by Samantha Murphy on Mashable Tech

“It may seem like everyone, everywhere is sending text messages these days. But according to a Forbes report, texting may be on the decline across various countries.

Industry experts expect that cellphone users are sending messages in different ways, from social networking sites to iMessage, the free iOS service that uses a phone’s Internet connection to send messages“.

more statistics on global cellphone usage and mobile patterns

Jon Leibowitz (FTC) : “Last December, FTC staff issued a draft privacy report reimagining how we can protect consumers in an increasingly digital and mobile age; we expect to put out a final version of that report in the next month or so. The preliminary report recommended that companies build privacy into their systems at the design phase – what we call “privacy by design”; simplify the ability of consumers to exercise choices; and improve transparency of information practices. As one example of simplifying choice, the report recommended implementation of Do Not Track, a system we envision empowering consumers (and not the government) to take control of the data companies collect about us online”.

read the full text here

also see the agenda of the Face Facts Forum (Dec. 8, 2011)

Speaking at a Dec. 15 Capitol Hill forum on children’s and teens’ online privacy, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz said that the agency is recommending that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) expand the definition of personally identifiable information.

Leibowitz explained that he supports expanding the definition of “personally identifiable information” to include geolocation information, photos, videos, IP addresses, and
similar items found on computers or mobile devices.

by Ifrah Law Firm

see full article for more information

Posted on March 28 2011 by Crosbie Fitch on The Cultural Liberty Blog this article concerning individual liberty, especially concerning its restoration from archaic privileges such as copyright and patent.

Abstract : •A prologue – mankind’s culture and copyright in perspective.
read the full article at The Cultural Liberty Blog

1709
Queen Anne Establishes the Privilege of Copyright
1787
US Constitution
1790
Madison re-enacts Statute of Anne (tweaked for the US)
1791
Thomas Paine deprecates privileges
1814
Steam powered printing press
1837
Babbage designs Analytical Engine
1937
Relay computers
1943
Valve/Tube computers
1953
Transistor computers
1969
Internet begins with two nodes
1971
Microprocessor computers
1991
World Wide Web begins
2000
The people obtain the means of mass reproduction and communication
2010
The successors to the Stationers’ Guild seek possession of the Internet via ACTA
2011
Copyright recognised to be ineffective vs the people’s cultural liberty/piracy
2015??
Copyright is reformed to exempt individuals in the digital domain
2020??
Copyright is reformed to exempt individuals
2025??
Copyright is reformed to exempt the digital domain
2030??
Copyright is repealed
2031??
The author’s exclusive right to their writings is properly secured at last – ethically

“Seen in a proper perspective, copyright is a legislative misadventure borne of political expediency and commercial self-interest. It is a hiccup in mankind’s history and, in the face of the diffusive nature of information, is coming to an abrupt and natural end.

The future of our culture is one without copyright. It is already dissolved in effect. In terms of law, the precise dates of its repeal are a minor detail. Cultural liberty is in the power and the hands of the people and if not also legislatively restored to them they will throw off Queen Anne’s manacles and revolt against persecution by her now immortal publishing corporations”.

Just about every week, specifically Sundays, Dr. Steve Perry, a contributor to CNN’s Education coverage and founder/principal of Capital Prep school, puts into the Twitter-sphere a question of the week. Most of the time, these questions talk about the challenges of education and race in the US. I’ve been following these conversations for a few months, and there’s something interesting that tends to happen during them - Twitter starts to almost look organized around different branches to the answers of this conversation. Thorugh my involvement in these and similar conversations, I”ve noticed a few traits which happen which might shed some light as to how we can come to conclusions towards the effectiveness of social networks to instigate change on larger scales.

Read the rest of this entry »

Al Jazeera’s ambitious new project Somailia Speaks uses SMS text messages to gauge how ordinary Somalis are coping with the ongoing conflict in their country. It’s the first time they’ve been polled in years, and things in Somalia may be worse than anyone knew.

the full article is on: FastCompany

“Al Jazeera English is betting that mobile phones are the best bet to help understand events on the ground. The Qatar-based network just launched Somalia Speaks yesterday. It’s the first-ever large-scale survey of Somali citizen sentiment“.

Greetings to the Smart Mobs community. My name is Antoine RJ Wright and I’ve been invited by Howard to be a new contributor to this community. I’ve been a long time follower of Howard’s work (in fact, I cited him quite often during my undergraduate work at Millersville University), and much of what I’ve learned from the Smart Mobs community has been featured within the veins of the work that I do at Mobile Ministry Magazine (mobileministrymagazine.com). Mobile Ministry Magazine looks at the implications of mobile when it intersects with various activities within the realm of religious activities. I hope to bring some insights from that sphere and many others, in addition to learning more from this community as we all better understand the influence connected spaces play within and around our communities.

With that said, let’s get smart mobby

I’ve been procrastinating on this post for obvious reasons. It isn’t a happy event. Judy Breck, who tirelessly, competently, and intelligently blogged here for the past several years succumbed to cancer a few months ago. It took me a couple weeks to find out about her passing. I corresponded with Judy online for the most part, but I had an opportunity to spend time with her in November, 2009, when we both attended a conference in New York. Judy was passionate about spreading the word about how digital and mobile media could and should be used in education. She had a dry wit and a taste for learning. Thank you, Judy. You are missed.

Rohit Bhargava defined a curator as someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares information resources. Here is an interview Liz Wilson held with me on the topic content curation. The article was published in a series ‘The People behind the Paper.li’s’

“Interviews with the Publishers” - learn how members of your community are using Paper.li in the classroom, for business, to promote awareness, pursue hobbies, build communities or to just have a little fun with a cool tool. With over 350,000 papers on the newsstand Paper.li aims to discover in these interviews the passions of the publishers“.

Conversations that matter are one of the highest forms of ACTION. Join other Open Cafe attendants if you care about about what #Occupy might mean for the world.

Occupy Cafe is dedicated to expanding and connecting #Occupy conversations on the website in the US and throughout the world. Real and meaningful change for good comes when we, the people, stand, speak and act together, cooperatively and collaboratively.

Occupy Cafe exists to inclusively connect people with people, to share and listen. All viewpoints are welcome from as many diverse locations as possible. The more we share and hear our individual and collective needs, wants and visions, the more powerful our initiatives to create real change become. We can achieve this in a virtual occupy cafe such as this.

Occupy Cafe has been created to encourage and create space for this evolutionary process that seeks to restore human dignity at an epic scale. This conversation, alive and growing with a life of its own, is greater than one group, one city or one country. On behalf of our support team, it is with deep respect and honor, we welcome you to Occupy Cafe, an open space for global conversation.Who Are We: We are a diverse group of trained and experienced conveners and facilitators with backgrounds in group dialogue and process design. We are unaffiliated with any political party or advocacy organization. We know each other as co-creators of the FourYearsGo campaign for the past year and are now called to create the Occupy Cafe together to provide a space for collaboration and to incubate coordinated collective action.

Source: www.occupycafe.org

Also check this frequently Curated news Scoop on #OWS and social media