Showing posts with label Web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Berners-Lee flags UN net conference concerns
Sir Tim Berners-Lee flags UN net conference concerns
Leo Kelion
4 December 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20594779
Sir Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of the world wide web - is the latest voice to raise concerns about a meeting of communication tech regulators in Dubai.
He spoke of concerns that some attendees would push for a UN agency to "run the internet" rather than leaving it to groups already "doing a good job".
Internet pioneer Vint Cerf has also highlighted the issue on Google's site.
But the UN agency itself is playing down suggestions of a power-grab.
Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU), said ahead of the event: "There is no need for the ITU to take over the internet governance."
Internet governance
The United Arab Emirates is playing host to 193 countries at World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit).
They aim to revise a telecommunications treaty which has not been overhauled since 1988.
The ITU has said there was a need to address the fact technologies like the internet were not properly addressed by the current regulations, and that more efforts must be made to change the fact that "two-thirds of the world's population" did not have access to the net.
The US has vowed to block what it says is a Russian proposal to alter governance of the internet
Among the proposals being considered is a clause put forward by Russia which says: "Member states shall have equal rights to manage the internet, including in regard to the allotment, assignment and reclamation of internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources and to support for the operation and development of basic internet infrastructure."
This has been interpreted by some as a starting point for domain name regulator Icann, the Internet Engineering Task Force and other organisations that oversee the internet's technical specifications to be forced to be pass at least some of their powers to another body such as the ITU.
Sir Tim is director of a standards body himself - the World Wide Web Consortium. He said that governments can already influence changes but should resist further interference.
"I think it's important that these existing structures continue to be used without any attempt to bypass them," he said.
"These organisations have been around for a number of years and I think it would be a disruptive threat to the stability of the system for people to try to set up alternative organisations to do the standards."
Accelerating access
Sir Tim also indicated that there was no need to create new internet-specific sections to an international treaty in order to improve access.
"It seems that at the moment the growth of the internet is spectacular and the developing countries have the highest growth rate.
"A few years ago we started [World Wide] Web Foundation worrying that connectivity was relevant, but now today connectivity is clearly becoming ubiquitous - we need to look at other concerns such as net neutrality and whether governments spy on the internet and whether they block it.
"A lot of concerns I've heard from people have been that, in fact, countries that want to be able to block the internet and give people within their country a 'secure' view of what's out there would use a treaty at the ITU as a mechanism to do that, and force other countries to fall into line with the blockages that they wanted to put in place."
However, Sir Tim added that resistance to such an idea by other nations would mean the problem could be avoided.
The ITU's leader has said he intends to prevent any measure being put to a vote, and that proposals must be agreed, instead, by consensus.
The US has already made clear that it would block any attempt by Russia or another country to make changes to internet governance.
"We will actively oppose the Russian proposal," said Terry Kramer, the US ambassador to Wcit, last week.
"We have had good working relationships with our Russian colleagues, but the proposal that actually came out, to us, was shocking."
The US is now pressing for there to be no reference to the internet in the treaty.
Human rights
Early discussions at Wcit have included a debate over an internet-related clause championed by Tunisia.
Delegates have been given two weeks to agree the text of a new telecommunications treaty
It said the revised treaty should contain a clause committing member states to protecting freedom of expression on the net including "the freedom of online peaceful assembly".
The ITU said the text sparked a "vigorous debate", but was deemed unnecessary since such the issue was already addressed by human rights treaties which take precedence over whatever would ultimately be included in the communications agreement,
The conference continues until 14 December.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Coupon Web Sites: Never Pay Full Price Again?
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/106535/Coupon-Web-Sites-Never-Pay-Full-Price-Again
Coupon Web Sites: Never Pay Full Price Again?
by Melissa Korn
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
These days, it seems there’s no sense buying something unless you can get at a steep discount. That goes for big-ticket items like houses and cars, down to such smaller purchases as vacation packages, electronics and clothes.
According to research group comScore Inc., 27 million Americans visited coupon sites in October, up 33% from a year earlier. And from last January to September, the number of coupon-related Web searches doubled. So it’s clear more of us are hunting for deals.
Scores of Web sites aggregate coupons and promotional codes that help people shop online without ever having to pay full price. Some, like Coupons.com, are geared toward grocery and drug store staples. (Today, that site is featuring $1 off Velveeta cheese and $2 off Perdue Frozen Fully Cooked Chicken on its home page.)
But others, like CouponCabin.com and RetailMeNot.com, offer a wider array of discounts for popular retailers, usable in-store and online. CouponCabin claims to have more than 100,000 discounts from more than 20,000 merchants.
While some sites require subscriptions to get at the good stuff, most offer coupons for free. The sites make money by selling ad space or offering “featured discount” status to stores for a set fee.
Here’s how it works: I happen to be in the market for a new comforter, as mine was mauled by a pair of scissors (an arts and crafts project gone bad). At CouponCabin.com, I found a discount code for $15 off any order over $75 at Macy’s, which is having its own sale. I click the coupon link, which takes me to Macy’s site, find the item I want, enter the code upon checkout, and, voila — a new comforter for Melissa. CouponCabin.com even shows a screen shot of where to enter the promotional code on a store’s Web site.
Most coupon sites allow you to sort discounts by retailer, so if my comforter didn’t qualify for the minimum dollar amount of one Macy’s coupon, I could always check to see if it made the cut for another.
Coupon sites vary in breadth of offerings, but also in practicality. Users should scour these sites after picking out a specific item on a store’s Web site or when they want a certain item (say, a just-released DVD) but don’t care where they buy it. But if you’re tempted to buy things just because they’re on sale, steer clear, as these sites can turn your computers into a money pit.
RetailMeNot.com, for example, has shopping tips for certain stores, as well as a separate forum for shoppers to trade details on one-day sales and new markdowns. Sensible for people who have been eyeing those fabulous but otherwise too-expensive jeans. Not so much for people who just like to browse.
One nifty thing RetailMeNot.com does have is a downloadable browser application that alerts you to promotions and coupons when you are on a retailer’s Web site. If you don’t mind the extra software, it may be a good way to ensure savings even if you forget to consult a coupon site pre-checkout. RetailMeNot.com also provides success rates for coupon codes so you know whether that hot 30% off code at J.Crew is likely to work when it comes time to check out.
Of course, coupon sites aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be in terms of actual bargains. Some ask contributors to send in those alphanumeric codes they get after making purchases, the ones that promise a percentage off the person’s next purchase above and beyond other promotions. But they also include nothing-special “savings.” Right now, AnyCoupons.com (along with a half-dozen other sites) lists free shipping on purchases totaling $150 or more at Banana Republic. But the store’s own Web site advertises that one, and has done so for at least a few weeks. Because so many stores are discounting deeply and offering incentives, make sure to check out the sidebars on retailers’ own sites for discount codes.
Coupon Web Sites: Never Pay Full Price Again?
by Melissa Korn
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
These days, it seems there’s no sense buying something unless you can get at a steep discount. That goes for big-ticket items like houses and cars, down to such smaller purchases as vacation packages, electronics and clothes.
According to research group comScore Inc., 27 million Americans visited coupon sites in October, up 33% from a year earlier. And from last January to September, the number of coupon-related Web searches doubled. So it’s clear more of us are hunting for deals.
Scores of Web sites aggregate coupons and promotional codes that help people shop online without ever having to pay full price. Some, like Coupons.com, are geared toward grocery and drug store staples. (Today, that site is featuring $1 off Velveeta cheese and $2 off Perdue Frozen Fully Cooked Chicken on its home page.)
But others, like CouponCabin.com and RetailMeNot.com, offer a wider array of discounts for popular retailers, usable in-store and online. CouponCabin claims to have more than 100,000 discounts from more than 20,000 merchants.
While some sites require subscriptions to get at the good stuff, most offer coupons for free. The sites make money by selling ad space or offering “featured discount” status to stores for a set fee.
Here’s how it works: I happen to be in the market for a new comforter, as mine was mauled by a pair of scissors (an arts and crafts project gone bad). At CouponCabin.com, I found a discount code for $15 off any order over $75 at Macy’s, which is having its own sale. I click the coupon link, which takes me to Macy’s site, find the item I want, enter the code upon checkout, and, voila — a new comforter for Melissa. CouponCabin.com even shows a screen shot of where to enter the promotional code on a store’s Web site.
Most coupon sites allow you to sort discounts by retailer, so if my comforter didn’t qualify for the minimum dollar amount of one Macy’s coupon, I could always check to see if it made the cut for another.
Coupon sites vary in breadth of offerings, but also in practicality. Users should scour these sites after picking out a specific item on a store’s Web site or when they want a certain item (say, a just-released DVD) but don’t care where they buy it. But if you’re tempted to buy things just because they’re on sale, steer clear, as these sites can turn your computers into a money pit.
RetailMeNot.com, for example, has shopping tips for certain stores, as well as a separate forum for shoppers to trade details on one-day sales and new markdowns. Sensible for people who have been eyeing those fabulous but otherwise too-expensive jeans. Not so much for people who just like to browse.
One nifty thing RetailMeNot.com does have is a downloadable browser application that alerts you to promotions and coupons when you are on a retailer’s Web site. If you don’t mind the extra software, it may be a good way to ensure savings even if you forget to consult a coupon site pre-checkout. RetailMeNot.com also provides success rates for coupon codes so you know whether that hot 30% off code at J.Crew is likely to work when it comes time to check out.
Of course, coupon sites aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be in terms of actual bargains. Some ask contributors to send in those alphanumeric codes they get after making purchases, the ones that promise a percentage off the person’s next purchase above and beyond other promotions. But they also include nothing-special “savings.” Right now, AnyCoupons.com (along with a half-dozen other sites) lists free shipping on purchases totaling $150 or more at Banana Republic. But the store’s own Web site advertises that one, and has done so for at least a few weeks. Because so many stores are discounting deeply and offering incentives, make sure to check out the sidebars on retailers’ own sites for discount codes.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
ManyOne.net
Hello my friend,
Today, the first day of this new year, I am asking you to join and share a new Internet platform and the power it represents with communities around the world. In the right hands, I believe it can catalyze a large ripple effect across our planet.
Why?
1. Because it levels the playing field between those with knowledge and passion and those with money.
2. Because it closes the gap between the middle-man and real-life experts and artists, versus the simple act of publishing "content" on the Internet.
I ask you, this first day of 2009, to present this gift, in behalf of more than 1,000 experts in more than 60 countries (so far), to a community group, a school, a poet, an artist, an activist or to the most important people in your life -- your family.
Share it! Let's shine a light of inspiration needed by so many, now. See how below...
The Future Medium
There is something magical emerging on the Web now. You can see examples of how it can change our world, how it can transform education and how it can inspire generations to come with an online home and permanent record of your life, better than a fake, sponsored and exploited existence on MySpace or FaceBook.
From its infancy, pioneers of the World Wide Web saw a new medium in the making, where potentially anyone, anywhere, anytime could reach out to anyone, anywhere, anytime. It was a medium that could give every document an egalitarian press, where every idea could soar or sink on merit. It was a medium that could break through taboo boundaries and open hardened borders. It was clear that it held the potential to transform virtually every kind of software application from an isolated process that runs on one computer to a distributed process that runs on millions of computers. It was clear that the Internet would one day carry telephone calls, transforming telecommunications both economically and socially. It became clear that the Internet would even replace radio and television broadcasting, radically expanding the "channel spectrum" for news and entertainment, eventually giving anyone with a keyboard, microphone, or video camera their very own broadcasting station.
In the intervening years, much of the promise of the early web has come to fruition. The World Wide Web is now ubiquitous within developed nations (and much of the developing world), and taken for granted as the conduit for information and communication for an ever greater portion of our lives. However, not all of what the Web has become is positive: the promise of everyone having an equal voice and being judged on the merits of what they say has given way to an increasing dominance of large commercial interests. Hand-in-hand with this, the "signal-to-noise" ratio of the Web has deteriorated, making it increasingly difficult to separate valuable, trustworthy information from the "chaff". In addition, the increasing dominance of "short attention theater" entertainment content has eroded the visibility and accessibility of information that expands knowledge among young people and equips citizens to make informed decisions about their future. Despite this (or perhaps, partially as a result of this) the increasingly urgent global problems we face today demand a new kind of information medium dedicated to serve the goals of intellectual development, economic enlightenment, environmental stewardship, technological and social transformation... in essence, a medium that fulfills the original potential of the World Wide Web.
Let's consider a vision of a future Web, and what it may offer to us all. So let us go there, to 2010, just a few years from now, and imagine what might be...
Check out:
http://manyone.net/
Imagine a Web 3.0 medium, distinguished by its *truly* public ownership, where the entire ecosystem within it can help build it, and the best of the builders are actually paid...
Learn about the people backing it:
http://manyone.net/about/
And some of the organizations behind it:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Content_Partners
Join us. Start your own portal, or network of portals. Join for free, or just $8 per month and never see an advertisement anywhere in the entire network. Know that half of all net revenue (not the smaller profit), but net revenue will go back into the ecosystems you join.
Start here and see the beginning of Web 3.0. And see the enclosed if you want the longer, better version of the vision that drives us.
The ManyOne Team.
_______________________
Joseph Firmage
Today, the first day of this new year, I am asking you to join and share a new Internet platform and the power it represents with communities around the world. In the right hands, I believe it can catalyze a large ripple effect across our planet.
Why?
1. Because it levels the playing field between those with knowledge and passion and those with money.
2. Because it closes the gap between the middle-man and real-life experts and artists, versus the simple act of publishing "content" on the Internet.
I ask you, this first day of 2009, to present this gift, in behalf of more than 1,000 experts in more than 60 countries (so far), to a community group, a school, a poet, an artist, an activist or to the most important people in your life -- your family.
Share it! Let's shine a light of inspiration needed by so many, now. See how below...
The Future Medium
There is something magical emerging on the Web now. You can see examples of how it can change our world, how it can transform education and how it can inspire generations to come with an online home and permanent record of your life, better than a fake, sponsored and exploited existence on MySpace or FaceBook.
From its infancy, pioneers of the World Wide Web saw a new medium in the making, where potentially anyone, anywhere, anytime could reach out to anyone, anywhere, anytime. It was a medium that could give every document an egalitarian press, where every idea could soar or sink on merit. It was a medium that could break through taboo boundaries and open hardened borders. It was clear that it held the potential to transform virtually every kind of software application from an isolated process that runs on one computer to a distributed process that runs on millions of computers. It was clear that the Internet would one day carry telephone calls, transforming telecommunications both economically and socially. It became clear that the Internet would even replace radio and television broadcasting, radically expanding the "channel spectrum" for news and entertainment, eventually giving anyone with a keyboard, microphone, or video camera their very own broadcasting station.
In the intervening years, much of the promise of the early web has come to fruition. The World Wide Web is now ubiquitous within developed nations (and much of the developing world), and taken for granted as the conduit for information and communication for an ever greater portion of our lives. However, not all of what the Web has become is positive: the promise of everyone having an equal voice and being judged on the merits of what they say has given way to an increasing dominance of large commercial interests. Hand-in-hand with this, the "signal-to-noise" ratio of the Web has deteriorated, making it increasingly difficult to separate valuable, trustworthy information from the "chaff". In addition, the increasing dominance of "short attention theater" entertainment content has eroded the visibility and accessibility of information that expands knowledge among young people and equips citizens to make informed decisions about their future. Despite this (or perhaps, partially as a result of this) the increasingly urgent global problems we face today demand a new kind of information medium dedicated to serve the goals of intellectual development, economic enlightenment, environmental stewardship, technological and social transformation... in essence, a medium that fulfills the original potential of the World Wide Web.
Let's consider a vision of a future Web, and what it may offer to us all. So let us go there, to 2010, just a few years from now, and imagine what might be...
Check out:
http://manyone.net/
Imagine a Web 3.0 medium, distinguished by its *truly* public ownership, where the entire ecosystem within it can help build it, and the best of the builders are actually paid...
Learn about the people backing it:
http://manyone.net/about/
And some of the organizations behind it:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Content_Partners
Join us. Start your own portal, or network of portals. Join for free, or just $8 per month and never see an advertisement anywhere in the entire network. Know that half of all net revenue (not the smaller profit), but net revenue will go back into the ecosystems you join.
Start here and see the beginning of Web 3.0. And see the enclosed if you want the longer, better version of the vision that drives us.
The ManyOne Team.
_______________________
Joseph Firmage
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Other Konformist Kool Sites on the Web
Here's more sites that should interest Konformist readers:
Cracked.com
http://www.cracked.com/
Once known as the best Mad Magazine ripoff in print, it has now morphed into the best Onion ripoff on the web!
DrWhitaker.com
http://www.drwhitaker.com/
Website for Dr. Julian Whitaker, publisher of the award-winning wellness medicine newsletter, Health & Healing...
Morty's Cabin
http://www.mortyscabin.net/
A kool site that is also a Rense.com advertiser...
Pzizz.com
http://pzizz.com/
MP3 downloads to battle insomnia...
Sharper Image
http://www.sharperimage.com/
The URL to go when you have some disposable income to frivolously waste!
Uncle John's Bathroom
http://www.bathroomreader.com/
The Website for the best reference books made to be enjoyed on the toilet - the comfiest seat in the house!
Vince Flynn
http://vinceflynn.com/
The Tom Clancy of the Zeroes!
Cracked.com
http://www.cracked.com/
Once known as the best Mad Magazine ripoff in print, it has now morphed into the best Onion ripoff on the web!
DrWhitaker.com
http://www.drwhitaker.com/
Website for Dr. Julian Whitaker, publisher of the award-winning wellness medicine newsletter, Health & Healing...
Morty's Cabin
http://www.mortyscabin.net/
A kool site that is also a Rense.com advertiser...
Pzizz.com
http://pzizz.com/
MP3 downloads to battle insomnia...
Sharper Image
http://www.sharperimage.com/
The URL to go when you have some disposable income to frivolously waste!
Uncle John's Bathroom
http://www.bathroomreader.com/
The Website for the best reference books made to be enjoyed on the toilet - the comfiest seat in the house!
Vince Flynn
http://vinceflynn.com/
The Tom Clancy of the Zeroes!
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