Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
I’ve written before about my dislike of “the cloud.” The term implies that there aren’t specific actors doing specific things with data, which will tend to weaken people’s impression that they have rights and obligations when using or providing cloud services. We’re talking privacy problems. When “cloud” services fail, the results can be widespread and [...]
The cloud won’t grow quite the way Berin notes, at least not if I can help it. As the ongoing T-Mobile Sidekick failure shows, if you release your data to “the cloud,” you give up control. In this case, giving up control means giving up your data. (Speculation about what happened is here.) When you [...]
This Microsoft-funded study projects that, by 2013, cloud computing will have added $800 billion in net new business revenues for the 52 countries surveyed (over 2009 levels). The growing economic importance of the cloud is likely to increase pressure for government involvement. As President Reagan said: “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up [...]
Come one, come all. ACT will be hosting a lunch event next Tuesday (June 23) at noon on privacy, free software, and government procurement. We’ll discuss “free” software (ie. no license fees, free as in beer). It’s a nuanced take on some of what Chris Anderson will surely be talking about in his upcoming book [...]
Earlier this month, Google made news when it announced that its cloud computing productivity suite Google Docs had suffered a technical glitch that temporarily compromised a subset of users’ shared documents. After becoming aware of this glitch, Google notified its users via email and posted an entry to the Official Google Docs Blog that offered [...]
I hate the term “cloud computing” because it denies the duties and responsibilities of network operators and software and database managers. It’s like a George Carlin bit: “I didn’t breach the data. The cloud did it! It was out in the cloud! How did the government get my private data? It got it from the [...]
I just finished reading through The Economist’s new 14-page special report on cloud computing, “Let It Rise” in which Ludwig Siegele provides an outstanding overview of cloud computing and why it is so important: The rise of the cloud is more than just another platform shift that gets geeks excited. It will undoubtedly transform the [...]
Coincident with the news of a few days ago that Microsoft is embracing the Web even for its longtime PC-centric OS and apps, The Economist has a big special report on “cloud computing,” including articles on: “The Evolution of Data Centres“ “Software as a Service“ “Connecting to the Cloud“ “The Economics of the Cloud“ The [...]
Earlier this year, I mentioned an outstanding book that John Palfrey of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School co-edited entitled Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering. It’s an excellent resource for anyone studying the methods governments are (unfortunately) using to stifle online expression across the globe. [...]
The introduction below was originally written by Berin Szoka, but now that I (Adam Marcus) am a full-fledged TLF member, I have taken authorship. Adam Marcus, our exceptionally tech-savvy new research assistant at PFF, has published his first piece at the PFF blog, which I reprint here for your edification. Today Google’s DC office hosted an [...]
February 14, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
