On Watching the Internet.

Two separate and yet related stories.

Lewis Page writing in The Register observes that Sir David Pepper, Director of GCHQ has noted how difficult it is to monitor conversations on the Internet. It would appear that GCHQ's

"ability to intercept conversations and messages is seriously undermined by internet-protocol (IP) communications."

In his report to the Intelligence and Security Committee the Director reported that the Internet is not quite like the telephone network!

"The Internet uses a very different approach to communications in that, rather than having any sense of fixed lines like that, there is a big network with a number of nodes, but for any individual communicating, their communications are broken up into shorter packets. So whether you are sending an email or any other form ofInternet communication, anything you send is broken up into packets. These packets are then routed around the network and may go in any one of a number of different routes because the network is designed to be resilient…
This [represents] the biggest change in telecoms technology since the invention ofthe telephone. It is a complete revolution…"

Readers in Wales will be interested no doubt to note that the ISC is chaired by The Rt. Hon Paul Murphy, MP (Torfaen) recently appointed Secretary of State for Wales.

In a similar story Nicholas Carr points us to the Washington Post, which notes that

"U.S. intelligence officials are cautioning that popular Internet services that enable computer users to adopt cartoon-like personas in three-dimensional online spaces also are creating security vulnerabilities by opening novel ways for terrorists and criminals to move money, organize and conduct corporate espionage."

It would seem that Linden's Labs virtual world could pose a threat. While we in the UK are wondering whether Second Life could be of educational use, the CIA has moved in and

"created a few virtual islands for internal use, such as training and unclassified meetings, government officials said."

Second Life doesn't need this kind of publicity, so

"Officials from Linden Lab have initiated meetings with people in the intelligence community about virtual worlds. They try to stress that systems to monitor avatar activity and identify risky behavior are built into the technology, according to Ken Dreifach, Linden's deputy general counsel.

Dreifach said that all financial transactions are reviewed electronically, and some are reviewed by people. For investigators, there also are also plenty of trails that avatars and users leave behind.

"There are a real range and depth of electronic footprints," Dreifach said. "We don't disclose those fraud tools.""

Even Big Brother has a Second Life.

On News Readers, Gambling and Second Life

Returning to Google Reader after a break of several weeks has brought its own challenges.
What to read? What to ignore?

A colleague remarked that it might be easier to hit the "mark all as read" button.

I'm afraid to use the mark all as read button, (just in case I miss something really important); yet I have no problem with placing unread newspapers straight in the recycling bin.

Which means that in my world it's easier to ignore the printed news in the real world than it is to ignore the news in cyberspace. To resolve this problem I've been catching up with my news feeds a few at a time, which in turn means that the order of stories that I comment on here or store at deli.co.us may seem a little erratic for a while.

Here are two stories that caught my eye.
Compare and contrast.

New legislation has been introduced in the UK "bringing casinos, bookmakers and online betting providers under a new regulatory body". This is of little concern to me as I've been in a casino only twice in my life, don't bet and despite my interest in the web have never been tempted to gamble online. Included in the new regulations is a change in the law that will allow gambling operators to advertise on TV and radio.

At the same time as gambling is to some extent being legitimised in the real world, Linden Labs the operators and owners of Second Life have banned gambling in the portion of cyberspace under their control.

Isn't that strange?

This Life

Second Life continues to catch media attention.
I still don't get it and really don't understand the hype.
Those people that believe that Second Life is the sort of place where we can create a virtual classroom where students will come to learn in an alternate reality are so misguided.
Yeah its a cool tool, but its not the beginning of a bave new world.
What matters is how we might use it to persuade students to come together to reflect upon their learning.
Its hard to do that in the real world.
It might be harder than we think to do it in a virtual world

Richard and Judy were there yesterday, or were they?
They talked about it on their show, displayed their avatars and made them jump.
I was watching them on the TV.
Their discussion showed that they weren't there, I'm not sure that they had been there. They certainly didn't design their avatars.
I guess their researchers were there pretending to be Richard and Judy.

They had some bloke talk about spending more time in Second Life, than he does in this life.
No.
He spends his time in this life sitting at his computer, no different to spending time in a book, in a dvd or on the playstation.

I think everyone should have a look at this place and then perhaps spend a little more time in the real world!
Read the response made by Linden Labs to the creator of Get a First Life.
Its hard to see where the parody ends and the real world begins.

Stephen Downes comments on ebay banning the sale of virtual goods here.
I'm with ebay. At least they don't want to be seen to be making money out of nothing.

Ephemeral profiles

Browsing Apophenia earlier this month I was interested by Danah Boyd's observations on the readiness with which teens create new identities for themselves when using social type websites.
I love the phrase "ephemeral profiles" that she uses to describe such activity.

I am no longer a teen and have such profiles, many of which I will never use again. Many I have forgotten, outgrown or just don't need any more. Some have been created in pursuit of academic research, some for the hell of it and some because a particular web site might have needed me to create a profile (with an email address) so that I can be contacted, spammed, sold to interested parties or just counted. I hope that I have developed a mature(ish) approach to investigating such websites and have created an on line persona for just that purpose.

To be honest like many of the teens, I was finding it difficult to remember the passwords and user names and was reduced to writing them on scraps of paper, post it notes or in my notebook! I considered investing in a password collecting application.

However if there are so many of these abandoned personae lurking in cyberspace what credence can we place in the statistics offered to us about the use of social websites?

Our work here at Glamorgan, reinforces to some extent the observations made by Danah.
A number of students were required to create a blog using Blogger in beta as part of their course work; of those at least 12% created more than one version of their blog before settling on the final version. The ephemeral blogs still exist often containing just one post and can be linked to from the bloggers profile.
Several of our would be bloggers had to start the process of blogging again, having forgotten their user name, blog name or password. Several (far too many) created their blogs in Blogger and had to start the process again. Our small contribution to the blogosphere has littered cyberspace with abandoned profiles and blogs.

When researching Blogger in beta during last summer I created several additional dummy / research blogs with which to simulate student blogging activity. Using these blogs over several days I wrote dummy blog entries, made dummy blog comments and linked blogs together. During this time I additionally deleted and altered the dates of blog entries, tracked my own activity using RSS readers and undertook searches in Technorati, Google, Google blog search and experimented with Del.icio.us tagging. All of this was undertaken with an ephemeral profile. I suspect that many other students of the Internet do the same. When I was content and comfortable with the medium I deleted all the dummy blogs. Are they still being counted?

How many of the avatars allegedly wandering through Second Life consuming electricity at the same rate as a Brazillian actually exist?
How many of the blogs allegedly created and tracked every minute actually exist?

I've just noticed that Bill Thompson at the BBC points to Danah's work also and develops a similar argument with a little more style and substance.

Ethics?

Now here is an interesting thought.

Second Life might prove to be an interesting venue for the completion of experiments that might cause ethical problems in the real world.

Are there no ethics in virtual space?

Ethical concerns don't seem to worry some bloggers.

Second Life?

I have been accused in another place of spending too much time on the internet, but in fact all I do is use my RSS reader carefully.

Over the last couple of months we have seen how the profile of Second Life has grown. Indeed for while it was almost impossible to open a newspaper, read an e magazine or even scan a news feed without seeing a mention, an article or a link to Second Life. I spent a little time there a while ago and have to confess I was bored.

Whatever we think of Second Life or its many inhabitants; we cannot fail to be impressed by their Marketing department who have kept our eye on their activity in the real worlds of music, marketing, science and education. Only this month Judge Richard's A. Posner popped up to speak and talk about his recently published book Not a Suicide Pact. As a non resident of Second Life I missed the talk but the transcript of the dialogue seems interesting, covering a range of legal, ethical and moral topics.

Although I understand the urge to want to participate I was surprised to read earlier this week of the homeless teenage avatar representing the Asociacion Menajeros de la Paz (Messenegers of Peace).

Their web site states
"the brand new trend in internet, Second Life is a virtual world where players can create their appearance, objects and properties, but also it's possible to help improve life in the real world.
Since November 16th, a virtual homeless boy named MenajerosDeLaPaz jubilee is living in this world, warning the residents that mny people still need help and everyone can do something against poverty, injustice and abandon."

Good for them.......but I'm not sure.........it all seems a bit gimmicky to me. Perhaps it won't be long before The Big Issue is on sale. Then possibly Lindens could be put to real use.

My Boing Boing feed pointed me at this critical article by Clay Shirkey that makes interesting reading.

He writes
"I suspect Second Life is largely a "Try Me" virus, where reports of a strange and wonderful new thing draw the masses to log in and try it, but whose ability to retain anything but a fraction of those users is limited. The pattern of a Try Me virus is a rapid spread of first time users, most of whom drop out quickly, with most of the dropouts becoming immune to later use."

I think I'm with Shirkey!

(A version of this post first appeared as a comment)