internet

Back in February I penned a blog about human sex trafficking, a hidden crime that is affecting our local communities and countries at large, an ugly part of our world, that is now a multi-billion dollar industry and growing exponentially. My blog garnered a lot of hits and the response gave me the sense that the general public is very concerned about this crime. I mention this because I was saddened and shocked to hear that Craigslist is again in the news, cited as being a "haven for prostitution and sex trafficking."

Just last month, the media network News Corporation caused some contention as it implemented an online subscription system for The Times and Sunday Times – two of the UK’s most widely read papers¹. In an interview, NC’s Chief Executive, Rupert Murdoch said - “we can no longer afford to give away news for free.” It’s a fair point – newspapers have come up against a whole ran

Gyongyos, Hungary -- While running for a parliamentary seat in Hungary's April elections, far-right candidate Gabor Vona made one campaign promise that was controversial even by his standards: If voted into parliament, the 31-year-old extremist would report for duty wearing the insignia of his outlawed paramilitary organization, the "Hungarian Guard" -- a taboo symbol that, with its ancient, red-and-white-striped emblem, bears a striking resemblance to the flag of Hungary's Nazi-era fascist party, Arrow Cross.

It's been a busy newsworthy year for Canada, and we are in the international headlines again. After an extended proroguing of parliament and hosting the Olympics, Canada is also hosting both the G8 and G20 summits. From all media reports, we are hearing about increased security which has been heightened and put into place, more than 700 new security cameras installed, and the downtown core has already been designated into a tight red zone area.

The BBC put out some cool visual graphs on the type of sites people check for the most while online. Users were charted in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, U.S., and Australia.

Check out BBC for a complete breakdown.

Via Fast Company

You may not suspect it, but the Middle East is pretty wired these days. Increasingly so, in fact. By some estimates, the region has the second fastest-growing Internet market in the world. Around 60 percent of Arab youths between 18 - 24 use computers on a regular basis. Four out of five own mobile phones.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev covered a lot of ground in his annual state-of-the-nation address on Thursday, but the after-speech reports were dominated by talk of time zones, YouTube clips and the body language of Vladimir Putin.

Last Monday, Yahoo pulled the plug on their once-popular GeoCities network.  If you surfed the web in the late 1990s, then you probably visited your share of GeoCities sites, a big part of the reason Yahoo paid $3 billion for GeoCities back in 1999 (GeoCities were once the third most-popular Web destination).  The idea of GeoCities was that individual sites were grouped by theme into virtual “cities” – for example, Wall Street was the “city” for business-themed pages – it was a forerunner to the social networking sites that would eventually replace it.

What might have been the outcome of the 1979 Iranian Revolution had it been seen on YouTube?

Just take a look at this clip from YouTube contributor houmank of recent demonstrations in the city of Shiraz, Iran. Notice how many video cameras and cell phones are out taking pictures and video! They are everywhere!