven. Prof. Thompson Okujagu held a meeting with all proprietors of Continual, Extra-Mural Colleges, Remedial, Computer Training Schools/Centres and Catering Schools. The aim of the meeting according to the Commissioner was to provide a qualitative framework for the actualisation of government policy on “Education For All” as he put it, and to strengthen private sector partnership in education delivery.
According to the Commissioner's Press Officer, Emmanuel Kaldick-Jamabo, already modalities for the registration of the centres have been mapped out with the amount for the registration fixed.
Chidi Okpara • Sunday, September 18, 2005
The computer as we know it today has come a long way. There is no place you go today and you won’t see a computer being used in one form or the other. Its importance in the day-to-day running of individual and corporate bodies’ activities, has made it imperative for people to be computer literate. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines the computer as an automatic device capable of solving a problem by executing a prescribed program, or series of instructions.
Computes were first used in the 1940s in a few research laboratories and by the late 1960s had become commonplace tools in data processing for government, business and industry. Early use of computers at universities and in the military was for scientific and engineering calculations and also data analysis. Today, most industries and businesses use the computer for a multiplicity of operation while the civil engineering firms use it for design studies and proposals preparation among others. Indeed, the computer can be put into several uses by different establishments. It can be wisely used for research and information processing in such professions as law and medicine and sometimes in stock market analysis. The importance of the computer in today’s world has made many look at the computer revolution as being more significant than the industrial revolution.
Because of the numerous uses of computer, many establishments can hardly operate effectively today without the computer. Any secretary that lacks the knowledge of computer is either sent for training to update his or her knowledge he or she risks his or her job. Aside this, many industries, corporate bodies have made the knowledge of computer as a pre-requisite for employment. Thus the fear of losing ones job, the desire for job seekers to be on an advantaged position had propelled many to seek for the services of computer instructors or teachers who can impact the knowledge effectively.
It is not an exaggeration, to say that the computer has become an indispensable part of every society the world over.
Expectedly, many individuals and firms have cashed in on the demands for computer literacy to establish computer training and internet centres. The essence is for individuals, firms and corporate bodies to equip themselves and staff to meet with the global challenges.
Today, there are many computer training centres on our streets and roads, while many more are still springing up. While one may not rule out the contribution of these computer training centres to the development of mankind in recent times, one can emphatically state that all may not be well with the way some centres are being managed. There is need for proper coordination of these training centres. The Agency for Adult and Non-formal Education which responsibility it is to see to the coordination, may have failed in its duty to ensure that these training centres are brought under one umbrella, for proper management and coordination. And if possible as some have suggested, to draw a proper curriculum for the operators as is the case with the formal education system managed by the Ministry of Education.
There is need to ensure that there informal education/training centres springing up everyday are managed properly.
In his office the Director of Rivers State Agency for Non-formal Education, Mr. Augustine Dogala noted that it has been the desire of the Agency to ensure that computer training centres come under one umbrella. He said sometime ago the Agency had planned through a Non-Governmental Organisation for literacy support services an umbrella NGO for all the extra moral schools including computer and catering schools to serve a demand notice to all the computer training centers operating in the state for them to come and register but the effort was aborted along the line. He said, however that plans are underway for the Agency to constitute a committee to this effect.
According to him, when the agency is through an awareness will be created, through the radio, television and any other media to reach the concerned training centres for compliance with the directives that would be given by the Agency. Asked what he thinks would be some of the criteria for the registration, Mr. Dogala said, to qualify for registration, the training centres must ensure they have competent instructors, at lest two or four computes as a start, and good learning environment. Also he said, the proprietor or proprietress should be able to spread the time for their candidates for all to be accommodated and give them maximum time while on the computer. He said the Agency, also plans to monitor the centres to ensure compliance with the guidelines.
The agency, he said, also plans to close down any computer centre that would not comply with its directives.
On why the registration of the centres is important, the Director pointed out that by not registering, the centres have failed to contribute to the state economy, adding that they should be made to contribute their quota to the state treasury. Mr. Dogola who said he will soon hand over to a new director, urged the computer centres to ensure they register when the time comes for a proper organisation of the centres as according to him, every Nigerian needs a quality computer education.
Speaking on the importance of ensuring proper management of the computer training centres, Ms. Datie-Ikoko, Ebiikio the client liaison officer Net-Express Cyber Cafe at Aba Road stressed the need for the computer training and internet centres to have good service providers. She noted that time for accessing information or downloading information from computers differ in some centres because of the way some internal connections are done at some computer training centres.
Commenting on the proliferation of computer training centers, Ebiikio, blamed individuals that engage in business simply because they feel others are making money through that business. According to her, some people that open computer training centres do not know much about the operation of the computer, and wondered how they would be able to impart its knowledge to others. As she puts it, “people just want to join as computer training centre owners because they love the money accruable from it.” She said that based on her position, when such people come to her for counsel, she usually advised them against opening a computer training centre but instead to look for other business to avoid wasting peoples’ money. She said any one that wants to own a computer centre should know the professional aspect of it.
Asked if she is in support of registration of computer training centres and internet services, Ebiikio who is also the Marketing Executive East, Net-Express Cyber Cafe in affirmative said the registration would ensure that the training centres give their students effective training as they would be given guidelines on how to operate… For the internet cafe, she said the registration would help to check fraud.
Commenting on the importance of computer training centres, Mr. Israel James, Manager LAYINFT Global Services, a computer training centre along UST Road, said computer knowledge has helped reduce the rate of unemployment in the nation. According to him, the computer aids in correcting spellings and in sentence construction. The computer he said also helps one to articulate and arrange things and have a sense of management which could help one in life. Also he said the computer trainers have helped to develop mankind and made communication easier among people.
On whether he agrees to the registration of the training centers, Mr. James said he has no problem with that but would like the government to assist the training centres by providing them with more computers to assist them develop human resources, which is their ultimate goal.
Mr. Richard Nwakanma, a computer instructor with El-computer another computer training centre said that in the near future, the computer trainers would have succeeded in building the future of Nigerians. He said an easy communication within and outside the country would go a long way into enhancing business operation and activities as individuals and corporate bodies need it for efficient communication and feed back.
Some people interviewed that have passed through some of these computer training schools narrated their experiences. Mr. Henry George, a third year law student of UST said that the spread of the computer training schools centers have been of great benefit to individuals and corporate bodies. According to him many people, himself inclusive have come to know the importance of computer and so a few computer training center to him may not be able to accommodate all the people. He is however of the opinion that computer training proprietors before opening a computer centre should have at least 20 computers for their centre. They should equally seek the services of professional personnel as instructors to empower their candidates.
For John James who has completed his computer training, and is seeking admission into Uniport to study Chemical Engineering, the computer training centre is a welcome development. He did not have anything to complain about where he did his training, but is aware that some computer centers do not have enough computers for their students. Also he said some don’t have enough computers instructors as in some cases he said it is one teacher that handles all the students in a particular training centre. Aside this, he observed, some of the centers don’t have good systems and lacked the technical know-how to impart the knowledge very well. He is, however, happy that the computer training centres generally have slashed down on their tuition fees.
For Darlington Ihemanma, who just enrolled for a three-month training course with a computer training school, the management of the centre has time schedule for the lectures, making the students fit well into the programme. Ihemanma, who wishes to open his own computer training centre or get a job wants individuals to utilise the opportunity provided by the schools to update their knowledge in computer.
Onyinyechi Uzoma, also running a programme with a computer training school has nothing to complain about her centre. Already she says she has gone through the preliminary stage of computer education and is hoping to get a job with it.
That the computer schools have been of benefit to mankind cannot be over-emphasised. But its proliferation has been a source of worry to many who feel that some centres are out there to extort money from individuals without imparting the knowledge as should be expected. A situation where only one teacher would be attending to about 10 students does not augur well with the tenets of knowledge impartation.
Again, most times, poor management of the computer systems has led to system breakdown making the students stay longer than required. The reason for this is that some computer training centres are not qualified to operate and so don’t deserve patronage.
These schools should be encouraged to give way to those that are serious with the training. Moreover, there should be an umbrella body for the training centres for effectiveness and maintenance of standard. Unfortunately, the Agency which has the responsibility to ensure the system is improved upon has done virtually nothing to beef up development of human resources through computer literacy. Most of the computer training centres confirmed this as they said no one has brought to their notice the need to register the centres before operation. The Agency for Adult and Non-formal Education needs to live up to its responsibility in the interest of all.
The Ministry of Education, however, confirmed that plans are underway to providing and ensuring that the non-formal education centres are made to operate under supervision. To this end, early this year, the Commissioner for Education, Ven. Prof. Thompson Okujagu held a meeting with all proprietors of Continual, Extra-Mural Colleges, Remedial, Computer Training Schools/Centres and Catering Schools. The aim of the meeting according to the Commissioner was to provide a qualitative framework for the actualisation of government policy on “Education For All” as he put it, and to strengthen private sector partnership in education delivery.
According to the Commissioner's Press Officer, Emmanuel Kaldick-Jamabo, already modalities for the registration of the centres have been mapped out with the amount for the registration fixed.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Vietnam : Blocking the net: Corporations help governments shut down the information superhighway
By Ron Chepesiuk | Special to the Vermont Guardian
posted September 16, 2005
Vietnam’s communist government knows that it is impossible to monitor the country’s 5,000 cyber cafes, so it’s forcing the cafe owners to be its eyes and ears. Last July, a government directive informed cafe owners that they will have to take a six-month course so that they can better monitor their cyber customers. The Vietnamese government is justifying its move for reasons of “national security and defense” — that is, to protect itself against online journalists who, it says, “provide sensationalist news and articles while others even publish reactionary and libelous reports and a depraved culture.”
Reporters Without Borders (RWB), the Paris-based media watchdog group that monitors press freedom worldwide, condemned the Vietnamese government’s directive. “It is individual freedoms that will suffer dramatically as a result of a law like this,” RWB warned in a press release. “These measures are a complete negation of the free enterprise principles espoused by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which Vietnam is trying to join.”
But whether the WTO will consider Vietnam’s censorship move a strong enough reason to deny Vietnam membership remains to be seen. The fact is that many of the WTO’s members are erecting significant barriers to the free flow of information and communication online.
Currently, there are 70 cyber prisoners worldwide who have run afoul of the repressive rules set by certain governments, according to the RWB, and these numbers will surely grow. In one incident last April, Tunisian journalist Mohammed Abbou was sentenced to three-and-half-years in prison by a Tunisian appeals court for publishing an article on a website that compared the torture of political prisoners in Tunisia to abuses committed by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The Tunisian government offered Abbou a deal: In exchange for your release, give us an apology and request a pardon. Abbou responded by going on a hunger strike.
The culprits involved in censoring the Internet include not only the usual dictatorships but also Western countries that preach the virtues of democracy, an informed citizenry, freedom of speech, and the other platitudes we’ve been hearing lately from George Bush, Tony Blair, and their allies. Moreover, some of the world’s biggest multinationals and high tech companies are complicit in this trend.
First, let’s look at some of the usual dictatorships, or as RWB has labeled them, “the habitual human rights violators.” They include small fry like Cuba, Burma, the Ukraine, and Belarus, but the biggest offenders in this category are China and Iran.
The Internet may seem like a medium that can democratize China, but the Chinese authorities have developed effective ways to sabotage online dissent. In fact, the RWB believes that “the way the Chinese government has stifled online dissent offers a model for dictatorships in all corners of the world.”
Moreover, the Chinese have help from the West to achieve their repressive objectives. Several large multinationals, including Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo!, have been willing to allow China to censor ideas and stifle free expression in exchange for profit. Last June, Microsoft began blocking consumers of its new China-based Internet protocol from using such “dangerous” words and phrases as “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” “demonstration,” and “Taiwan independence.” Users who fail to comply get this message: “This item should not contain forbidden speech, such as profanity.”
In a society as tightly controlled as China, Microsoft has become a willing participant in sustaining one of the world’s most repressive regimes. The newspaper USA Today eulogized about the bitter irony: “What’s actually profane is a company that built its future on the freedom provided by the American system helping a repressive regime censor such ideas.”
Microsoft certainly has company. In 2002, Yahoo! China signed a pledge not to allow the placement of “pernicious information that may jeopardize state security,” while in 2004 Google launched a new search engine in China that omitted sites the Chinese government didn’t like, such as the BBC and Voice of America.
In an ominous sign for Internet users anywhere, Yahoo! seems particularly eager to please the ruling class by providing information about its customers. The RWB reports that Yahoo! supplied information to the Chinese government regarding an IP address, which led to Hong Kong journalist Shi Tao being sentenced to 10 years in prison this April. “We already knew that Yahoo! collaborates enthusiastically that the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know that it is a Chinese police informant as well,” RWB said in a press release.
U.S.-based companies are also supplying commercial software to help countries “filter” — that is, censor information. Last June, the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) released a report titled “Internet Filtering in Iran,” which documents how the Iranian government has used the commercial filtering software SmartFilter to control every aspect of its citizens’ cyber experience, from websites and e-mail to blogs and online discussion forums. Made by the U.S. based company Secure Computing, the software is helping the Iranian government block internationally hosted sites in English, as well as other sites hosted in local languages.
In its report, ONI accused Secure Computing of complicity in helping Iran violate the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Ronald Deibert, one of the report’s authors and directors of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, charged that the “thriving Internet censorship market — spread like a virus from China to Iran to an increasing number of countries worldwide — calls into question not only the trumpeted slogans of high tech firms that the Internet represents ‘freedom’ and ‘connectivity’ but simplistic divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ as well.”
As developments in Western countries show, the line between the “us” and the “them” is blurring when it comes to censorship and the Internet. In what is perhaps a first for a Western country, the British government announced in August that it would outlaw the downloading or viewing of violent sexual images on the Internet. For the British government, offensive material will include “extreme pornographic material which is graphic and sexually explicit and which contains actual scenes or realistic depictions of serious violence, bestiality or necrophilia.” Those convicted could receive three years in prison.
Chris Evans, a spokesman for the group Internet Freedom, summed up the feelings of the opponents of the proposed legislation: “The idea that you can prevent violent action by banning such images is nonsense.”
Meanwhile, in the United States, a series of congressional initiatives threatens freedom of expression and what people will see, hear, and read on the Internet. The strategy of the Internet censors is to apply the FCC’s so-called “decency” standards to cyberspace. David Mason, a republican Federal Election Commissioner, told the Washington Post last March what it means: “We are almost certainly going to move from an environment in which the Internet was per se not regulated to where it is going to be regulated in some part. That shift has huge significance.”
According to reports by CNET and the LA Weekly, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is even considering regulating political bloggers by using the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law as its authority. In response, bloggers have organized a group called the Internet Coalition, which is petitioning the FEC to “grant blogs and online publications the same consideration and protections as broadcast media, newspapers or periodicals by clearly including them under the Federal Election Commission’s media exemption rule.”
Given the current political climate, however, it is doubtful whether anyone on Capitol Hill will listen, let alone act. The days of the free and unfettered Internet may well be numbered.
Ron Chepesiuk is a South Carolina based journalist and author of Drug Lords: the Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel (www.ronchepesiuk.com).
posted September 16, 2005
Vietnam’s communist government knows that it is impossible to monitor the country’s 5,000 cyber cafes, so it’s forcing the cafe owners to be its eyes and ears. Last July, a government directive informed cafe owners that they will have to take a six-month course so that they can better monitor their cyber customers. The Vietnamese government is justifying its move for reasons of “national security and defense” — that is, to protect itself against online journalists who, it says, “provide sensationalist news and articles while others even publish reactionary and libelous reports and a depraved culture.”
Reporters Without Borders (RWB), the Paris-based media watchdog group that monitors press freedom worldwide, condemned the Vietnamese government’s directive. “It is individual freedoms that will suffer dramatically as a result of a law like this,” RWB warned in a press release. “These measures are a complete negation of the free enterprise principles espoused by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which Vietnam is trying to join.”
But whether the WTO will consider Vietnam’s censorship move a strong enough reason to deny Vietnam membership remains to be seen. The fact is that many of the WTO’s members are erecting significant barriers to the free flow of information and communication online.
Currently, there are 70 cyber prisoners worldwide who have run afoul of the repressive rules set by certain governments, according to the RWB, and these numbers will surely grow. In one incident last April, Tunisian journalist Mohammed Abbou was sentenced to three-and-half-years in prison by a Tunisian appeals court for publishing an article on a website that compared the torture of political prisoners in Tunisia to abuses committed by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The Tunisian government offered Abbou a deal: In exchange for your release, give us an apology and request a pardon. Abbou responded by going on a hunger strike.
The culprits involved in censoring the Internet include not only the usual dictatorships but also Western countries that preach the virtues of democracy, an informed citizenry, freedom of speech, and the other platitudes we’ve been hearing lately from George Bush, Tony Blair, and their allies. Moreover, some of the world’s biggest multinationals and high tech companies are complicit in this trend.
First, let’s look at some of the usual dictatorships, or as RWB has labeled them, “the habitual human rights violators.” They include small fry like Cuba, Burma, the Ukraine, and Belarus, but the biggest offenders in this category are China and Iran.
The Internet may seem like a medium that can democratize China, but the Chinese authorities have developed effective ways to sabotage online dissent. In fact, the RWB believes that “the way the Chinese government has stifled online dissent offers a model for dictatorships in all corners of the world.”
Moreover, the Chinese have help from the West to achieve their repressive objectives. Several large multinationals, including Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo!, have been willing to allow China to censor ideas and stifle free expression in exchange for profit. Last June, Microsoft began blocking consumers of its new China-based Internet protocol from using such “dangerous” words and phrases as “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” “demonstration,” and “Taiwan independence.” Users who fail to comply get this message: “This item should not contain forbidden speech, such as profanity.”
In a society as tightly controlled as China, Microsoft has become a willing participant in sustaining one of the world’s most repressive regimes. The newspaper USA Today eulogized about the bitter irony: “What’s actually profane is a company that built its future on the freedom provided by the American system helping a repressive regime censor such ideas.”
Microsoft certainly has company. In 2002, Yahoo! China signed a pledge not to allow the placement of “pernicious information that may jeopardize state security,” while in 2004 Google launched a new search engine in China that omitted sites the Chinese government didn’t like, such as the BBC and Voice of America.
In an ominous sign for Internet users anywhere, Yahoo! seems particularly eager to please the ruling class by providing information about its customers. The RWB reports that Yahoo! supplied information to the Chinese government regarding an IP address, which led to Hong Kong journalist Shi Tao being sentenced to 10 years in prison this April. “We already knew that Yahoo! collaborates enthusiastically that the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know that it is a Chinese police informant as well,” RWB said in a press release.
U.S.-based companies are also supplying commercial software to help countries “filter” — that is, censor information. Last June, the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) released a report titled “Internet Filtering in Iran,” which documents how the Iranian government has used the commercial filtering software SmartFilter to control every aspect of its citizens’ cyber experience, from websites and e-mail to blogs and online discussion forums. Made by the U.S. based company Secure Computing, the software is helping the Iranian government block internationally hosted sites in English, as well as other sites hosted in local languages.
In its report, ONI accused Secure Computing of complicity in helping Iran violate the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Ronald Deibert, one of the report’s authors and directors of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, charged that the “thriving Internet censorship market — spread like a virus from China to Iran to an increasing number of countries worldwide — calls into question not only the trumpeted slogans of high tech firms that the Internet represents ‘freedom’ and ‘connectivity’ but simplistic divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ as well.”
As developments in Western countries show, the line between the “us” and the “them” is blurring when it comes to censorship and the Internet. In what is perhaps a first for a Western country, the British government announced in August that it would outlaw the downloading or viewing of violent sexual images on the Internet. For the British government, offensive material will include “extreme pornographic material which is graphic and sexually explicit and which contains actual scenes or realistic depictions of serious violence, bestiality or necrophilia.” Those convicted could receive three years in prison.
Chris Evans, a spokesman for the group Internet Freedom, summed up the feelings of the opponents of the proposed legislation: “The idea that you can prevent violent action by banning such images is nonsense.”
Meanwhile, in the United States, a series of congressional initiatives threatens freedom of expression and what people will see, hear, and read on the Internet. The strategy of the Internet censors is to apply the FCC’s so-called “decency” standards to cyberspace. David Mason, a republican Federal Election Commissioner, told the Washington Post last March what it means: “We are almost certainly going to move from an environment in which the Internet was per se not regulated to where it is going to be regulated in some part. That shift has huge significance.”
According to reports by CNET and the LA Weekly, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is even considering regulating political bloggers by using the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law as its authority. In response, bloggers have organized a group called the Internet Coalition, which is petitioning the FEC to “grant blogs and online publications the same consideration and protections as broadcast media, newspapers or periodicals by clearly including them under the Federal Election Commission’s media exemption rule.”
Given the current political climate, however, it is doubtful whether anyone on Capitol Hill will listen, let alone act. The days of the free and unfettered Internet may well be numbered.
Ron Chepesiuk is a South Carolina based journalist and author of Drug Lords: the Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel (www.ronchepesiuk.com).
Friday, September 16, 2005
Best Telecentres awarded : The Star Online : TechCentral - Malaysia Technology
Best Telecentres awarded
BY CHARLES F. MOREIRA
Thursday September 15, 2005
Centres of excellence
The Best Telecenter Awards were presented in two sub-categories – rural Internet centre and rural library.
The Best Telecenter Award for a rural Internet centre went to the Rural Internet Centre from Marang, Terengganu as well as the Maxis Cyberlab in Serian, Sarawak.
The Best Telecenter Award for a rural library, on the other hand, went to Desa Gugusan Library in Trolak South, Perak.
Under the KTAK (Energy, Water and Communications Ministry) – Maxis Cyberkids Camp Program Excellence Awards, Khairul Haji Abu Kassim, a teacher from Sekolah Kebangsaan Chepor in Chemor, Perak was named Best Cyberkids Teacher.
The Lawas National School in Sarawak was awarded the Best Cyberkid School website while the Kampung Perak National School Computer Club in Batu Kurau, Perak was named the Best Cyberkids School Computer Club.
The awards are jointly organised by the MNCC, Energy, Water and Communications Ministry and Science, Technology and Innovation ministries with most prizes sponsored by Maxis.
BY CHARLES F. MOREIRA
Thursday September 15, 2005
Centres of excellence
The Best Telecenter Awards were presented in two sub-categories – rural Internet centre and rural library.
The Best Telecenter Award for a rural Internet centre went to the Rural Internet Centre from Marang, Terengganu as well as the Maxis Cyberlab in Serian, Sarawak.
The Best Telecenter Award for a rural library, on the other hand, went to Desa Gugusan Library in Trolak South, Perak.
Under the KTAK (Energy, Water and Communications Ministry) – Maxis Cyberkids Camp Program Excellence Awards, Khairul Haji Abu Kassim, a teacher from Sekolah Kebangsaan Chepor in Chemor, Perak was named Best Cyberkids Teacher.
The Lawas National School in Sarawak was awarded the Best Cyberkid School website while the Kampung Perak National School Computer Club in Batu Kurau, Perak was named the Best Cyberkids School Computer Club.
The awards are jointly organised by the MNCC, Energy, Water and Communications Ministry and Science, Technology and Innovation ministries with most prizes sponsored by Maxis.
Monday, September 12, 2005
A popular Internet centre serving all sections - Newindpress.com, India
A popular Internet centre serving all sections - Newindpress.com
A popular Internet centre serving all sections
Sunday September 11 2005 13:12 IST
DAVANAGERE: This is not just a browsing centre to cater to the needs of people, but a hub of knowledge where from primary school children to students of professional courses, doctors, engineers and researchers acquire the knowledge they require.
My Cyber Cafe is one of the most sought after by all sections of people at Davanagere. According to M P Mallikarjun, Manager of the Cyber Cafe, it was on June 23, 1999 when the Internet browsing service centre, not much familiar at Davanagere in those days, was started with just four computers in a rented building at M C C B Block, Davanagere.
In a span of one year, the Cafe with its care and concern for younger generation and also professionals grew up to be called a popular Internet centre and 10 computers were installed.
Air condition facility with posh interior decoration and basic facilities to visitors were provided. Now the centre with 30 computers and five trained personnel is catering to the varied requirements of students, professionals for thesis writing, preparation of projects etc, Mallikarjun stated.
The centre, which is open to all attracts the girl students, women in particular, as we have banned completely the porn site and crime sites, Mallikarjun said. Since the Centre is for a family requirement and needs, all sorts of unwanted surfing or browsing are totally banned here to make a homely environment, Mallikarjun added.
Another important service provided here for Primary, Secondary and High school children is the preparation of their project reports with a neat printout copies made in the form of books.
On many occasions, the school students are asked to make a project on a scientist, a warrior, freedom fighter or a scholar. As all relevant information is available through Internet, it is collected as needed by students, made in the form of books and sold at a concession, Mallikarjun explained.
This had helped a lot of students and even parents have appreciated our centre, he added.
A popular Internet centre serving all sections
Sunday September 11 2005 13:12 IST
DAVANAGERE: This is not just a browsing centre to cater to the needs of people, but a hub of knowledge where from primary school children to students of professional courses, doctors, engineers and researchers acquire the knowledge they require.
My Cyber Cafe is one of the most sought after by all sections of people at Davanagere. According to M P Mallikarjun, Manager of the Cyber Cafe, it was on June 23, 1999 when the Internet browsing service centre, not much familiar at Davanagere in those days, was started with just four computers in a rented building at M C C B Block, Davanagere.
In a span of one year, the Cafe with its care and concern for younger generation and also professionals grew up to be called a popular Internet centre and 10 computers were installed.
Air condition facility with posh interior decoration and basic facilities to visitors were provided. Now the centre with 30 computers and five trained personnel is catering to the varied requirements of students, professionals for thesis writing, preparation of projects etc, Mallikarjun stated.
The centre, which is open to all attracts the girl students, women in particular, as we have banned completely the porn site and crime sites, Mallikarjun said. Since the Centre is for a family requirement and needs, all sorts of unwanted surfing or browsing are totally banned here to make a homely environment, Mallikarjun added.
Another important service provided here for Primary, Secondary and High school children is the preparation of their project reports with a neat printout copies made in the form of books.
On many occasions, the school students are asked to make a project on a scientist, a warrior, freedom fighter or a scholar. As all relevant information is available through Internet, it is collected as needed by students, made in the form of books and sold at a concession, Mallikarjun explained.
This had helped a lot of students and even parents have appreciated our centre, he added.
Korean Internet Cafes Franchisor Goes Global
Internet Cafes Go Global
By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter , Hankooki.com The Korea Times
09-11-2005 17:32
South Korea’s unique culture of Internet cafes, called ``PC Bang,’’ will be exported to neighboring regions by ValueSpace, which owns the country’s top PC Bang franchise CyberPark.
ValueSpace president Choi Yeun-wook revealed the firm’s plan to make inroads into Japan and China next year.
``We will enter Japan in 2006 and China will follow after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a sports gala that will secure copyrights in the mainland,’’ the 40-year-old Choi said in an interview with the Korea Times.
``We aim to set up more than 7,000 affiliated PC Bang in Japan, China and Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in the long run.’’
Under its CyberPark franchise that debuted in 2002, ValueSpace today retains the highest number of PC Bang, amounting to roughly 250 across the country.
Considering the PC Bang business was on the decline in 2002, it is a notable achievement for a start-up brand to become a leading franchise in just three years.
PC Bang, sometimes dubbed local area network (LAN) gaming center, is a place where people can get access to the high-speed Internet for a fee of about 1,000 won ($1) an hour.
In Korea, PC Bang arose in the mid 1990s and now up to 22,000 cyber cafes are tucked into every spare sliver of real estate, armed with top-of-the-line computers and high-bandwidth connectivity.
They come in various sizes from a very small one equipped with less than 10 personal computers to mega-sized ones with hundreds of terminals.
PC Bang is an important contributor to the economy, as it accounts for about one-fourth of the country’s total desk top computer demand of 1 million units a year.
It also helped the online gaming industry flourish in Korea by providing a business model to game developers, who found avid consumers at PC Bang-goers.
PC Bang in World
PC Bang is starting to spring up in other nations. In China, the number of Internet cafes reaches roughly 120,000 and Japan is also poised to embrace the new culture.
In this climate, Choi says this is a perfect time for Korean players to wade into the emerging markets on the back of their knack for running the business.
`` PC Bang in Korea has gone through a three-stage development, and China and Japan are only now entering the second stage, when the number of PC Bang explodes. We can preempt the market based on our experience,’’ Choi said.
He explained the first stage is when only risk-taking early adopters visit a rare PC Bang to surf the Web or check e-mail, while a rising penetration rate of the high-speed Internet and the explosion of multiplayer games mark the second period.
``Korea witnessed PC Bang mushroom and online game catch on beginning 1998, when the affordable broadband offerings were launched for household users,’’ Choi said.
``In the third phase, the market becomes overstuffed and PC Bang gets bigger and evolve into a cozy place since hyper-competition urges them to find differentiation factors.’’
China and Japan are propagating commercial broadband services, marking the onset of the second stage and will be sure to form huge markets for PC Bang franchise business, according to Choi.
``Over the long haul, Korea will be able to make a lucrative model of exporting game contents, the broadband network and PC Bang culture all at the same time,’’ he said.
ValueSpace especially fixes its eyes on the potential-filled Chinese market, where PC Bang cannot start business without subscribing to a franchise. That contrasts to Korea, where about 10 percent of overall PC Bang signs up for such a franchise.
``Already, some franchise owners in China asked us to conduct joint businesses. They know our forte that we experienced what they will face in the future. For them, we possess a crystal ball for what will happen in their country later,’’ Choi said.
By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter , Hankooki.com The Korea Times
09-11-2005 17:32
South Korea’s unique culture of Internet cafes, called ``PC Bang,’’ will be exported to neighboring regions by ValueSpace, which owns the country’s top PC Bang franchise CyberPark.
ValueSpace president Choi Yeun-wook revealed the firm’s plan to make inroads into Japan and China next year.
``We will enter Japan in 2006 and China will follow after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a sports gala that will secure copyrights in the mainland,’’ the 40-year-old Choi said in an interview with the Korea Times.
``We aim to set up more than 7,000 affiliated PC Bang in Japan, China and Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in the long run.’’
Under its CyberPark franchise that debuted in 2002, ValueSpace today retains the highest number of PC Bang, amounting to roughly 250 across the country.
Considering the PC Bang business was on the decline in 2002, it is a notable achievement for a start-up brand to become a leading franchise in just three years.
PC Bang, sometimes dubbed local area network (LAN) gaming center, is a place where people can get access to the high-speed Internet for a fee of about 1,000 won ($1) an hour.
In Korea, PC Bang arose in the mid 1990s and now up to 22,000 cyber cafes are tucked into every spare sliver of real estate, armed with top-of-the-line computers and high-bandwidth connectivity.
They come in various sizes from a very small one equipped with less than 10 personal computers to mega-sized ones with hundreds of terminals.
PC Bang is an important contributor to the economy, as it accounts for about one-fourth of the country’s total desk top computer demand of 1 million units a year.
It also helped the online gaming industry flourish in Korea by providing a business model to game developers, who found avid consumers at PC Bang-goers.
PC Bang in World
PC Bang is starting to spring up in other nations. In China, the number of Internet cafes reaches roughly 120,000 and Japan is also poised to embrace the new culture.
In this climate, Choi says this is a perfect time for Korean players to wade into the emerging markets on the back of their knack for running the business.
`` PC Bang in Korea has gone through a three-stage development, and China and Japan are only now entering the second stage, when the number of PC Bang explodes. We can preempt the market based on our experience,’’ Choi said.
He explained the first stage is when only risk-taking early adopters visit a rare PC Bang to surf the Web or check e-mail, while a rising penetration rate of the high-speed Internet and the explosion of multiplayer games mark the second period.
``Korea witnessed PC Bang mushroom and online game catch on beginning 1998, when the affordable broadband offerings were launched for household users,’’ Choi said.
``In the third phase, the market becomes overstuffed and PC Bang gets bigger and evolve into a cozy place since hyper-competition urges them to find differentiation factors.’’
China and Japan are propagating commercial broadband services, marking the onset of the second stage and will be sure to form huge markets for PC Bang franchise business, according to Choi.
``Over the long haul, Korea will be able to make a lucrative model of exporting game contents, the broadband network and PC Bang culture all at the same time,’’ he said.
ValueSpace especially fixes its eyes on the potential-filled Chinese market, where PC Bang cannot start business without subscribing to a franchise. That contrasts to Korea, where about 10 percent of overall PC Bang signs up for such a franchise.
``Already, some franchise owners in China asked us to conduct joint businesses. They know our forte that we experienced what they will face in the future. For them, we possess a crystal ball for what will happen in their country later,’’ Choi said.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Cyber Cafe help Yesterday people say yes to tomorrow tools to correspond with children abroad
The Telegraph - Calcutta : Metro: "Cyber Cafe "
Tech to keep in touch
- Yesterday people say yes to tomorrow tools to correspond with children abroad
SUBHAJIT BANERJEE
Till their daughter Debnita went abroad to study, Nivedita and Debabrata Chakraborty were the usual snail-mail generation couple who didn’t think much about the computer as a communication tool.
Once she did, all that changed. “We had bought the PC for my husband’s office work and the Internet was not used at all. But then, we learnt email and voice-chat — which we used every day — and it was goodbye to hand-written letters and ISD calls,” says Nivedita.
The Chakrabortys, in their 60s now, join a growing band of parents taking to tech to keep in touch — the cheap and instant way — with children leaving the city to study or to work.
“Unless children head for foreign shores, parents don’t seem to be much bothered about these things,” feels Nilanjan Chowdhury, who leaves for a Master’s course in developmental studies in London later this month. “My parents are now thinking of learning how to surf the Net and send emails.”
With Internet access charges free-falling and communication software improving by the version, all that parents need at home is a PC with an Internet connection to make the distance disappear.
Compare that to expensive ISD calls and the slow — and often unreliable — postal service, and it’s clear why yesterday’s generation is saying yes to tomorrow’s tech tools.
Also, it’s no longer just about penning an email or hearing the voice but even seeing son or daughter at work or play, in real time.
“We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to visit him there,” say the parents of Ashutosh Ganguly, who is completing his Ph.D in New York. “It feels great to see him… He even took the camera all around his apartment.” The Gangulys’ highlight so far: “watching snow on New York streets”, through Ashutosh’s webcam.
For parents yet to take the tech plunge, there’s always the friendly neighbourhood cyber café. “I keep Saturday and Sunday afternoons reserved for elderly parents keeping in touch with their children abroad,” says S. Roy, a cyber-cafe owner in Salt Lake. “They are not comfortable on the computer, so we create their IDs, sit with them and type out their letters (some bring it hand-written and some rattle off on the spot), and once the reply comes, we call them.”
It’s a relief for students, too, usually on a tight budget abroad, since Internet access is readily and freely available on most campuses. “I now have Internet in the PC in my room and stay in touch with my folks and friends in Calcutta through email and instant messenger,” says Diya Gupta, an MA student in Cambridge University, now holidaying in Calcutta. “I can’t remember when I last wrote them a letter.”
If the Net is the way of the world, the SMS suffices — even for the senior citizen — if the loved one leaves Calcutta for another city. “When my daughter went to the US on a scholarship, I learnt how to use the Net, but now that she is in Delhi, I keep in touch via SMS,” says 75-year-old S.S. Dasgupta.
Tech to keep in touch
- Yesterday people say yes to tomorrow tools to correspond with children abroad
SUBHAJIT BANERJEE
Till their daughter Debnita went abroad to study, Nivedita and Debabrata Chakraborty were the usual snail-mail generation couple who didn’t think much about the computer as a communication tool.
Once she did, all that changed. “We had bought the PC for my husband’s office work and the Internet was not used at all. But then, we learnt email and voice-chat — which we used every day — and it was goodbye to hand-written letters and ISD calls,” says Nivedita.
The Chakrabortys, in their 60s now, join a growing band of parents taking to tech to keep in touch — the cheap and instant way — with children leaving the city to study or to work.
“Unless children head for foreign shores, parents don’t seem to be much bothered about these things,” feels Nilanjan Chowdhury, who leaves for a Master’s course in developmental studies in London later this month. “My parents are now thinking of learning how to surf the Net and send emails.”
With Internet access charges free-falling and communication software improving by the version, all that parents need at home is a PC with an Internet connection to make the distance disappear.
Compare that to expensive ISD calls and the slow — and often unreliable — postal service, and it’s clear why yesterday’s generation is saying yes to tomorrow’s tech tools.
Also, it’s no longer just about penning an email or hearing the voice but even seeing son or daughter at work or play, in real time.
“We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to visit him there,” say the parents of Ashutosh Ganguly, who is completing his Ph.D in New York. “It feels great to see him… He even took the camera all around his apartment.” The Gangulys’ highlight so far: “watching snow on New York streets”, through Ashutosh’s webcam.
For parents yet to take the tech plunge, there’s always the friendly neighbourhood cyber café. “I keep Saturday and Sunday afternoons reserved for elderly parents keeping in touch with their children abroad,” says S. Roy, a cyber-cafe owner in Salt Lake. “They are not comfortable on the computer, so we create their IDs, sit with them and type out their letters (some bring it hand-written and some rattle off on the spot), and once the reply comes, we call them.”
It’s a relief for students, too, usually on a tight budget abroad, since Internet access is readily and freely available on most campuses. “I now have Internet in the PC in my room and stay in touch with my folks and friends in Calcutta through email and instant messenger,” says Diya Gupta, an MA student in Cambridge University, now holidaying in Calcutta. “I can’t remember when I last wrote them a letter.”
If the Net is the way of the world, the SMS suffices — even for the senior citizen — if the loved one leaves Calcutta for another city. “When my daughter went to the US on a scholarship, I learnt how to use the Net, but now that she is in Delhi, I keep in touch via SMS,” says 75-year-old S.S. Dasgupta.
Monday, September 05, 2005
In game-obsessed South Korea, some people don't know when to leave the cybercafe.:Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune | Dying to win? Passion turns tragic: "In game-obsessed South Korea, some people don't know when to leave the cybercafe."
Dying to win? Passion turns tragic
In game-obsessed South Korea, some people don't know when to leave the cybercafe. For one man, the fantasy -- 50 hours of it -- was fatal.
By Barbara Demick
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published September 3, 2005
TAEGU, South Korea -- By day, Lee Seung Seop was a skinny guy who repaired industrial boilers.
But after work let out at 6 p.m., the 28-year-old would head to a nearby Internet cafe and enter a far more enticing virtual world populated by saber-toothed dragons and purple-haired women in metallic bodices.
Gradually the evenings stretched into nights and the nights into the dawning of the next day. Lee sometimes forgot to eat. He didn't sleep. He came into work later and later until his boss finally fired him.
One night, after a 50-hour binge playing an online game called "World of Warcraft," Lee collapsed and fell off his chair. He died a few hours later.
"He was so concentrated on his game that he forgot to eat and sleep. He died of heart failure brought on by exhaustion and dehydration," said Park Young Woo, a psychiatrist at Taegu Fatima Hospital, where Lee died.
Certainly, more people drop dead while eating dinner or having sex than playing online games. But Lee's death this month gained widespread notoriety, bolstering creeping fears among South Koreans that they've become hooked on the Internet.
South Korean authorities have linked several high-profile deaths to excessive Internet game playing. Some believe that cybercafes have in effect become the opium dens of the 21st Century, luring players into staying around the clock in disregard for their health and responsibilities.
In May, a 4-month-old girl left alone at home in Inchon died of suffocation while her parents were playing at an Internet cafe.
"We were thinking of playing for just an hour or two and returning home as usual, but the game took longer that day"--that's how a policeman was quoted in newspapers paraphrasing the parents. The couple were charged with involuntary manslaughter, police said.
Authorities seem mindful that they have a social problem in the making. This month, the government-run Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion began sending psychologists into cafes to warn players of the dangers. Players also are being handed questionnaires asking, for example, "Do you sometimes wish that what is happening in the games was your reality?"
Son Eun Suk, one of the psychologists visiting the cafes, believes that online gaming is potentially a bigger social problem than drugs or booze because people are unaware of its addictiveness.
"Parents and teachers lecture against drugs and alcohol, but they are very open to the Internet. They think their children are learning something about computers, and they allow them to play from a very young age," Son said.
South Korea boasts of being the most wired country in the world. Nearly three-quarters of its households have broadband connections, whereas the United States remains in the comparative Dark Ages, at about one-third. Forrester Research, a technology research firm in Massachusetts, doesn't expect the United States to reach South Korea's level of connectedness until at least 2010.
But by dint of their status in cyberspace, South Koreans may be providing the rest of the world with a scary glimpse of the future.
"What Korea is experiencing we might all be experiencing soon," said Edward Castronova, an Indiana University economist and author of the forthcoming "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games."
"This poor man's death could be a harbinger of just how powerful this fantasy world could become for many of us," Castronova said.
The most seductive games are known in the industry as massively multiplayer online role-playing games, in which more than 100,000 people around the globe can play at the same time.
In these virtual worlds, participants make friends and form alliances. Each creates an online persona who develops skills and can climb the social ladder--from serf to knight, say, medieval Europe being one of the more popular themes--and acquire virtual treasures such as a magic sword or castle.
South Korea's online gaming industry brings in revenue of $1.2 billion a year and has been growing about 25 percent annually, according to the trade association in Seoul. The country is pushing exports of its games to the United States, China, Japan and other markets.
Online gaming is taken seriously enough here that there are two cable channels devoted to the activity, professional players and "e-sport" tournaments. The best known is the World Cyber Games, which South Korea's Samsung Electronics has sponsored since 2000.
South Koreans are considered the world's most avid online gamers by far. In fact, a poll the government published in May found that online activities were more popular than television among South Koreans ages 9 to 39.
The games are thought to be especially appealing to South Koreans because they live in small apartments with little physical and psychological space of their own, said Castronova, who has studied the demographics of participants. Although people of both sexes and all ages play, most prevalent are lower-middle-class men in their 20s with unsatisfying professional lives.
"After all, wouldn't you rather be a spaceship captain than pouring lattes at Starbucks?" he said. "I think people recognize at least at a subconscious level that there is something subversive about these games."
Lee Seung Seop was a case in point. He grew up in Taegu, South Korea's fourth-largest city. His family was poor and lived in a shop they ran, a relative said. Lee attended a vocational college near home and after graduation moved in with a married older sister and her family. He worked in a drab, walk-up office that looked like a time capsule of the 1960s, with harsh fluorescent lighting and curling linoleum.
"He seemed like a very normal and ordinary guy," said Park Chul Jin, the office manager. "There was nothing odd about him except that he was a game addict. We all knew about it. He couldn't stop himself."
- - -
By the numbers
The recent death of a South Korean who collapsed after playing an online fantasy computer game for 50 continuous hours could be a glimpse into our future, some Internet observers say. Gaming is huge in South Korea, which is better-connected than the U.S.
75% Rough percentage of South Korean households with broadband connections
2010 The year the number of U.S. households with broadband is expected to reach the same level
$1.2 billion
The amount the South Korean online gaming industry brings in annually
25% The amount the South Korean gaming industry is growing annually
25,000 Internet cafes in South Korea
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
Dying to win? Passion turns tragic
In game-obsessed South Korea, some people don't know when to leave the cybercafe. For one man, the fantasy -- 50 hours of it -- was fatal.
By Barbara Demick
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published September 3, 2005
TAEGU, South Korea -- By day, Lee Seung Seop was a skinny guy who repaired industrial boilers.
But after work let out at 6 p.m., the 28-year-old would head to a nearby Internet cafe and enter a far more enticing virtual world populated by saber-toothed dragons and purple-haired women in metallic bodices.
Gradually the evenings stretched into nights and the nights into the dawning of the next day. Lee sometimes forgot to eat. He didn't sleep. He came into work later and later until his boss finally fired him.
One night, after a 50-hour binge playing an online game called "World of Warcraft," Lee collapsed and fell off his chair. He died a few hours later.
"He was so concentrated on his game that he forgot to eat and sleep. He died of heart failure brought on by exhaustion and dehydration," said Park Young Woo, a psychiatrist at Taegu Fatima Hospital, where Lee died.
Certainly, more people drop dead while eating dinner or having sex than playing online games. But Lee's death this month gained widespread notoriety, bolstering creeping fears among South Koreans that they've become hooked on the Internet.
South Korean authorities have linked several high-profile deaths to excessive Internet game playing. Some believe that cybercafes have in effect become the opium dens of the 21st Century, luring players into staying around the clock in disregard for their health and responsibilities.
In May, a 4-month-old girl left alone at home in Inchon died of suffocation while her parents were playing at an Internet cafe.
"We were thinking of playing for just an hour or two and returning home as usual, but the game took longer that day"--that's how a policeman was quoted in newspapers paraphrasing the parents. The couple were charged with involuntary manslaughter, police said.
Authorities seem mindful that they have a social problem in the making. This month, the government-run Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion began sending psychologists into cafes to warn players of the dangers. Players also are being handed questionnaires asking, for example, "Do you sometimes wish that what is happening in the games was your reality?"
Son Eun Suk, one of the psychologists visiting the cafes, believes that online gaming is potentially a bigger social problem than drugs or booze because people are unaware of its addictiveness.
"Parents and teachers lecture against drugs and alcohol, but they are very open to the Internet. They think their children are learning something about computers, and they allow them to play from a very young age," Son said.
South Korea boasts of being the most wired country in the world. Nearly three-quarters of its households have broadband connections, whereas the United States remains in the comparative Dark Ages, at about one-third. Forrester Research, a technology research firm in Massachusetts, doesn't expect the United States to reach South Korea's level of connectedness until at least 2010.
But by dint of their status in cyberspace, South Koreans may be providing the rest of the world with a scary glimpse of the future.
"What Korea is experiencing we might all be experiencing soon," said Edward Castronova, an Indiana University economist and author of the forthcoming "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games."
"This poor man's death could be a harbinger of just how powerful this fantasy world could become for many of us," Castronova said.
The most seductive games are known in the industry as massively multiplayer online role-playing games, in which more than 100,000 people around the globe can play at the same time.
In these virtual worlds, participants make friends and form alliances. Each creates an online persona who develops skills and can climb the social ladder--from serf to knight, say, medieval Europe being one of the more popular themes--and acquire virtual treasures such as a magic sword or castle.
South Korea's online gaming industry brings in revenue of $1.2 billion a year and has been growing about 25 percent annually, according to the trade association in Seoul. The country is pushing exports of its games to the United States, China, Japan and other markets.
Online gaming is taken seriously enough here that there are two cable channels devoted to the activity, professional players and "e-sport" tournaments. The best known is the World Cyber Games, which South Korea's Samsung Electronics has sponsored since 2000.
South Koreans are considered the world's most avid online gamers by far. In fact, a poll the government published in May found that online activities were more popular than television among South Koreans ages 9 to 39.
The games are thought to be especially appealing to South Koreans because they live in small apartments with little physical and psychological space of their own, said Castronova, who has studied the demographics of participants. Although people of both sexes and all ages play, most prevalent are lower-middle-class men in their 20s with unsatisfying professional lives.
"After all, wouldn't you rather be a spaceship captain than pouring lattes at Starbucks?" he said. "I think people recognize at least at a subconscious level that there is something subversive about these games."
Lee Seung Seop was a case in point. He grew up in Taegu, South Korea's fourth-largest city. His family was poor and lived in a shop they ran, a relative said. Lee attended a vocational college near home and after graduation moved in with a married older sister and her family. He worked in a drab, walk-up office that looked like a time capsule of the 1960s, with harsh fluorescent lighting and curling linoleum.
"He seemed like a very normal and ordinary guy," said Park Chul Jin, the office manager. "There was nothing odd about him except that he was a game addict. We all knew about it. He couldn't stop himself."
- - -
By the numbers
The recent death of a South Korean who collapsed after playing an online fantasy computer game for 50 continuous hours could be a glimpse into our future, some Internet observers say. Gaming is huge in South Korea, which is better-connected than the U.S.
75% Rough percentage of South Korean households with broadband connections
2010 The year the number of U.S. households with broadband is expected to reach the same level
$1.2 billion
The amount the South Korean online gaming industry brings in annually
25% The amount the South Korean gaming industry is growing annually
25,000 Internet cafes in South Korea
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Don't think Internet Cafes are annonymous zone
Karisma husband mail traced to cafe
The Telegraph , Calcutta
Mumbai, Aug. 31: A video game parlour owner who is believed to have threatened actor Karisma Kapoor’s estranged husband Sanjay Kapur has been arrested.
A special team of Delhi police raided Amit Cyber Cafe in Mulund in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs last night and caught Rajkumar Vajirchandani. The team informed the Mulund police station as a formality and escorted Vajirchandani to Delhi.
The game parlour owner is said to have sent a threatening e-mail demanding Rs 50 lakh from the Bollywood star’s Delhi-based husband.
Residents said Vajirchandani owned the Royalking Video Game Parlour in this Gujarati-dominated suburb of Mulund and regularly logged on to the Internet from the tiny Amit Cyber Cafe.
He also has an Internet connection at his parlour but the particular e-mail in which he threatened Kapur was traced to Amit Cyber Cafe.
“The Delhi police took him to the capital directly. We do not know anything about the case,” Mulund police officials said.
Mumbai police sources said Vajirchandani had no links with Karisma and her family.
“The man does not seem to have any connection with the Kapoor family. It is difficult to say why he sent that e-mail to Kapur. It is up to Delhi police to find out why he did it,” a senior crime branch officer said.
Last week, Kapur had lodged a complaint with the police in Delhi saying he had received threatening e-mails warning him of dire consequences if he did not pay Rs 50 lakh.
The threat came at a time when he had claimed before Delhi High Court that he had paid Karisma’s credit card and night club bills and also settled the dues of film producers.
The one-and-a-half-year-old marriage is on the rocks, with the couple now locked in a custody fight over their daughter Samaira, who was born in Mumbai in March.
The Telegraph , Calcutta
Mumbai, Aug. 31: A video game parlour owner who is believed to have threatened actor Karisma Kapoor’s estranged husband Sanjay Kapur has been arrested.
A special team of Delhi police raided Amit Cyber Cafe in Mulund in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs last night and caught Rajkumar Vajirchandani. The team informed the Mulund police station as a formality and escorted Vajirchandani to Delhi.
The game parlour owner is said to have sent a threatening e-mail demanding Rs 50 lakh from the Bollywood star’s Delhi-based husband.
Residents said Vajirchandani owned the Royalking Video Game Parlour in this Gujarati-dominated suburb of Mulund and regularly logged on to the Internet from the tiny Amit Cyber Cafe.
He also has an Internet connection at his parlour but the particular e-mail in which he threatened Kapur was traced to Amit Cyber Cafe.
“The Delhi police took him to the capital directly. We do not know anything about the case,” Mulund police officials said.
Mumbai police sources said Vajirchandani had no links with Karisma and her family.
“The man does not seem to have any connection with the Kapoor family. It is difficult to say why he sent that e-mail to Kapur. It is up to Delhi police to find out why he did it,” a senior crime branch officer said.
Last week, Kapur had lodged a complaint with the police in Delhi saying he had received threatening e-mails warning him of dire consequences if he did not pay Rs 50 lakh.
The threat came at a time when he had claimed before Delhi High Court that he had paid Karisma’s credit card and night club bills and also settled the dues of film producers.
The one-and-a-half-year-old marriage is on the rocks, with the couple now locked in a custody fight over their daughter Samaira, who was born in Mumbai in March.
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