Deja Vu
The Deja Vu web emulator gives browsers the chance to re-live an era in the history of the web -- see what the web looked like through Mosaic, Lynx and other early web browsers.

The Swipe Toolkit
"The Swipe Toolkit is a collection of web-based tools that sheds light on personal data collection and usage practices in the United States. The tools demonstrate the value of personal information on the open market and enable people to access information encoded on a driver's license or stored in some of the many commercial data warehouses. Check out the Data Calculator, which shows how much your personal info is worth, and how the data brokers get it. It's all part of the Swipe Project, which will be on exhibition at UC-Irvine in March."

Treasury breaks word on e-mail anonymity
"After receiving around 10 thousand comments about a government proceeding and after promising not to reveal personal info from those comments online, the US Treasury department decided to post email addresses of those who commented online."

[How in the world to you expect online businesses to stick to their privacy statementswhen government agencies don't!?]

Study refutes 'Net geeks' repute
"The typical Internet user has plenty of friends, an active social life and would rather read a good book or log on than watch TV, according to a report by UCLA's World Internet Project, which surveyed Net users and non-users in 14 countries to come up with its results. The image of Net users as socializers contradicts the stereotype of propeller- head "geeks" who spend their days (and nights) hunched over their keyboards, shunning human contact. The study did, however, reinforce some other demographic trends, including the fact that wealthier people tend to be more avid users, and that men outnumber women on the Net, although those figures vary by country, with Italy exhibiting the largest gender gap and Taiwan the smallest. Meanwhile, the digital divide -- the phrase widely used to describe the disparity in Internet usage between rich and poor -- appears to be narrowing around the world. Sweden, Korea and the U.S. had the largest number of low-income users."

[Been trying to tell the media this for nearly ten years. Would they listen? of course not. They had "spin" to sell.]

That "Parent-Child Conversation Is Becoming Instant, and Online
Instant messaging, long a part of teenagers' lives, is working its way into the broader fabric of the American family."

Web opens up for learning disabled
"New software that will make websites accessible to people with learning difficulties will go on sale later this year. The software can translate websites using the Rebus symbol system. The system, called Communicate Webwise, automatically turns information on pages into symbols or plain text. The developer, Widgit Software, says it can process most web pages, except those containing complicated java or flash components. "

The town that turned off BT
"The residents of one Yorkshire town got so fed up with being passed over for broadband access that they set up Britain's first ISP cooperative."

Information Technology in Developing Countries...
"is a Newsletter of the International Federation and Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 9.4 which deals with social implications of computers in developing countries. The Newsletter is in its 10th year of publication and has been reaching 750 subscribers and 45 libraries in 40 countries. The readership consists of IT professionals, academics and administrators concerned with IT policy. The newsletter carries articles on IT applications in developing countries which have created a socio-economic impact; evaluation of National policies on IT and telecommunications sectors and paradigms to understand the impact of IT on development. Conferences relevant to the developing countries are announced and reviews of such conferences and books are carried."

DHL Delivers Help for the Great Apes of Tropical Africa
"Some of the most ill-equipped offices in the world, where staff are in the front line in the battle to save the great apes from extinction, are being brought into the computer age courtesy of DHL, one of the world's leading express and logistics company."

China tightens net around online dissenters, 30,000 web police are thought to be monitoring chatrooms and sites
"The Chinese government is using an increasingly heavy hand to try to silence the growing whispers of opposition on the web, according to Amnesty International, which says 54 people had been arrested for disseminating their beliefs through the internet by December - a 60% increase on the previous year. Their alleged crimes include organising online political petitions, proselytising for the outlawed Falun Gong movement, and spreading "rumours" about AIDS and SARS. They face sentences of between two and 12 years in prison. Four have died in detention and there are reports of torture."

Microsoft in human rights row, Gates's firm supplied technology used to trap Chinese dissidents, says Amnesty
"Technology sold by Microsoft to the Chinese government has been used by Beijing to censor the internet, and resulted in the jailing of its political opponents. An Amnesty International report has cited Microsoft among a clutch of leading computer firms heavily criticised for helping to fuel 'a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for internet-related offences'. Amnesty believes Microsoft is in violation of a new United Nations Human Rights code for multinationals which says businesses should 'seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights'."

THE REBEL ALLIANCE
"An unlikely army of hacker hippies, geek visionaries, idealistic teachers and corporate giants is making Portland ground zero of a digital revolution."

The Internet's Role in Politics: Ex-Manager Says Web Support Failed Dean in Crunch
"Internet activism that thrust up the Howard Dean U.S. election campaign later hobbled the organization's ability to respond to criticism in the weeks before the primaries, Dean's former campaign manager said on Monday."

Fugitive caught after his date Googles him
"After eluding authorities from coast to coast for more than a year, LaShawn Pettus-Brown finally made a mistake last week in New York City: He made a date with a woman who knew how to Google."

Selling Gadgets to Women
"SAN JOSE, Calif. - The sea of big-screen TVs at the electronics store may still be tuned to football games and NASCAR (news - web sites) races, but smart marketers are learning that testosterone doesn't necessarily control the purse strings.

Women actually spent more on technology last year than men, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. It says women accounted for $55 billion of the $96 billion spent on electronics gear.

But electronics stores have been slow to catch on. Nearly three- quarters of women surveyed by the industry group complained about being ignored, patronized or offended by sales people when shopping for electronics.

Forty percent of the women said they were treated better when accompanied by a man. And more than half said advertisements for electronics were confusing - though half the men surveyed felt the same way."

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