Internet

EDITORIAL: Bill would help close state’s internet divide

By Gertha Selvidge 3 weeks ago

Categories: Editorial, Opinion

The coronavirus crisis exposed a lot of unexpected holes in our preparedness for various problems —everything from not having enough intensive-care hospital beds to running short of toilet paper.

With regard to educating our youth and accessing health care, we realized we don’t have enough broadband access to serve everyone. Worse, we don’t even know exactly where the gaps are in coverage or how bad the problem is.

Inadequate or nonexistent high-speed affordable internet access is particularly a problem for many students and their teachers at home trying to fulfill their educational goals.

It’s particularly a problem for New Yorkers needing to communicate with medical professionals through tele-health.

It’s particularly a problem when it comes to helping our ravaged economy recover from the crisis because the new at-home worker doesn’t have adequate internet service and businesses can’t meet the needs of their growing base of internet customers.

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The bipartisan effort to change laws about speech on the internet

By Gertha Selvidge 3 weeks ago

Internet companies, websites and web applications have a kind of legal immunity that they say makes the internet as we know it possible. First, they’re generally immune from legal liability if a Facebook or Twitter user posts something illegal. They’re also immune from liability if they take down a post they find objectionable. Users generally can’t legally challenge that.

There’s a concerted campaign underway in Congress to roll back some of that immunity. “Marketplace Morning Report” host Sabri Ben-Achour spoke about that effort with Daphne Keller, director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Sabri Ben-Achour: Just how big is this effort to weaken these types of legal immunity the internet companies enjoy?

Daphne Keller: It is very big. It has support on both sides of the aisle, although you find that often what

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6 whistleblowers allege misconduct by government media boss

By Gertha Selvidge 3 weeks ago

Six senior officials at the U.S. Agency for Global Media have filed a whistleblower complaint with the State Department’s inspector general and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, alleging that they were retaliated against for raising concerns about the new political leadership installed earlier this year by President Donald Trump.

The 32-page complaint, obtained by POLITICO and being shared with Capitol Hill, accuses top officials at the taxpayer-funded media group of abusing their authority, violating the law and mismanaging the organization.

In perhaps the complaint’s most explosive allegation, its authors say one of them was told the media group’s CEO Michael Pack or one of his aides ordered a senior USAGM official to conduct research on the voting history of at least one employee at the media agency — a violation of laws protecting civil servants from undue political influence or reprisal.

“[T]he research was to be utilized in evaluating

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DepEd pushes for internet allowance for teachers for blended learning

By Gertha Selvidge 3 weeks ago



a close up of a black computer mouse and keyboard: Saul Loeb/AFP

Saul Loeb/AFP

The Department of Education (DepEd) is preparing for the possible provision of internet allowance for teachers and other personnel for blended learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a budget hearing on Tuesday, DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla requested lawmakers from the House of Representatives to make the provision of the internet allowance legal.

She explained that providing the allowance first needs to undergo the process of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as well as the Commission on Audit (COA).

“We are just complying with whatever would be authorized as an allowance kasi meron din batas dito kagaya ng Salary Standardization Law na in-enumerate kung ano lang ang valid allowances,” she said.

“Automatic po ‘yan, magkakaroon po tayo ng COA finding kapag nagbigay tayo ng allowance na hindi naman po nakalagay sa General Appropriations Act at Salary Standardization Law,” she added.

Marikina City Representative Stella Quimbo vowed support

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Address To The General Assembly | 22 September 2020

By Gertha Selvidge 3 weeks ago

Wednesday, 23 September 2020, 6:14 am
Speech: United Nations Secretary-General

Excellencies,

In a world turned upside down, this General Assembly Hall is among the strangest sights of all.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our annual meeting beyond recognition.

But it has made it more important than ever.

In January, I addressed the General Assembly and identified “four horsemen” in our midst — four threats that endanger our common future.

First, the highest global geo-strategic tensions in years.

Second, an existential climate crisis.

Third, deep and growing global mistrust.

And fourth, the dark side of the digital world.

But a fifth horseman was lurking in the shadows.

Since January, the COVID-19 pandemic has galloped across the globe – joining the four other horsemen and adding to the fury of each.

And every day, the grim toll grows, families grieve, societies stagger, and the pillars of our world wobble on already shaky

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Eugene’s urban reserve options, high-speed Internet in Springfield

By Gertha Selvidge 4 weeks ago

Eugene City Council & Lane County Board of Commissioners



The multistory corridor between the Lane County Courthouse and the Lane County Public Service Building. [Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard] - registerguard.com

The multistory corridor between the Lane County Courthouse and the Lane County Public Service Building. [Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard] – registerguard.com

Details: 5:30 p.m., Monday, joint Eugene City Council and Lane County Board of Commissioners work session, (Attend online: https://bit.ly/32HiVXR; https://bit.ly/2DTOhkz)

What: The joint work session Monday will provide the Eugene City Council and the Lane County Board of Commissioners with an update on planning work for urban reserves, which involves identifying land for potential future expansion of urban growth boundaries. The joint meeting sets up October meetings for the governing bodies in which staff will be given direction on preferred urban reserve options to bring into the formal adoption process. The two bodies have joint project decision-making authority.

The Eugene Planning Commission made its recommendation on Aug. 17, choosing an option that reserves enough land to meet the projected needs

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Sydney Mikayla Learned 1 Important Lesson About Social Media During the Pandemic

By Gertha Selvidge 4 weeks ago

Sydney Mikayla is a new face on General Hospital. She joined the show last year as Trina Robinson, the teenage daughter of Portia Robinson and Marcus Taggert.

General Hospital is introducing Mikayla to many new fans and social media followers. However, the 17-year-old is still learning about how to navigate social media as a TV actor. Mikayla recently revealed one important lesson she has been learning about social media during the pandemic.

Sydney Mikayla has been acting since a young age

RELATED: ‘General Hospital’: The ‘Crazy’ Way Sydney Mikayla Memorizes Her Lines for the Show

General Hospital is actually not Mikayla’s first time working in front of the camera. She has actually been working since a young age, especially since her mother, Sonya, is an actor as well.

As reported by Soap Opera Digest, Mikayla’s first role was on her favorite childhood show, Yo Gabba Gabba!. Later on,

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Wayback Machine will automatically preserve Cloudflare-powered websites

By Gertha Selvidge 4 weeks ago

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has joined hands with Cloudflare for automated content distribution. As a result of this partnership, the Wayback Machine will automatically archive content from websites that enable Cloudflare’s Always Online service. And even when the original host is not available to Cloudflare, the Internet Archive will ensure the pages are available to users.

Wayback Machine Save Page Features

Internet Archive joins hands with Cloudflare

Internet Archive says Cloudflare has become a core infrastructure for the Web. By this partnership with Cloudflare, Internet Archive hopes to make the web more reliable for everyone.

“The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has an impressive infrastructure that can archive the web at scale,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “By working together, we can take another step toward making the Internet more resilient by stopping server issues for our customers and in turn from interrupting businesses and users online.”

How does the alliance between

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Sarasota County libraries look to the Internet to boost digital literacy

By Gertha Selvidge 4 weeks ago

Emily Wunderlich
 
| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

As a digital services librarian for Sarasota County, Heather Gorman was used to seeing 30 people at a time who wanted to learn about using their iPhone, iPad or other Apple devices. 

Public libraries, she said, have always been an “institutional mainstay” where people could go for answers – whether for research, entertainment or simply learning a new skill.

But all of that changed in March, when libraries closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The closures challenged the county library system to rethink the way it continued to offer public services.

“Since the closure, we’ve really had to pivot the way we’re reaching our patrons through programming,” she said. “We aren’t able to physically meet them at the library due to social distancing, but we wanted to meet them online.” 

Most of the county’s branch libraries reopened with modified hours on June 15. Patrons are

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Lack of internet access continues to impact students’ online learning experiences – The Cavalier Daily

By Gertha Selvidge 4 weeks ago

Varied accessibility to broadband internet has compromised the quality of education for University students, as most classes are online and rely on high speed internet for synchronous remote learning — just 27 percent of classes have an in-person component.

Broadband refers to a high-speed internet that is always on. According to a report from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, approximately 10 percent of college students in Virginia do not have access to broadband. For Virginia students overall, those in rural areas tend to have less access than those in urban areas. The University, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County are all classified as rural according to the report.

Fourth-year College student Avery Gagne stayed home in Mechanicsville, Va. when students were sent back last spring and for the first two weeks of this semester. He has only one internet service provider available at his address. As

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