Ending anonymity: the Korean identity system “debacle”

I already mentioned the problems of online bullying happening in Korea (the (online) persecution of Daniel Lee, Korea’s top actress commits suicide amid rumors, Cyberviolence in Korea), and the government’s response which consisted in imposing a “real identity” system (update on Korea’s online identity system). Ars Technica is giving us an update, which is that the system will be.. abandoned!

The best argument against laws requiring websites to use “real name” policies is South Korea’s disastrous experiment with requiring websites to collect the real names of users who post content. Freedom House told the story in a recent report:

In 2007, the internet real-name registration system was expanded to apply to any website with more than 100,000 visitors per day. Users are required to verify their identities by submitting their Resident Registration Numbers (RRNs) when they wish to join and contribute to web portals and other major sites. As RRNs are assigned only to Korean citizens at birth, foreign nationals must individually contact webmasters to confirm their identities. This included the video-sharing website YouTube, but the site’s U.S.-based parent company, Google, refused to ask its Korean customers for their RRNs. Instead, it has blocked users from uploading content onto YouTube Korea. Users are able to bypass the restriction by changing their location setting to “worldwide.” Even the Korean presidential office maintains its YouTube channel in this way.

Trying to quell extremist views by preventing them from being expressed anonymously simply isn’t going to work. The Web is a big place; no government on Earth has the reach to completely eliminate anonymous forums from the Internet. Trying to suppress anonymous posting of extremist views just forces them underground, reinforcing extremists’ persecution complex and making them even more disconnected from mainstream political debates.

After a barrage of criticism, the South Korean government has finally announced plans to abandon the system. This recent decision came in the wake of a major security breach in which information about 35 million users was reportedly stolen from two popular websites.

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Social networks “are creating a vain generation of self-obsessed people with child-like need for feedback”

I am afraid the following claims contain a certain level of truth, despite the sensational tone that forces the reader to take the whole piece carefully. I am convinced there is a form of addiction to social feedback, and that we are just starting to find out the extent of changes this will trigger “in real life”.

Let’s wait and see if other “top scientists” back these claims. I still find it amazing that there are not more studies on social networks users, and the impact on actual social life. Have you seen such research?

Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives, a top scientist believes.

Repeated exposure to social networking sites leaves users with an ‘identity crisis’, wanting attention in the manner of a toddler saying: ‘Look at me, Mummy, I’ve done this.’

Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, believes the growth of internet ‘friendships’ – as well as greater use of computer games – could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain.

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Why countries should innovate

Two recent examples of why, as a country, you should always try to take the lead on technological innovation.

The first comes from the recent ICANN decision on allowing “.anything” domain names. A US organization decides what is possible or not for the internet, puts a process in place that will force all the world’s companies to bid for their own names at the price of 185’000$ a pop. Most countries must be wishing they had more input on the way the internet’s address system is working.

 The organization that governs the Domain Name System, ICANN, voted this week to launch the new application process for an unlimited number of new top-level domains, despite lingering doubts and objections from trademark owners and others. This has been controversial, first, because many believe that ICANN has failed to justify the need for new top-level domains; second, because some fear that an explosion of new registries will threaten internet security; and third, because of the vast headaches it will cause brand owners who will face increased costs of monitoring and dealing with cybersquatting. ICANN‘s press release calls the development “historic” and “one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet’s Domain Name System.”

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The second example comes from the list of content removal requests from governments Google received over the past semester. LeMonde has interesting facts on the rate of approval these requests receive.

 The US dominate the rankings, with 4061 requests of which 94% received a response. Brazil is second, with 1804 requests of which 76% received a partial or complete answer, followed by India with 1699 requests (79% of response), UK (1162 requests, 72% response) and France (1021 requests, 56% responses).

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If Google was French, would the government have more success on its requests, from 56% up to what the US get (94%)? Probably.

This shows again that for governments, it is critical to understand the impact of technology much faster, because these tools inevitably end up having an effect on our daily lives. Innovating is the only way to “control” progress. It reminds me of the old law of online conversation: you can’t control it, so improve it. Become a better voice to become the voice that will be in charge tomorrow. Let’s hope this important lesson of the first phase of the digital revolution will be learned.

Radio interviews: social networks and cyber democracy

I was invited by the national radio to discuss social media (with Yan Luong) and cyber democracy (with Jean-Christophe Schwaab). Both interviews are in French:

Comment les réseaux changent l’info
Des sites internet proposent une information à la carte, basée sur les flux des réseaux sociaux. Une alternative aux médias “traditionnels”? Ceux-ci veulent investir les réseaux, mais la concurrence est rude…

Avec Yann Luong, responsable des relations en ligne pour la RTS, Laurent Haug, fondateur des Conférences Lift sur les implications sociales des changements technologiques, et Sylvain Lafrance, vice-président de Radio-Canada.

MP3

Forum: Sécurité informatique
Elle y a travaillé pendant près de trois ans et demi, la Chancellerie fédérale a enfin sorti son rapport sur la cyberdémocratie et la cyberparticipation. Un document de 40 pages sensé donner au Conseil fédéral une vision claire de l’Internet d’aujourd’hui et l’aider à utiliser, à prendre en compte les outils web d’aujourd’hui. L’analyse de Magali Philip. Débat avec Jean-Christophe Schwab, secrétaire central USS député socialiste vaudois et Laurent Haug, fondateur des conférences LIFT.

MP3

The ambitious job titles of the bubble years

Following up on my brief history of internet hype (updated timeline here), Emily Turrettini sent me a link to a presentation she gave on the bubble years. I like this particular excerpt on the titles entrepreneurs were giving themselves during the euphoria of 1998-2001:

Tim Roberts — Chief Visionary Officer — Broadband Investment Group

David Roberts — Chief Zaplet — FireDrop Inc.

Sheri Falco — Chief Catalyst — Libida.com

John Sculley — Chief Listener — Apple Computer

Dark Jedi—Organic Inc.

Code Therapist — Organic Inc.

Duchess of Chaos — Netscape Communications Corp

Virtual Reality Evangelist — Silicon Graphics

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The history of Internet hype

I am working on a slide retracing the history of Internet/Web hype. Remember the “you need a second life island” days, or the “portal” phenomena? What were the things you HAD to have as an organization or business to survive on the Internet? Did it work out (Facebook, Twitter), did it dissolve in the rest of the web (homepage, blog, portal) or did it falter (MySpace, RSS)?

Please help me add what is missing via email or comments!

[Updated image following your feedback, click to enlarge]

First version:

The Internet’s Top Challenges

Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington, John Battelle and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone are among the Webby award judges who shared their idea of what are the Internet’s top challenges. No real surprises, and I would add the reappearance of the major incompatibilities between platforms – especially in mobile – that remind me of the early days of the web, when a website had to be coded carefully for incompatible browsers like Netscape and Internet Exporer.

Protecting Privacy
The Internet’s great trade-off is that while you get access to the rest of the world, the rest of the world gets access to you. The data collected can add value to the online experience through customized content and advertising – but such an extensive record of personal information can pose risks to consumers. The industry must take steps to demystify the privacy debate by establishing global standards, providing transparent policies, and educating consumers on its practices.

Modernizing Copyright Laws
Is it ok to copy an album and give it to a friend? How many paragraphs should one quote from an online news article? Will we ever be able to pass along an e-book to a colleague? As the Web enters its third decade, the answers to these questions remain unclear. The Internet’s power as a medium through which creators can distribute their work continues to grow, yet the current copyright laws are hopelessly out of date. For the Internet to fulfill its potential, new and modernized copyright laws must reflect the current relationship between technology and creativity.

Ensuring Net Neutrality
Ensuring that all Internet traffic is treated equally – meaning that data from Amazon.com and data from a teenager’s blog move along the pipeline at the same speed – is a worthy and complicated goal. Industry leaders and policymakers need to come together and identify solutions that will guarantee fair treatment of all Internet traffic. However, these solutions must also provide ISPs with enough flexibility to efficiently manage their networks and services.

Maintaining the Open Web
From commenting on articles and sharing videos to crowd-sourcing and user-generated content, the Internet’s interactivity and communal power is what makes it such a vibrant and useful medium. While social networks and mobile apps offer rich, interactive, and customized experiences, many of their features are often sheltered from the rest of the Web. If the Internet as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, we must do a better job of maintaining interconnectivity.

Strengthening Internet Security
Until recently, there has been little examination of the consequences of storing large amounts of proprietary information online. The recent spate of high-level incidents – from WikiLeaks to China’s hacking of the Internet – has made the perils of weak online security a tangible issue. Everyone, from governments and businesses to universities and individuals, must re-evaluate how they share, store, and publish sensitive information on the Internet – take steps to ensure it is protected.

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More weak signals on media

Amazon sold more e-books than paper books:

Amazon noted that on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, Amazon customers bought more Kindle books than physical books. The company didn’t offer specific numbers for either category.

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This should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the Kindle was the most gifted item of the year, and all the owners fired up their device to promptly order books. So this is clearly an abherration, but still an interesting milestone. Coming after the recent news that online advertising surpassed TV in the UK:

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The e-somethings are finally coming into their own, fulfilling the promises made back in the 90s. Took some 20 years but we are getting there.

Truth + counter truth = emptiness

Great interview (in French, my English translation below) of Umberto Eco about books, the internet, innovation and knowledge:

Ce qui forme une culture n’est pas la conservation mais le filtrage. Il y a du hasard dans la façon dont les oeuvres sont parvenues jusqu’à nous. Nous ne saurons jamais si, parmi les quatre mille rouleaux qui ont brûlé dans la bibliothèque d’Alexandrie à l’Antiquité, ne se trouvait pas un chef-d’oeuvre de l’humanité plus immense qu’Homère. [...] Notre culture est ainsi le produit de ce qui a survécu à des filtres plus ou moins hasardeux, incendies volontaires ou non, censures, ratés, pertes… [...] Et Internet est le scandale d’une mémoire sans filtrage, où l’on ne distingue plus l’erreur de la vérité. Au final, cela produit aussi un effacement de la mémoire.

Il existe une sorte de Larousse encyclopédique admis par tout le monde, même si celui d’un homme de 70 ans est plus fourni que celui d’un jeune de 25 ans. Internet peut signifier à terme la mise en miettes de ce Larousse commun au profit de six milliards d’encyclopédies, chaque individu se construisant la sienne, chacun pouvant à loisir préférer Ptolémée à Copernic, le récit de la Genèse à l’évolution des espèces. Nous courons le risque d’une incommunicabilité complète, l’impossibilité d’un savoir universel…

[[What created culture is not conservation but filtering. There's randomness in how the works have reached us. We will never know if, among the four thousand scrolls burned in the library of Alexandria in ancient times was not a masterpiece of humanity greater than Homer. [...] Our culture is thus the product of what has survived filters more or less hasardous, censorship, failures, losses … [...] And the Internet is the scandal of a memory without filtering, where we can no longer distinguish the truth from error. Finally, it also produces an erasure of memory.

There is a kind of encyclopedia accepted by everyone, even if a man of 70 years knows more than a 25 year old. Internet could mean the eventual demise of the common encyclopedia, replaced by six billion encyclopedias, each individual constructing his own, each of which may prefer leisure to Ptolemy to Copernicus, the story of Genesis to the evolution of species. We run the risk of an inability to communicate, the impossibility of a universal knowledge]

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It’s a vast question: is the internet helping standardize knowledge (and therefore unifying it), or is it tearing us all apart into our own encyclopedias? Will society accept that, even if archiving everything is technically possible, it is neither wishable nor something mandatory to the creation of a culture?

Worldchanging’s Attention Philanthropy campaign

I have been offered the chance to send an attention grant on WorldChanging, a nice initiative by Alex Steffen and his team centered around attention philanthropy. “In a noisy world, deluged in advertising, overrun with PR flacks and crowded with the superficial, one of the biggest barriers to success for a small, good idea or noble enterprise can simply be getting noticed in the first place.”

I decided to spotlight the work of Baba Wamé, who is working in Cameroon to raise awareness on the dangers of online dating for the women of his country.

Baba Wamé: Award-Winning Work to End Human Trafficking

WorldChanging Team
July 6, 2009 7:35 AM

Nominated by Laurent Haug.

I can say I have seen my share of great ideas and people in the past four years, with close to 200 speakers attending Lift. One guy stands out when I think of someone I want to send a bit of spotlight to: Baba Wamé.

I found him when I stumbled on his thesis on the impact of dating websites on Camerounese society. He is from a country where men pile up on boats to escape –- with the tragic consequences we know –- while some women, supported and encouraged by their families, use the Internet as a way to find a husband, leave the country, and support their loved ones through money transfers.

In the cynical world we live in, such an access to young and desperate women did not remain unexploited for long, and only 15 percent of women form a real marriage. The rest end up being prostituted, their passport in the hands of a random pimp.

Our western tools have an impact beyond our borders, not always positive. Baba helps us understand that, and is now setting up –- in part thanks to a grant he won at Lift –- an association to inform women in his country of the dangers of online dating. Visit his website to learn more.

Wamé’s Lift09 talk in English

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