On this episode of Spark: Broken Realities, Net Delusions and The Kill Switch. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
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Shuttering The Internet
We talk a lot about internet freedom and accessibility here on Spark: the role it plays in social relationships, the exchange of ideas, how it’s a place for entertainment, a place for innovation and exploration. But recent events in Egypt have made us realize that the internet is also a place we take for granted. Nora speaks with Ron Deibert, the director of The Citizen Lab and The Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the University of Toronto. (Runs 13:31)
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The Net Delusion
It’s easy to champion the internet as a free and open place for discourse and innovation, a place that is inherently democratic. But in his latest book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, Evgeny Morozov warns of the dangers of the internet becoming a tool for repressive governments to use for censorship and surveillance. Prescient in the wake of recent events in Egypt. (Runs 9:05)
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- Evgeny Morozov
- The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom
- Full uncut version of interview with Evgeny Morozov
The Artist In The Digital Age
Digital technology seems to have change baked right into it and right now artists are seeing not only their livelihoods, but their creative worlds reshaped. How do you get your head around what those changes mean for how you create. Chris Eaton is a musician and an author, who has had to embrace the digital world in order for his art to get out there. (Runs 6:43)
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New Business Models For Publishing
The evolving digital world is changing how the book industry does business. But what do these new business models look like? Mike Masnick is the founder and CEO of Techdirt – a blog that focuses on technology news, tech-related issues, and new business models for the digital age. We talk to him about how the literary world must now adapt in much the same way the music industry had to. (Runs 7:41)
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Reality Is Broken
Video Games have long been a means for escape. But in the past 30 years they’ve evolved into something much more, a way of facing reality rather than escaping it. Games can help us address some of our most personal and political challenges. Jane McGonigal talks about her new book Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and how we can find solutions to reality’s major problems – things like poverty, political struggle and world peace – by designing reality more like a game. (Runs 10:07)
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- Jane McGonigal
- Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
- Full uncut version of interview with Jane McGonigal
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When I heard the full interview by Evgeny Morozov I kept thinking, "Well, of course". I had to remind myself that so many people think of technology, and not just the Internet, as being "magic". They don't see the real-world infrastructure that goes into these technologies, and don't spent the time to watch how governments regulate this technology.
I've spent much of my volunteer time, even more in the last decade, dedicated to the question of how governments regulate technology.
I'm glad the hypocrisy of the west (and not just the USA — Canada is just as bad) when it comes to the regulation of communications technology was discussed. Each country has their own justifications for limiting citizen control of or access to communications technology. In western countries "copyright" is often abused as an excuse, but the fact the government falsely alleges this excessive regulation of technology will help creators get paid doesn't make it any more valid than the reasons foreign governments offer.
Jane McGoniga's definition of a game makes me wonder if my volunteer policy work counts. I've never had much of an interest in board or computer games, but maybe where I spend so much of my volunteer time suggests something different.
I don't know if it is just the particular stuff I'm listening to lately, but it seems that "games" are becoming rather elusive things. For the longest time, I equated the word "game" to be a video game, but given the increasing applications of "game-like" mentalities to things, a game can pretty much become any social interaction with opposing(?) sides.
By this definition, a video game would be the same sort of thing, only with the interaction happening over a digital interface or with a computer surrogating for a second person. Of course, I know too many people who think games should become the equal of the modern novel. The reasoning for this is that most multiplayer games have a limited lifespan when it comes to online services — the game cannot go on if the infrastructure can't be kept running. But if the "novel" approach is favored over the social approach, game design will become much more limited in scope.
Wasn't there that one philosophy professor who wrote about games in social contexts…? Who was he… I think the book was called "Infinite and Finite Games" or something.
Banned from Google for LIFE!
I had an eye opening experience in the "broken realities" category during the past week.
Google has now banned me for life from add words, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I am a photographer who thought that using Google's adwords might be a good way to attract new customers to my web site ( http://www.PerfectPhoto.CA ). But when I logged in to try and use an Adwords account, that I created about two years ago, there was a big red message there saying that my account had been "permanently suspended for repeated violation of policies".
After a frustrating week of emails back and forth with the Google support staff, trying to get to the bottom of this, they eventually indicated it had to do with a website that I have no connection with. The harder I tried to explain (in a calm and polite way), they less they wanted to do with me, until their final message which said that there was nothing they can do and I should stop emailing their support staff…
As near as I can tell, this came about from some activities that occurred two years ago, while taking an online course, which took me into the world of ClickBank. While there I setup a few different ad types for a few days to get a feel for the process and then lost interest in it. Since that time Google has come to realize that one of the sites that I happened to use during my course (related to Foreign Exchange) is a "Get rich quick scheme”, which is against Google's rules.
So, what it my point?
Advertisers who may be building advertising campaigns around Google's Adwords should be very aware that Google can stop your campaign instantly for any reason that they want (as per their terms and conditions). Once they do this (I have found many others in my situation) there is NOTHING that you can do about it. Be very careful what you say and do when using Adwords.
A life-time ban seems pretty extreme to me (especially considering that the site was not considered bad by Google at the time I ran the adwords ad).
I heard in the news yesterday of Athletes who received a 5-year suspension for drug doping, and murder's getting less than 20-years.
Google is black and white – a life sentence.
- Rob vanNostrand, Photographer, Enfield, Nova Scotia
Google's policy in this situation mirrors the established rights of print publishers. There are cases of newspapers being within their rights to refuse to run ads from anyone they want. I believe one prominent one involved the Vancouver Sun about 20 years back.
From the story you outline above, it sounds like Google needs to establish some kind of ombuds office. Then again, there's really nothing stopping you from creating a new Google account and starting over again — a tried and true strategy of millions of spammers everywhere.
My last thought on this is that folks would do well to better-guard their 'real' identities when fiddling with technology. I use a different user account for almost all my transaction and tie them back to my private persona, which I very rarely give to any online service.
Re. games and reality, using gamers to solve real-world problems, I was struck by the similarity to a couple of SF plots: Marc Stiegler's "Earthweb", and of course the classic "Ender's Game". Ender thinks he is playing a game, but in reality is commanding real soldiers who destroy an entire alien world (thus saving humanity, but he is still racked by guilt when he realizes he's been tricked). We almost have the technology now – online gamers could find themselves attacking real-world targets in Afghanistan with remote-controlled drones and robots, or inadvertently committing real-world crimes when their virtual-world target turns out to be a real-world bank or person.
Is the Internet westernized? Will it be a force of change? People in the west need to remember when contemplating the East that people there have different mind sets. In Iran a man, Saeed Malekpour, is on death row for running obscene websites.