EFF’s trend watch reports on global internet censorship, social networking privacy and more…

Online Censorship Grows in 2010, Showing Power of Netizens

Despite some good PR for online freedom this year, online censorship grew and became more subtle in 2010. Online propaganda remains strong within countries like China and Iran, where media censorship is everywhere and the governments have mastered online censorship tools. These countries are as efficient as hacktivists when it comes to controlling information.

2010 Trend Watch Update: Global Internet Censorship

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #3, Global Internet Censorship, where we predicted the following:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Social Networking Privacy

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #9, social networking privacy, where we predicted the following:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Attacks on Cryptography

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #1, Attacks on Cryptography, where we predicted:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Hardware Hacking

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #4, hardware hacking:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Net Neutrality

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #6, Net Neutrality: The Rubber Hits The Road, where we predicted:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Web Browser Privacy

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #12, Web Browser Privacy, where we predicted the following:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Three Strikes: Truth and Consequences

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #10, Three Strikes: Truth and Consequences, where we predicted:

2010 Trend Watch Update: Online Video

At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going through each of our predictions one by one to see how accurate we were in our trend-spotting. Today, we’re looking back on Trend #7, On-line Video, where we predicted:

The Social Media Learning Curve in 2011

As we head into 2011, social media is firmly established as something that most companies should embrace. It?s a ?when? rather than ?if? proposition given social media?s potential as a new and different communications, marketing and sales platform, as well as the dynamics of the competitive landscape.

Are Social Bookmarking Sites Dying?

A couple of weeks ago Technorati released the State of The Blogosphere 2010, and one part of their report that caught my attention was the traffic sources breakdown.

Geographies of Internet Cultures

I study internet video firms and so participant observation means being stationed for a good amount of time at a firm?s office. Upon a recent request to do just that, a founder of a firm wrote, ?the key problem is that we do NOT have a ?site?? you can come to NYC but half the days there is almost no one here. Potentially a better approach is to have you do a ?virtual? site.? A company not having a site, as well as the supposed duality of the actual and the virtual, are common ideas within the digital technology world. And yet, opposed to what many internet gurus and entrepreneurs prophesize, place remains an essential component of the personal and business lives of internet workers.

5 E-Book Trends That Will Change the Future of Publishing

Online Social Networking in Activism: A Quick Look at Diaspora

When Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, two video blogging youth activists in Azerbaijan, were detained on trumped up charges in Baku, the country?s capital, supporters and friends naturally used Facebook to campaign for their release. Indeed, one contact started to add pretty much everyone she could find to the online social networking site, accepting pretty much every request she received even if in many cases she didn?t actually know them or have any mutual friends in common. While spreading her network wide in order to send out information and updates, there were obviously risks involved, with reports from neighboring Iran already providing enough cause for concern. And given the political environment in the region, there?s also no reason to assume that the same couldn?t happen in Azerbaijan as well, especially as whole networks of activists, and what they say online, could be monitored and revealed if privacy was compromised.