Information Politics

Lectori Salutem

Editor — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:37:51 +0000

After 1.5 years of exploring information politics I call it quits. Other matters need exploring too. I can recommend an exploration of information politics. I believe that in this day and age everyone should have some understanding of what politics surround information. Success.

John van Rouwendaal

Beware of Averages (2009)

Editor — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:47:19 +0000

‘Statistical uncertainties are pervasive in decisions we make every day in business, government, and our personal lives. Sam Savage’s lively and engaging book gives any interested reader the insight and the tools to deal effectively with those uncertainties. I highly recommend The Flaw of Averages.’ William J. Perry, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense

‘Enterprise analysis under uncertainty has long been an academic ideal. … In this profound and entertaining book, Professor Savage shows how to make all this practical, practicable and comprehensible.’ Harry Markowitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics

Society on the Line (1999)

Editor — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:03:15 +0000

`An important contribution to the literature on the relationships between media and society. … Teachers will find that the book provides important source material and literature reviews for their students. This book is a fitting epitaph for the PICT program and it shows what can be done by well managed and large scale social science research projects.’ Peter B. White, LaTrobe University

`This book was quite obviously designed as a practical tool and is structured to allow its readers to easily find their way around a complex subject matter… extremely rich bibliography… very practical index… useful glossary and a multitude of box-type summaries and synthetical tables to give a quick picture of a given phenomenon, contrast various approaches or illustrate a concrete example. Dutton’s work will undeniably prove useful to all those seeking a general framework of analysis to apprehend and understand the social upheavals ICTs may bring about. Thanks to its synthetical nature and the diversity and quality of the contributions it unites, Society on the Line should become a refernce work for a great many students as well as specialists in the field who will be able to consult it with interest to help clarify their thoughts on specific points.’ Communications and Strategies Issue 37.

`This is a very useful book for several reasons. it provides a useful window onto research in both Britian and eleswhere on the developing and growing role of ICTs in society. The organisation of its chapters and boxed features make for easy skimming – or in-depth reading of certain sections. While the context of much of the research is British, the lessons it provides and the findings it offers are international in scope.’ Christopher H. Sterling.

EC: European Censorship

Editor — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:01:24 +0000

In 1996 John Perry Barlow published The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace: “Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” This statement needs to be repeated because it is relevant in current affairs. Momentarily the European Commission is considering its first serious steps to restrict freedom on the internet. The European commissioner for home affairs, Cecilia Malmström, will propose a filtering system of Internet web sites for all of the union member states. This system has been deployed in many places already; in China they call it “The Golden Shield” and in Iran it prevents civil rights groups to use the Internet. The biggest fear surrounding the European measure is that once deployed, in the name of fighting paedophilia online, this block filter could rapidly extend to also block political, religious or other sensitive information. Telecomix, Werebuild.eu and others are fighting for an independent cyberspace by declaring: Now is the time to back off.

WikiLeaks

Editor — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:58:57 +0000

Wikipedia: Wikileaks (officially WikiLeaks) is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, organizational, or religious documents, while attempting to preserve the anonymity and untraceability of its contributors. Within one year of its December 2006 launch, its database had grown to more than 1.2 million documents. Because of fundraising problems, Wikileaks temporarily suspended all operations other than submission of material in December 2009. Materials that were previously published are no longer available, although some can still be accessed on unofficial mirrors. Wikileaks originally stated on its website that it would resume full operation once the operational costs were covered, and on 3 February Wikileaks announced that its minimum fundraising goal had been achieved. Wikileaks has won a number of new media awards for its reports.

A Tribute to Churchill

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:29:42 +0000

“This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”

“It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

No Information Politics

Editor — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:06:41 +0000

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling Party’s majority on the parliamentary watchdog that oversees public broadcaster RAI backed a new regulation, which forces the public broadcaster RAI’s most popular talk shows to bin their political content or move away from their prime time slots on the television schedule. Under the new rules, which were proposed by the member of the small Radical Party, Marco Betrandi, political content will only be allowed if all 18 parties standing in the elections have each the same time on political shows, which programme makers say would make the shows unworkable. The rules shall apply from 28 February until 28 March, when the country’s regional elections are held. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) says that an Italian law banning political debate on public television is the latest “nail in the coffin of media freedom” as the country heads for important regional elections next month. Some journalist also speculate a commercial motive behind the ban. If the RAI becomes less interesting then Mediaset could profit. This isn’t the first case of dubious practices by Berlusconi. It is often claimed that he is using his media clout to ensure that people who make unkind remarks about him – even in jest – lose their jobs in television. For example in 2003, two of Italy’s most respected commentators, Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro, were driven off the air (Santoro hosted a talk show), along with a harmless comedian named Lutazzi. It is not just the information reaching us by television that Berlusconi wants to influence. The premier’s government has drafted a decree that would mandate the vetting of videos for pornographic or violent content uploaded by users onto such sites as YouTube, owned by Google, and the France-based Dailymotion, as well as blogs and online newsmedia. How come someone who want to be portrait as a strong leader doesn’t understand that silencing his critics makes him look like a coward?

Surprise Management

Editor — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:12:28 +0000

The US Defense Science Board (DSB) recommends that the military and intelligence communities join in a new agency devoted to “strategic surprise/deception.” The aim is successful surprise management by encouraging alternative viewpoints, requiring broad risk/opportunity assessment, integrating and synthesizing, and enhancing knowledge through cross-domain teaming. The DSB notes in a January report first unearthed by InsideDefense.com: “In an era of ubiquitous information access, anonymous leaks and public demands for transparency, deception operations are extraordinarily difficult. Nevertheless, successful strategic deception has in the past provided the United States with significant advantages that translated into operational and tactical success. Successful deception also minimizes U.S. vulnerabilities, while simultaneously setting conditions to surprise adversaries.” Preparation is everything: “Deception cannot succeed in wartime without developing theory and doctrine in peacetime,” according to the DSB. “In order to mitigate or impart surprise, the United States should [begin] deception planning and action prior to the need for military operations.” Doing that will not only requires an “understanding the enemy culture, standing beliefs, and intelligence-gathering process and decision cycle, as well as the soundness of its operational and tactical doctrine,” the DSB adds. Deception is also “reliant … on the close control of information, running agents (and double-agents) and creating stories that adversaries will readily believe.” Googling the term surprise management an alternative strategy pops up: “Surprise management means the ability to deal well with all forms of surprise. It gives the competence to handle new people, situations and challenges, to make the most of them and to decide wisely whether to welcome them or to turn them down. Surprise management also aims to provide the skill to feel at ease and behave with grace with people of all walks of life and in any environment, nation or culture.” Wouldn’t it be nice if that would have been the way the US government would approach their surprises?

Greecing statistics

Editor — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:45:07 +0000

Greece was condemned by the European Commission on Tuesday for falsifying data about its public finances and allowing political pressures to obstruct the collection of accurate statistics. In a damning report the Commission said figures from Greece’s were so unreliable that its budget deficit and public debt might be even higher than government had claimed last October. At that time Greece estimated its 2009 deficit would be 12.5 per cent of gross domestic product, far above 3.7 per cent predicted in April. It revised its 2008 deficit up to 7.7 per cent from 5 per cent. The Greek finance ministry said the Commission report reflected the approach of previous governments, not the current one. “We’re in the process of changing the way statistics are collected and analysed,” it said. The Commission, which is responsible for upholding the eurozone’s fiscal rules, made clear in its report that it had next to no faith in Greek statistics. “The current set-up does not guarantee the independence, integrity and accountability of the national statistical authorities,” it said. The Commission denounced “poor co-operation and lack of clear responsibilities between several Greek institutions and services … diffuse personal responsibilities, ambiguous empowerment of officials, absence of written instruction and documentation, which leave the quality of fiscal statistics subject to political pressures and electoral cycles”. The report listed categories in which, it said, Greece had deliberately misreported financial data last year, including revenues from abolished extra-budgetary accounts, swaps write-offs, adjustment for interest payments, European Union financial grants and hospital liabilities. Hundreds of millions of euros were involved in each case. This is not the way you want your country depicted in The Financial Times. Tragically, this will not be the last European country making the headlines for performing magic with numbers. Lots will follow, for they all do it to some extent. Some have just forgotten that the grand wizards punish those who go overboard. Let’s hope this turns out to be an omen of improvement and not the first serious sign of the decline of the EU. Because, if the numbers on which the EU are faulty, then what remains?

Information changes everything?

Editor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:15:55 +0000