Update: "And next on the agenda.....Limiting the U.S. control over the internet."

Here is an AP article to update you on the technology forum in Brazil.

Here is a summary of the decisions made regarding the U.S. control over the Internet:

-None

Thank you and good night....

Anyway, no real action has been made in regulating the Internet, especially the U.S. control of the Internet. The only thing anyone knows right now is: "With no concrete recommendations for action, the only certainty going forward is that any resentment about the American influence will only grow as more users from the developing world come online, changing the face of the global network."

It seems that the Russian representative took charge and requested "'practical steps' for moving Internet governance 'under the control of the international community'" be made. Thanks for the heads up Russia...I thought this was the Brazil forum on introducing new lattes to Starbucks, err....never mind.

Brazil chimed in with the notion to make ICANN independent [of the U.S.] and wanted "more concrete recommendations out of the forum."

So a big day in the tech world. Soon some "practical steps" will be presented as well as some other "concrete recommendations." But as of today....no one has done anything about anything. Way to go ladies and gentlemen.

How can a global community be expected to govern the Internet when this forum can't come up with anything? Basically, they met to say that for next time have some ideas. Sounds like a group of college students doing their final project. Great...

And next on the agenda.....Limiting the U.S. control over the internet.

Article from the Seattle Times.

"The U.S. has too much control over a tool that's used by over 1.4 billion people worldwide." There is basically the gist of this article. Thank you, come again.

Anyway, the U.S., in its never ending "superiority," is not being told they have too much control over the Internet. Tech experts are meeting in Brazil, with this being the topic of interest. Not how to stop e-mail scams, phishing, spamming, hacking, cracking, and all other types of -ing, but instead how to stop the U.S. from having so much power over the Internet. Brazil and China apparently, as well as some other countries, are wishing that the U.S. will shift control to an international body to govern the Internet.

-Initial thoughts about this: How easy will it be to censor the Internet then if a conservative country (and not Republican conservative, but women not allowed to show their faces or ankles conservative, for example) has their representative leading this governing body?

Well apparently, there are quite a few people with the same train of thought.

Some other great information is presented in the article including thoughts on ICANN, but it all takes a backseat to the "Evil Empire" running the Internet....Oh no!

So, who likes the "Do Not Call" list? Have I got something for you...

An article from Out-Law.com about a proposed "do not track" list, much like the "do not call" telephone list that everyone loves so much.

According to the article, "Consumers would be able to sign up to the list so that their online activities would not be monitored by advertisers and used to target adverts to their specific tastes and habits."

The article goes on to explain in detail more about the proposal, and even goes on to discuss one critic's view of the proposal. Randall Rothenberg (he is a chief executive of the IAB) goes on to discuss how anonymous information is good for the overall benefit of better online advertisements.

I tend to agree with his statements. As long as I do not have to deal with pop-ups, and pop-unders, and any other thing popping out at me, then perhaps it is better off. Sometimes online advertising does catch my eye, sometimes it doesn't. Should commercials and such be banned next? I am starting a "do not interrupt me while I am trying to watch the Ultimate Fighter list." Damn commercials...

Alright, so what else needs to be said? The same list for phones, but now directed towards your PC and computing environments. I still get phone calls...

Article: "Web Anonymity is as Destructive as Internet Porn"

A recent article from RealClearPolitics.com discussing the dangers of web anonymity and Internet privacy. It is a good read, and definitely a great discussion piece.

Just a few things about the article to touch on:

A major point made discusses the lack of civilized responses to article and such on the Internet due to being able to keep yourself anonymous, as opposed to writing a letter to the local newspaper, which would have your name and address associated with it. The article goes on to state that anonymity causes the user to act irresponsibly, and that a person, when being anonymous (they used the example of being in a crowd), "tend to act much less morally."

There is a lot more information and examples in the full article. It is a good read, but did not persuade me or convince me to change my views in any way.

I don't understand the connection between anonymity and Internet porn. Porn is not even mentioned in the article after the first few sentences. So because there is an abundance of porn on the Internet, posting anonymous comments is bad?

I also disagree with each being destructive. To who? Conservatives? Devout [insert religion here]? The only destructive thing I see is someone disagreeing with [my] views and suing [me] over it, or something else even more extreme than that. No thanks, I'm good...I will just stick to being anonymous and "destructive."