Mexico, three times the size of Texas..... is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and the second most populous country in Latin America after Portuguese speaking Brazil. Narcotics-related violence took the lives of 8,000 individuals in 2009, with over half killed in states along the US border. New estimates suggest 29,000 have died since President Calderon took office in December 2006. President Calderon has made combating organized crime a priority of his administration and to that end, has deployed the Mexican military to 10 Mexican states to assist (or replace) the weak and often corrupt local and state... Continue reading

In an article from the News Daily in Mexico City, posted through Reuters, it was reported last month that Mexico's main television networks and other news groups had vowed to put tighter controls on the publication of of gruesome images from a drugs war that has hurt President Felipe Calderon's government. Calderon has criticized Mexico's media for publishing the threats , and occasionally showing grainy images of hitmen interrogating tied-up enemies before executing them. A New York Times article this past December, discusssing diplomatic leaks (Wikileaks), mentioned that President Obama had called the leader of Mexico regarding the leaked cables... Continue reading

Turkey's English daily newspaper, Harriyet, reported last week that tensions were again rising over whether Turkey's press is free or not. In January of this year , the Wall Street Journal reported that Turkey's largest media group, Doran Holding's offer to sell the Harriyet, one of Turkey's oldest, most influential and profitable newspapers, was an act of surrender as the company battles multibillion tax fines. Journalists daring to criticize state institutions or tackle taboo subjects, such as the Kurdish problem and the part played by the army in political life, are still censored, fines heavily and prosecuted without good reason.... Continue reading

Turkey's English daily newspaper, Harriyet, reported last week that tensions were again rising over whether Turkey's press is free or not as a major international watchdog issued a stern warning while the prime minister accused the countriy's media of intentionally smearing the government. The detention of journalists in Turkey is an "alarming threat to press freedom" and contradicts the country’s image as a democratic role model in the Middle East, the United States based human-rights organization Freedom House said in a press statement released. According to Freedom House, some 50 journalists are currently in prison. Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip... Continue reading

India, where just about 15% of the people have access to papers today, will remain the engine of the South Asian growth story and the challenges will be to maintain credible media that is self sustaining. India's press, driven by a growing middle class, is lively and newspaper circulation is rising. At the International Newsmedia Marketing Association conference in New Delhi, held last November, it was reported by the Times of India that although the global picture for the future of newspapers is not that rosy, South Asia is witnessing the sunrise of print media. A futurist, Ross Dawson, has... Continue reading

At the International Newsmedia Marketing Association conference in New Delhi, held last November, it was reported by the Times of India that although the global picture for the future of newspapers is not that rosy, South Asia is witnessing the sunrise of print media. A futurist, Ross Dawson, has predicted that extinction of newspapers in 52 countries between 2017 and 2039, with the last of the printing giants closing in the United States in 2017. It was noted that none of the South Asian countries were on the list. In the fifteen sessions that followed, it was emphasized that there... Continue reading

South Korea, once poorer than communist North Korea, now has the world’s 13th largest economy. South Korea is at the leading edge of the digital revolution. It is a trailblazer for high-speed and wireless internet. Nearly 37.5 million out of a total population of 48 million were online by June 2009. The country is a pioneer of TV via mobile devices and the internet. Online gaming is a national passion. Last week the New York Times stated that by the end of 2012,, South Korea intends to connect to connect every home in the country to the Internet at one... Continue reading

Last November, the Korea Times published an article describing how Cyworld, South Korea's social networking kingpin was being invaded by popular foreign services like Facebook and Twitter. Established in 1999, Cyworld provided the social networking industry in Korea with one of its mega-success stories, exploiting the digital-camera boom and demand for personal web pages to grow into a business that now boasts 25 million users. SK Communications, the internet company that that operates Cyworld has long been claiming credit for providing the blueprint for global services like Facebook and My Space. In a related blog at that time, "On The... Continue reading

According to a BBC News Magazine article, the "Celtic Tiger" is in intensive care and young people are rushing for the exits. BBC News tells us there are three million internet users in Ireland, comprising about 66% of the population. As in other countries, they are predominately young people and, regrettably, young persons are the ones now leaving the country. With a third of the under 25s out of work, it is the young who are most likely to leave, with Australia, New Zealand and Canada ahead of the UK as destinations, according to Jamie Smyth, social affairs correspondent at... Continue reading

According to BBC News, concerning Ireland, there are 3 million internet users, comprising about 66 percent of the population. There are three major national newspapers, the Irish Times, the Irish Inedependent and the Irish Examiner which is based in Cork. Two weeks ago the Irish Times pubished the headline asking if time was running out for Irish newspapers. It stated that sales and advertising will not recover proportionately even in the event of a sudden economic turnaround. This is a market in transition not between boom, bust and boom again but between a newsprint and a post-newsprint age. It is... Continue reading

Over two thousand years ago, the big question was whether the Greek-Roman or the Phoenician-Carthaginian culture would dominate the North African- Mediterranean areas. The Carthaginian general Hannibal was one of the greatest military leaders in history. His most famous campaign took place during the Second Punic War around 200 BC when he caught the Romans off guard by leading elephants across the Alps. After Hannibal’s death, Roman power was not seriously challenged for almost six centuries and the city of Carthage, in Tunisia, was obliterated by the Romans. Today, once again, Tunisia is the catalyst for change. Five years ago,... Continue reading

Stuxnet is a Windows-specific computer worm first discovered in June 2010. Microsoft Malware Protection Center reported, " What is unique about Stuxnet is that it utilizes a new method of propagation. Stuxnet will infect any USB drive that is attached to a system, and for this reason, has been classified as a "worm". Microsoft Corp. and Siemens AG have issued patches to close the security gap. According to NPR, it's a cyber superweapon, apparently capable of causing power plants or pipelines to blow up. The Director of Iran’s Information Technology Council, Mahmoud Liaii, was quoted as saying, " An electronic... Continue reading

Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran’s nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control. Their conclusion, while not definitive begins to clear some of the fog around the Stuxnet worm, a malicious program detected earlier this year in computers, primarily in Iran, but also in India, Indonesia and other countries. Computer analysts say Stuxnet does its damage by making quick changes in the rotational speed of motors, shifting them rapidly up and down. According to the nuclear analysts, these fluctuations are a... Continue reading

Last year, Google set the blogoshere abuzz when it announced it was pulling the plug on Lively, Googles answer to Second Life. One criticism of existing virtual world was that they are separate services and users can’t easily move among them. Lively attempted to address that issue by allowing users to create visual rooms that can be embedded in Web sites and blogs. Google’s entry into three-dimensional virtual worlds was closed when the number of people who logged into the service was well below the target set by Google and far behind Second Life from Linden Lab. Second Life had... Continue reading

Sarah Watson , a 19 year old at the University of Central Florida, goes by the name of Rosa Willful, a virtual world on the internet. While sitting in the comfort of her home, her character or avatar, traveled the UCF digital landscape to learn what to do as a real- life volunteer poll worker in Orange County. Last year, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission awarded a two year, $75,000 grant to UCF to develop the second life program Officials will be watching to see how effective the the poll watcher program is and will compare the second life- trained... Continue reading

Two weeks after the contested election in Iran, David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun spoke of the ground breaking changes that had taken place in journalism. Parisa Khosravi, senior vice president of international newsgathering for CNN Worldwide was quoted as saying," In my 22 years, I have never seen antyhing like this -it is amazing the flood of information that's coming in. The China Quake and Mombai bombing wern't even close to this" BBC was broadcasting out of London via satellite to Iran and Afghanistan, and was doing several daily interactive programs in which people could text, email and phone... Continue reading

In the beginning of this year, in an online Journalism blog, Paul Bradshaw spoke of the key features of user generated content online that make it qualitively different from audience involvement in news production in the past. There is a long history of audience involvement in news production, from letters to the editor to radio and TV phone-ins. Unlike print and broadcast, on the web users do not need to send something to the mainstream media for it to be distributed to an audience.... a member of the public can upload a video to YouTube with the potential to reach... Continue reading

In Sptember, the NY Times published an article outlining the problem of balancing sovereign security concerns with the customers’ privacy. The Obama administration wants a law that would help law enforcement when people use social-networking sites and other fast developing communications technologies, such as BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook or direct "peer to peer" messaging like Skype. Opponents claim that such a law would challenge the "fundamental elements of the Internet revolution’, including its decentralized design.,. This is not a problem unique to the United States. Cyber espionage has surged against governments and companies around the world in the past year and... Continue reading

In a New York Times article last month, the Indian government said that it would block encrypted BlackBerry corporate email and messenger services if wireless companies did not enable law enforcement authorities to monitor these messagers. The ultimatum suggested that Indian officials had reached an impasse after weeks of negotiation with Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes and provides services for the popular hand-held devices. Previously the United Arab Emirates had announced that it was blocking services but losing accress to the Indian wireless market would be far more significant since India is one of the fastest growing... Continue reading

The cable industry which was largely deregulated in 1996 and has fought subsequent attempts by the commission to impose new regulations. Two top Democratic legislators (Senator John D. Rockefeller and Representative Henry A. Waxman - both Chairmen of Commerce Committees) said in May that they would begin a process to modernize telecommunications laws that were last overhauled in 1996 but barely mention the Internet. The issue came into focus in April when a federal appeals court ruled that the F.C.C. had overstepped its authority in applying a portion of the Communications Act to an Internet service provider..(NY TIMES May 25,... Continue reading

A month ago, Google stunned many of its allies, according to the New York Times by crossing the aisle and teaming up with Verizon Communications to propose that net neutality rules should not apply to wireless access. The proposal from Google and Verizon was all the more surprising to some advocates because it was released just as broader talks brokered by the Federal Communications Commission were close to producing a draft compromise agreement. After reports of the deal, the F.C.C. called off the talks Following the April Comstat decision struck down the FCC's legal basis for enforcing "net neutrality", the... Continue reading

A recent article in the New York Times, Net Neutrality Issue Divides Media Companies-NYTinmes.com featured the debate revolving around net neutrality, with Facebook rejecting a proposal put forward by Google and Verizon. AT&T called the proposal a "reasonable framework". Outside of technology circles, most people have not yet figured out what is at stake. The debate revolves around "net neutrality", which in the broadest sense holds that Internet users should have equal access to all types of information online, and that companies offering Internet service should not be able to give priority to some sources or types of content. In... Continue reading

Michael Arrington indicated last week on TechCrunch-http//TechCrunch.com that Yahoo planned on moving large numbers of engineering jobs to Bangalore, the third largest city in India. Yahoo PR mostly denies this. Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka State which was previously known as Mysore. At an altitude of 1000m, Baangalore has a very pleasant climate and is known as the Silcon Valley of India. It is known worldwide as an important center of electronics and technology although it also has other industries, such as aerospace, iron and steel, textiles and machine tool making. Bangalore's population of around 6 million people is... Continue reading