Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.
This week’s High Five is about all things Internet. It includes some interesting uses, abuses and threats that are not only worthy of mention but long term monitoring.
#5: The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model
I don’t generally use this space just to list “cool stuff.” However, in addition to having pizazz, it seems to me that this model has some serious potential to become a game-changer.
Link: Wired
#4: Optimize LinkedIn Profile for SEO
Mike Volpe from Hubspot provides some very simple yet important tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile (it led me to immediately make a couple of quick tweaks). I am constantly evangelizing how important your online presence is, and this short tutorial is great for maximizing its effectiveness.
#3: China Blocks Wired.com With ‘Great Firewall’ – Updated
The conclusion from this article is that China’s algorithms for censoring the Internet were messing around with Wired magazine’s availability, which seems to be intermittently available. The interesting nuggets from this article are the notations that China tends to block any sites with RSS feeds and blogs. Why RSS feeds? Because they are a push mechanism instead of pull. In other words, it’s easier to track people when they have to visit a site to read what’s on it. I know none of this is particularly shocking, but it’s important to understand what governments can do to encumber the Internet. And before you start feeling too comfortable in the U.S. or E.U., read on…
Link: Wired
#2: Court to FCC: You Don’t Have Power to Enforce Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is the principle that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should not be able to deliberately throttle back bandwidth for particular sites or protocols or otherwise interfere with them. This ruling is about Comcast’s efforts to hamper use of the file sharing site BitTorrent. Since these “torrents” are frequently used to illegally share files, there may not be much sympathy. However, consider that Comcast has also been accused of interfering with Vonage as well, who is a competitor to their voice over IP service. The courts and government seem to be setting the stage for an Internet that is going to be patrolled, regulated, fettered, and not at all like the one we are used to right now.
Link: Wired
#1: Senator Demands IP Treaty Details
This is a follow from last week’s story about the possible efforts by U.S. and E.U. authorities to deputize ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to be the Copyright Gestapo. This week, we see that a U.S. Senator is having to file a Freedom of Information Act request to see the details of this treaty. That the government is trying to hide information is nothing new, but the fact that this Senator is from the same political party as the current administration makes you wonder what’s in this bill that they don’t want people to know.
Link: Wired
Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…
