Addison – (Text Messaging) interesting topic and well-done presentation.
Ada – (YouTube.com) interesting topic and well-done presentation.
James – (Cyberwarfare) interesting topic and informative presentation.
Stevie – (GIS Geographical Information Systems (spatial data) – using technology to help create policy which will increase diversity & maximize effficiency of the system) – unique topic and informative presentation.
Jeremy – (Pedophilia & the Internet) important topic and well-done presentation.
Carlos – (Viral Videos & Viral Politics – new strategies for the candidate, ie, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, IM) – interesting presentation.
Global Rain – Online Source Determines How Debate is Framed (Cognitive Linguistics) (my presentation)
David Anthony (Effects of Internet on Children) important topic and simple presentation.
Cyberterrorism
7 April 2008
Cyberterrorism is the threat of information technology being used against us as a weapon instead of a tool. Hackers working for a religious fundamental organization may become a powerful threat to nation states. But also, information technology can be used for the war of ideas as much as a war relying on cyber attacks. An example are the Middle Eastern groups who are using this networked organization to organize their activities, raise money, and distribute propaganda and recruit members. Computers and disks have been found with instructions on how to make bombs. Chat rooms have been used to pass information and plan activities because everything cannot possibly be monitored by national intelligence. And email is encrypted, and is getting much more difficult to break. However, some of this technology can also work against terrorists and sometimes their activity is logged, and provides law enforcement with the information they are looking for.
Religious Fundamentalism and IT
6 April 2008
One view of religious fundamentalism was that is is contradictory to information technology. But a second study believes that the Internet is culturally constructed to adapt to religious fundamentalism and that community is also affected by information technology.
A religious fundamentalist community is characterized by subordination of large groups to an elite religious authority which control the channels of communication using censorship as their major means of control, by women using technology to discover and pass on information to aid other women, signs the community is trying hard to preserve the original meaning of its texts, with as little adaption to modernity as possible, and religious fundamentalists using IT to get information on their own religions, not to learn about other ones.
Technology is used as a tool to further religious studies and goals. It is also being used for political and economic reasons in an increasingly global market. The technology is quick, cheap, efficient, and allow users more discretion.
