Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have been in the news lately, and not always for the best of reasons. Mr. Assange has been accused of rape in Sweden, though the original charges were dismissed and resurfaced after American diplomatic comments in confidential documents surfaced on WkiLeaks pages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks site
“Cablegate” link
http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html
There are accusations of WikiLeaks not carefully vetting what should have been released ( for example; information on undercover agents, whose covers if blown may lead to them being killed) and that Assange himself thinks he is above criticism and a type of self styled “media avenger”. Recently, some WikiLeaks supporters have distanced themselves from Assange because they believe he has gone too far.
Do you think Mr. Assange is a cyber-terrorist, an information age freedom fighter or something else? Explain your answer.
If you were forced to date online initially (live in a remote area with a very good job on a 5 year contract but with limited single prospects to date living in the area), how would you seek out possible people to start learning to know them? Please list the strategies you chose from below, as well as give your reasons for choosing those over the ones you rejected.
I would
1) use a SNS (either currently using or new one, please specify current, new or both)
2) use a dating service
3) email my offline friends looking for epals
4) join a group through my alumni so that I could approach people who graduated from the same university as I did
5) join online discussion groups centering on hobbies/interests that I have
6) join online discussion groups including areas where I might like to live in the future
7) join online discussion groups with people who work from home
8 none of the above, use another method
9) some of the above (specify which)
Today’s presentation focused on cyber-bullying. If you were the principal of a high school in Japan, what steps would you take to try and stop and limit cyber-bullying by students both in school and outside of school?
Special Notice!
Please note I had a question on presentation summaries, so I will repeat what I said and put on the white-board before the first presentation was given.
Please turn in one summary per group for each presentation you see (no individual ones, and please don’t give me a summary of your own group’s presentation). Using a 12-14 font, double spaced; you must include the topic, the 3 main points, and perceived strengths and weaknesses of the presentation.
Please write this in an essay format. You can bring it to the next class or email it to kasmersensei@yahoo.com if you think you can’t make it to the next class.
You noticed that in the P2P presentation today, the group told you that the Winnie developer was found guilty and then later the verdict was reversed as the developer was found not to be responsible for how people used his program. In other words, he couldn’t know for sure if people would share copyrighted material or not when he developed his program.
But you have to wonder, this is a little different than making a car, and not being sued because drivers get drunk and run people over with it. I would think an inventor of a program that allows people to upload and download files on the Internet would realize, if I simply release this P2P program for free, many people are going to use it to gain illegal copies of various files (music, TV programs, movies, etc.). Obviously much of it is going to be copyrighted material.
I suppose you could look at it another way though. When Albert Einstein was involved with splitting the atom, he knew the final invention might be used as a weapon, but he hoped it wouldn’t, and that if it was, he considered the US government to be a lesser evil than letting Hitler’s government use it.
So which was it, was the Winnie developer careless, simply unaware of how his product might be used, or simply thought that allowing people to upload and download files was a lesser evil?
Or perhaps you have some other explanation? Let us know your opinion.
We heard about one kind of protest with the website channel 2, where a S. Korean hacker crashed the server for 2 days in response to derogatory comments about the S. Korean skater Yu Na Kim after she beat Japan’s Mao Asada for the Gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics.
http://www.france24.com/en/20100305-japans-top-forum-outlet-free-speech-hate
At Amazon, they have had another type of protest, with Kindle owners boycotting or threatening to boycott any book downloads until Amazon stops selling a guidebook for pedophiles (As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia (or paedophilia) is typically defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or lateadolescents (persons age 16 and older) characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children (generally age 13 years or younger, though onset of puberty may vary).
Before
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/self-published-pedophiles-guide-sparks-amazon-boycotts_b16527
After
http://www.medindia.net/news/Amazon-Withdraws-Pedophile-Guide-But-Many-Still-Angry-76671-1.htm
What kind of protests on the Internet would you consider doing? And for what causes?
Recently, leaked tapes of the collision between Japanese coast boats and a Chinese fishing boat have surfaced on the Internet. There is currently a criminal investigation going on into who “leaked” the tapes.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101108p2a00m0na014000c.html
Do you consider the person who leaked the tapes to be a hero or a traitor?
In class this week, we spoke about hate speech and how it affects the way people look at foreign residents living in their country.
I remember traveling to France on my honeymoon, and having a French person trying to sell tour guide services in Paris. He thinking I was British, told me that “the British are s__t!”. I was pretty annoyed, but I just ignored him. But it does tend to make me think sometimes, I love France, I just wish the French would change!
Have you or anyone you know been exposed to any hate speech while traveling? What did you (or they do)?
Often there are stories circulating on the Internet that some people think are true, though with a little cross referencing you find it is more likely just someone’s pipe dream.
One a few years ago was that Madonna was going to do a concert in China. Since the PRC wouldn’t allow Madonna to do a fully uncensored show, and Madonna being Madonna wouldn’t do a show unless she was allowed full artistic freedom, it would never happen (well, not at least with the current mainland Chinese government).
So, what was a juicy rumor that friends were telling you was true?
Extra assignment – opion of Halloween train party and what should be done about handling the “problem”. Email me at kasmersensei@yahoo.com
People often talk about things they would do on-line to make money and do them. But then people, when they’re desperate or just drunk enough, talk about things they would hope they’d never have to do on-line to make money.
What do you think is the worst way to make money on-line?
Please include a link to an actual website, preferably in English.
As an example, the 4th video link for a funny game show, I wonder how much these women were paid?
http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/07/04/five-japanese-game-shows-that-need-to-be-imported-to-the-u-s/
reminds me of Jackass
 | Kensuke Nakajima on Q 13# Cyber-terrorist or freed… |
 | ihsan shahrin on Q 11# If you were a school… |
| ihsan shahrin on Q 13# Cyber-terrorist or freed… |
 | Sawaengsuksant Chain… on Q 12# Dating online |
 | Ai Odoriba on Q 10# When does responsibility… |
Conference English 2010 