Nuevas Tecnologías (Continuación)

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This month, the organization that governs Internet domain names began allowing addresses without any Latin characters. Countries that use Cyrillic and Arabic characters were the first to change, with others on the way. Has the World Wide Web just become a little wider? Three writers offer their answers.

Goddess English of Uttar Pradesh.

By Manu Joseph, the deputy editor of the Indian newsweekly OPEN and the author of the forthcoming novel Serious Men.

A fortnight ago, in a poor village in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, work began on a temple dedicated to Goddess English. Standing on a wooden desk was the idol of English — a bronze figure in robes, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding aloft a pen.…  Seguir leyendo »

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In 2015, 3.5 billion people — half of mankind — will have access to the Internet. There has never been such a revolution in freedom of communication and freedom of expression. But how will this new medium be used? What obstacles will the enemies of the Internet come up with?

Extremist, racist and defamatory Web sites and blogs disseminate odious opinions in real time. They have made the Internet a weapon of war and hate. Web sites are attacked. Violent movements spread propaganda and false information. It is very hard for democracies to control them. I do not subscribe to the naïve belief that a new technology, however efficient and powerful, is bound to advance liberty on all fronts.…  Seguir leyendo »

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En 2015, 3.500 millones de personas -es decir, la mitad de la humanidad- tendrán acceso a Internet. Será la mayor revolución que haya conocido la libertad de comunicación y expresión. ¿Pero cómo se usará este nuevo medio? ¿Qué nuevos meandros, qué nuevos obstáculos pondrán los enemigos de Internet?

Las tecnologías modernas aportan cosas buenas y cosas malas. Los sitios web y los blogs extremistas, racistas y difamatorios difunden de forma instantánea opiniones detestables. Convierten Internet en un instrumento de guerra y odio. Hay ataques contra páginas web y se recluta en los foros a internautas para llevar a cabo proyectos destructores.…  Seguir leyendo »

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En 2015, trois milliards et demi de personnes - soit la moitié de l'humanité - auront accès à Internet. Jamais la liberté de communication et d'expression aura connu une telle révolution. Mais quel usage sera-t-il fait de ce nouveau media ? Quelles nouvelles dérives, quels nouveaux barrages seront mis en place par les ennemis d'Internet ?

Les technologies modernes apportent le meilleur et le pire. Les sites et blogs extrémistes, racistes, diffamatoires diffusent en temps réel des opinions détestables. Ils font d'Internet un outil de guerre et de haine. Des sites sont attaqués, des internautes recrutés sur les forums pour des projets destructeurs.…  Seguir leyendo »

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“Transparency is non-negotiable”, declared Europe’s new commissioner for digital issues, Neelie Kroes, in a speech last week laying out her thoughts on net neutrality. “In a complex system like the Internet, it must be crystal-clear what the practices of operators controlling the network mean for all users”.

Ms. Kroes’s comments reflect the decision made by the European Union in November to avoid any of the more extreme regulations that could stifle the innovation that has been the hallmark of the Internet. Instead, the union chose a more measured approach that emphasizes transparency.

This at odds with the Federal Communications Commission, which is currently considering versions of net neutrality regulation that would severely restrict firms’ business models and pricing flexibility.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The Internet is one of the world's most important means of free expression. Yet censorship of the Web is growing; more than 40 governments censor information today, up from about four in 2002. And some governments are blocking -- or proposing to block -- content even before it reaches their citizens. Authoritarian countries are building firewalls and cracking down on dissent, dealing harshly with anyone who breaks the rules.

We at Google believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship online. That's why we are launching a tool that will give people information about the government requests for content removal and user data that Google receives from around the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Cuando el gran público se sitúa ante una videoconsola, únicamente piensa en divertirse, difícilmente vea sus múltiples aplicaciones en otros ámbitos. Pero la verdad es que los dispositivos de hoy (la Play-Station de Sony, la Xbox de Microsoft y demás), extremadamente potentes e innovadores, están renovando un mercado que mueve al año 30.000 millones de euros, más que la industria cinematográfica. Y es que los videojuegos no son sólo cosas de niños.

El célebre Pong,una de las primeras producciones de la historia (1972), explicitó con un rudimentario partido de tenis la promesa de la simulación de la vida real. Cuatro décadas después, los videojuegos actuales quieren llegar a ese mismo objetivo, aunque a través de persecuciones en el espacio exterior, guerras en la selva o carreras de bólidos de fórmula 1.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Today, Apple’s iPad goes on sale, and many see this as a Gutenberg moment, with digital multimedia moving one step closer toward replacing old-fashioned books.

Speaking as an author and editor of illustrated nonfiction, I agree that important change is afoot, but not in the way most people see it. In order for electronic books to live up to their billing, we have to fix a system that is broken: getting permission to use copyrighted material in new work. Either we change the way we deal with copyrights — or works of nonfiction in a multimedia world will become ever more dull and disappointing.…  Seguir leyendo »

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La batalla de Google contra China es una historia que define nuestra época. Como si fuera un león ante un cocodrilo, el poder blando mundial de la empresa estadounidense de Internet se enfrenta al poder duro territorial del Estado chino, en un choque al que contribuyen la mayor revolución en la tecnología de la información desde que Johannes Gutenberg inventó la imprenta de tipos móviles en el siglo XV y la mayor transferencia mundial de poder desde la ascensión geopolítica de Occidente, que algunos historiadores sitúan también en el siglo XV. Lo que es indudable es esto: tardaremos en ver un claro ganador.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Everybody has his own tale of terrible translation to tell — an incomprehensible restaurant menu in Croatia, a comically illiterate warning sign on a French beach. “Human-engineered” translation is just as inadequate in more important domains. In our courts and hospitals, in the military and security services, underpaid and overworked translators make muddles out of millions of vital interactions. Machine translation can certainly help in these cases. Its legendary bloopers are often no worse than the errors made by hard-pressed humans.

Machine translation has proved helpful in more urgent situations as well. When Haiti was devastated by an earthquake in January, aid teams poured in to the shattered island, speaking dozens of languages — but not Haitian Creole.…  Seguir leyendo »

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My band is famous for music videos. We direct them ourselves or with the help of friends, we shoot them on shoestring budgets and, like our songs, albums and concerts, we see them as creative works and not as our record company’s marketing tool.

In 2006 we made a video of us dancing on treadmills for our song “Here It Goes Again.” We shot it at my sister’s house without telling EMI, our record company, and posted it on the fledgling YouTube without EMI’s permission. Technically, this put us afoul of our contract, since we need our record company’s approval to distribute copies of the songs that they finance.…  Seguir leyendo »

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How Orwell would have delighted in satirising today’s tech titans’ perpetual war. Remember when Apple v Microsoft was the defining Oceania v Eurasia battle for supremacy? If so you’re experiencing a doubleplusungood false memory: both are now unimpeachable allies, working to replace Google with Bing as the iPhone’s default search provider. Likewise, you would simply be mistaken to recall Google’s chequebook-wielding flirtation with Facebook three years ago.

Google and Facebook, as every goodthinker knows, are dangerously implacable enemies.

That war entered a venomous new stage last week, when the internet’s biggest search company announced that it had also become a Facebook-style social network.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Tras meses de incertidumbre, la solución de la ecuación parece ahora más sencilla. Por un lado, están las industrias culturales (cine, televisión, radio, música, videojuegos...), acuciadas por la crisis. Por el otro, una tecnología como la telefonía móvil y el resto de dispositivos portátiles (iPhone, Blackberry y demás), con unas unas tasas de crecimiento prodigiosas en términos de usuarios y rentabilidad económica.

Entonces, ¿podrían estos aparatos, que han entrado a formar parte de la vida del ciudadano común con una facilidad enorme y una rapidez inusitada, aliviar la ansiedad de los empresarios del entretenimiento y la comunicación?

Pues a tenor de lo que se presentará en la edición del 2010 del Mobile World Congress, la principal feria del mundo en el sector, que se celebrará en Barcelona entre el 15 y el 18 de febrero, sí.…  Seguir leyendo »

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As they marvel at Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, the technorati seem to be focusing on where this leaves Amazon’s popular e-book business. But the much more important question is why Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future, whether it’s tablet computers like the iPad, e-books like Amazon’s Kindle, smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, search engines like Google, digital music systems like iPod and iTunes or popular Web services like Facebook and Twitter.

Some people take joy in Microsoft’s struggles, as the popular view in recent years paints the company as an unrepentant intentional monopolist.…  Seguir leyendo »

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A decade and a half ago, when I was prime minister of Sweden, then-President Bill Clinton and I had the first e-mail exchange between heads of state. Already our two nations were at the forefront of the technological revolution about to transform our world.

We had just left an era in which communist dictatorships had tried to control fax machines and the Moscow phone directory was a closely held secret. Today, fax machines are definitely yesterday, and classical phone directories are more or less out of business.

Since that groundbreaking e-mail exchange we have seen the revolution in mobile communication coming out of Europe and the Internet revolution coming out of the United States transform the politics and economics of our world.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Literature has always relied on technology. We wouldn't have the Dead Sea Scrolls had the ancients failed to invent papyrus, just as we wouldn't have "The Da Vinci Code" if Gutenberg hadn't come out with movable type.

Technology has also abetted literature by enabling the wealth and leisure that fueled the rise of the popular press -- and allowed for such luxuries as a class of professional writers and a large campus establishment devoted to the literary arts.

It is important to bear in mind that technology is not the sworn enemy of literature as Apple prepares (according to frantic rumor) to unveil its much-anticipated new tablet computer on Jan.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The spread of information networks is forming a new nervous system for our planet. When something happens in Haiti or Hunan, the rest of us learn about it in real time – from real people. And we can respond in real time as well. Americans eager to help in the aftermath of a disaster and the girl trapped in the supermarket are connected in ways that were not even imagined a year ago, even a generation ago. That same principle applies to almost all of humanity today.

Now, in many respects, information has never been so free. There are more ways to spread more ideas to more people than at any moment in history.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Google's stand against Chinese censorship and surveillance – triggered by suspicions that China had been trying to hack activists' ­accounts – will be rightly lauded by defenders of human rights. But when it comes to upholding Google's vow not to "do evil" by its ­users, China is by no means the company's only headache. Before those of us in western democracies get too high on our horses about Google and China, we should remember that the Chinese are not the only ones putting pressure on Google in ways that are arguably harmful to freedom of expression, even when intentions are honorable.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Después de superada la crisis de la web 1.0 representada por la quiebra de las compañías puntocom a principios del presente siglo, la web ha evolucionado hacia otro modelo menos orientado al negocio y al comercio electrónico. Esta nueva etapa, conocida como web 2.0 o redes sociales, se basa más en la comunicación entre personas y comunidades (many to many frente al one to one). En esta etapa había esperanza de que las empresas de Internet alcanzaran su rentabilidad gracias a la publicidad y al tráfico generado. Esto provocó que los grandes nombres de Internet movieran ficha ante el fenómeno de las redes sociales buscando nuevas sinergias (Google-YouTube, My Space-News Corporation, Facebook-Microsoft, etcétera) o se introdujeran en el negocio de los buscadores (Microsoft-Yahoo).…  Seguir leyendo »

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What is an e-book?

News that the heirs of William Styron, the author of “Sophie’s Choice,” are licensing the electronic-publishing rights for some of his Random House books to Open Road Integrated Media got me to pondering: Are e-books a new frontier in publishing, a fresh version of the author’s work? Or are they simply the latest editions of the books produced by publishers like Random House?

It was an old-fashioned book publisher who decided that William Styron’s work was worth reading in the first place. Hiram Haydn signed him up and edited his debut novel, “Lie Down in Darkness,” which Random House published in 1951.…  Seguir leyendo »