Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, January 13, 2003 at 11:49:27 AM CET

Saddam Pulled the Plug

Iraq has blocked access to the Internet in response to a US-inspired e-mail campaign calling on military and civilian leaders in Iraq to turn away from President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi sources said Sunday. Albawaba and Spiegel (german) are reporting.

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, fabulous, January 10, 2003 at 7:08:13 PM CET

Hacker dictionary

The Jargon File is a common heritage of the hacker culture. very interessting, also with a spotlight to early hacking culture like B1FF

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 29, 2002 at 1:37:10 AM CET

Problems with Nigerian Frauds are getting bigger

The german newspaper taz has some nice articles about the nigerian email frauds. It seems that the whole problem is bigger as it would appear. Seems also like parts of the government are involved in the whole machinery. Also deadly cases have been reported. And I read today in a non-public forum that there are also a lot credit card frauds via the internet coming from nigeria and indonesia: "I just got an order for 10 identical pairs of shoes from Lagos, Nigeria using a yahoo email account.

1. First of all, nobody ever orders 10 pairs of the same size and style.
2. I don't know of too many ballroom dancers in Nigeria."

This is really a very interesting adoption of culture, isn't it? More on the nigerian frauds in this older article from Wired. See also our older story.

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 27, 2002 at 8:14:02 PM CET

Internet-Kids in Peru

I found a interesting amateur film doku about two kids in peru, who earn their money at a central place in cusco by selling postcards to tourists and after that spend the money to internet cafes, writing e-mails and playing starcraft. The article (scroll down to the entry "Feeding the Wired") provides also some links to internet use in peru.

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 12, 2002 at 11:24:56 AM CET

Two Weblog Conferences

Well, this is a weblog, so we have to write about, but this is also a weblog about cyberethnologica and a scientific look at internet culture, and so we have to report it anyway: Two days ago there was a conference in California called Supernova. Quite important people were speaking about distributed computing and dezentralized intelligence. Google-Founder Sergey Brin was talking, and also "visionary" Howard Rheingold and one of the first bloggers, Dave Winer. Cory Doctorov from Wired and founder of the collaborative weblog BoingBoing.net was also there. And, as you can read here, in nearly every panel they were talking about weblogs. This is an interesting development.

Another conference, only dedicated to weblogs, will be held in Vienna next year. A Call for Papers just has been published. But at the moment it looks like they are focussed a little bit on the question how weblogs could be used in business.

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 9, 2002 at 11:35:07 AM CET

Software and Human Rights

At Heise.de is an article about an interview with Richard Stallman, a important free software guru, and the BBC. He says, that every time you buy software from companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun and Adobe you hand over much more than just money, you also give up basic freedoms and human rights. At the heise article are also information and links to the effects of Bill Gates' visit to india on the Open Source Movement of Bangalore/India.

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 6, 2002 at 6:07:58 PM CET

The World's Sensitive Cultural Seismic Meter

The NYTimes writes about the logs of Google and how they are representing a huge part of the actual thoughts of the world. "But the data could only reflect patterns, not explain them. That is a paradox of a Google log: it does not capture social phenomena per se, but merely the shadows they cast across the Internet. Very interesting! If you don't have an free account at NYTimes, you can use mine: user:ethno password:log123

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 6, 2002 at 8:06:05 AM CET

Worshipping at the Altar of Mac?

The Mac computer community is like a new-age religion, one expert argues, but is it truly a cult? Read more at Wired

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 4, 2002 at 11:00:22 AM CET

Censorship on the Internet

Censorship on the Internet: A Bibliography Via Monolog

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 2, 2002 at 2:49:40 PM CET

Gay in Bombay

Online gathering places provide safe harbor for India's gays. But they may prevent some people from coming out, writes Salon.com. It's also about the problems of "Cyber-Aktivism".

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 2, 2002 at 2:13:01 PM CET

The Cult of Mac

There are 25 million people around the world who use Macintosh computers, according to Apple. But unlike ordinary personal computers, people don't simply use Macs, they become fans. They develop a passion for the machines, which can sometimes turn into an obsession. (...) The biannual Macworld conference is often compared to a religious revival meeting, where Steve Jobs is worshipped like a rock star, or a charismatic cult leader.", writes Wired.

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Dept. of cyberethnologica, kerlone, December 1, 2002 at 7:24:14 PM CET

Chat Bibliography

Interesting for all cyberspace anthropologists doing research about internet chats and MUD-communications: the Chat Bibliography. Via Monolog

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