The Top Science Stories of 2002 [Scientific American]
2:25:22 PM  #   your two cents []

Time's People of the Year are three women: the whistleblowers at Enron, WorldCom and the FBI.
2:23:20 PM  #   your two cents []

Here's EXACTLY WHY you should let the Irish Government know you object to the proposed Data Retention and surveillance law being prepared by Minister Michael McDowell and the Department of Justice: Irish police have been trying to acquire telephone records from months back in a search for the informant who leaked damaging information on police corruption in Donegal to two members of the Dail (Irish parliament). This is what the Irish Independent story says today:

CITIZENS should have the right to give confidential information to their TDs without fear of the Garda trying to find out who they are, Labour TD Brendan Howlin said last night.

His comment followed revelations that gardai have sought his telephone and fax records - and those of Fine Gael senator Jim Higgins - to find the source of their information on allegations of Garda corruption in Co Donegal.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has strongly criticised ongoing demands by gardai for access to the records [my emphasis] as an unprecedented challenge to Oireachtas members' abilities to carry out their duties.

"If the gardai establish a right of access to telephone records of TDs and senators, what will be the next step," he asked.

In 1992 Mr Justice Liam Hamilton gave a ruling, later upheld by the Supreme Court, that Oireachtas members not only had a right, but an obligation, to protect confidential sources of information.

Note that the ruling says NOTHING about private citizens or, say, corporate whistle-blowers passing on such information to, say, journalists or government watchdog bodies. In essence, while Dail members' phone records might be protected, your existing similar rights to privacy would potentially cease to exist if the police (the ones who would, under the suggested new law, have the right to sign a request for your email, fax, phone, mobile and web-surfing records) decided to investigate. It would be very easy for law enforcement to obtain such records from a compliant official in charge of such records -- and it has been done before, as numerous documented cases internationally have shown.

Ironically, the Minister told the Irish Times over the weekend that he supported the deputies' right to refuse to hand over their phone records. From the Times story:

The Minister for Justice has supported the view of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that the Garda should not ask two senior politicians to reveal their sources relating to alleged corruption within the force in Donegal...

...Meanwhile, the two politicians involved, the Wexford Labour TD, Mr Brendan Howlin, and the former Mayo Fine Gael TD and current senator, Mr Jim Higgins, remain adamant that they will not meet the Garda request that they hand over telephone and fax records of contacts with their sources.

Mr Howlin and Mr Higgins, as their respective parties' justice spokesmen, alerted the then minister for justice, Mr O'Donoghue, to information they had received about the alleged corruption.

Describing the request as "extraordinary," Mr Howlin said yesterday: "What is at stake here is whether members of the public have a right to communicate with their elected representatives in the national parliament without fear of personal cost or not.

"We have been through this before. During the beef tribunal, both Deputies Rabbitte and Spring fought this principle in the Supreme Court, and it was established that deputies had not only a right but a duty to protect members of the public providing information as long as we acted responsibly." He added that the issue at the heart of the matter was Garda corruption, and it behoved the Garda to act extraordinarily carefully.

Can we also then build in similar protections for citizens who try, in other ways than informing a TD, to protect the public interest?

10:40:08 AM  #   your two cents []

From The Shifted Librarian: Disruptive Technologies For Next 5 Years

"America's Network magazine, the publication serving to telecom industry, takes a look at the disruptive technologies over the next five years. Disruptive, naturally, for telecom industry. Virtual keyboards, DWDM, broadband connections using powerlines, wearable computers, free-space optics, low-power devices, UltraWideBand, voice over 802.11b and numerous others are discussed, as well as their potential for development over the next five years." [Slashdot]

My whole blog is about how these technologies will be disruptive for libraries and how we need to start preparing and adapting now.

10:24:10 AM  #   your two cents []

Frederick L Collins. "There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'" [Quotes of the Day]
10:23:18 AM  #   your two cents []

Many Tools of Big Brother Are Already Up and Running. The Pentagon's effort to detect terrorism by electronically monitoring could rely largely on technology that is already in place. [New York Times: Technology]
10:21:49 AM  #   your two cents []

Dvorak: Linux too much like Windows [Slashdot]
10:21:25 AM  #   your two cents []

Cyberspace Artists Paint Themselves Into a Corner. An Internet provider called "The Thing" which offers bandwidth to New York artists and arts organizations may lose its own pipeline, thanks to problems with copyright piracy. [New York Times: Technology]
10:20:55 AM  #   your two cents []

Going Electronic, Denver Reveals Long-Term Surveillance. Hailed widely as a major tool in the war against terrorism, police intelligence software has its pitfalls.  [New York Times: Technology]
10:19:47 AM  #   your two cents []

Critics Weigh In on Copyright Act. The U.S. Copyright Office asked for public comment on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and it got it. Critics worry about everything from losing great art to restricting blind people's access to information.  [Wired News]
10:18:30 AM  #   your two cents []