Uncover Magazine » Opinion

Internet Censorship: It is time to worry

Maryna Wind — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:46:47 +0000

Appearance of the World Wide Web was the hope for freedom of speech. It was hope for a brighter future where people around the world can communicate and share without limits.

But what can you see on this map? Not every country has this freedom. My friends live in one of such black-holes zones: Internet traffic is controlled; emails fail; news are filtered; and lots of sites are unreachable.

At some point nobody is surprised when it happens in China or Russia.

But is Australia going to be next?

Show your support for Aussies during the ‘Australian Internet Blackout’ anti-censorship campaign by Moggs Oceanlane

“The Australian Government is planning to put the proposal regarding centralised internet filtering (read censorship) through Parliment in 2010. This will put Australia in an elite club with China, Iran and Saudi Arabia – countries that already have centralised Internet Filtering - scary huh? (and you know, we are meant to live in a democracy!!).

The list of censored/filters sites will include “unclassified content” – but there are no indications that a list of what is being filtered/censored will be disclosed to the public – they’ll just have to find out as it happens. The filtering will not only limit what can be accessed online but, as indicated by the testing that has already taken place, will significantly slow down the Australian broadband network. This week there the “Great Australian Internet Blackout” campaign in running to raise awareness in the media of this issue – many Australians still have no idea of the Governments plans.

So what can you do to show your support?

black out your online profile pictures (overlay your profile pics with a black layer) and display the #nocleanfeed text.
What will this do? It will hopefully help raise awareness in the media and amongst the general population who still haven’t even realised this is now a very real possibility. New Zealand carried out a blackout campaign which was quite effective, Australia hopes to do the same.

Inform your friends via your social networks – if you tag your blogs or twitter posts use the tags nocleanfeed and if you wish, openinternet

There’s a petition you can sign – and yeah, it’s not some shonky ‘net petition – it’s run by the Electronic Frontiers association who are very credible when it comes to online and digital rights

and of course, you can write letters and more for a good list see the EFA what you can do to help list; the great australian internet blackout website and the nocleanfeed.com website.

Here are some of the key questions that many Australian citizens have been asking since last year (if not before) and would like answered. No satisfactory answers – if any – from the Goverment.”

Take an action and support Australia: Say NO to Australian Government, because you never know if your country is going to be next.

What is real?

Maryna Wind — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:28:42 +0000

Considering Second Life, we tend to call REAL our normal lives as human beings that have to eat, sleep and go to the toilet. I think it is a mistake to think that physical world defines what is real and what is not.

Each time when you login into SL, you spend your REAL time there.

Each time you laugh staring at your screen while having fun with your virtual friends, you laugh in REAL.
Each time you get upset because of something in SL, you get upset in REAL.
Your physical body reacts on what you see and hear in SL.

What do you keep apart when you say I keep RL and SL apart? Your identity. In RL you are so “many” years old, having a job, hating your boss and probably afraid to tell him/het the truth, because he/she may fire you. In SL… you are a star, slebrity, going from party to party, enjoying compliments on your looks. You are your own boss and decide yourself how and when you’ll spend your REAL time in this virtual world. You may suddenly be a cat, a tiny, switch gender, be a part of a role play. Here you are who you always wanted to be, so aren’t you more real in SL than RL?

Some thoughts about shopping experience

Maryna Wind — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:05:56 +0000

I’ve learned a lot through interactions in Second Life. I’ve learned a lot about myself. I realized that sometimes the act of going around and buying something has nothing to do with price or even quality. I could be happy with a freebie as much as a very expensive pair of shoes. The process itself gives me satisfaction. But… all virtual goods stay virtual. Ages ago, shopping was nothing more then hunting an animal or harvesting. Later people started exchanging goods and so money concept was born: salt, gold, tulips, dollars and now lindens. So what exactly shopping addiction is? An eternal hunger to point out your territory saying IT’S MINE NOW? By having an excessive inventory wouldn’t you say: I have, so I live? And here my brains crash… What do we actually possess? A piece of database? A bunch of UUID’s? Billions of one’s and zero’s? Or is there something more than that?