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Archive for March, 2008


Bell Throttling and Net Neutrality in Canada

Published March 28th, 2008 in net neutrality | No Comments »

There has been some news in the Canadian blogosphere about Bell Canada’s introduction of traffic shapping (or throttling - “or the practice of shaping Internet traffic by selectively limiting bandwidth”). Essentially, Bell will be slowing down access in peak hours to P2P applications, like BitTorrent. This has affected legal uses of this technology, like downloading TV programmes from the CBC, which has chosen to experiment with this technology to offer their programming in a new way.

Michael Geist wrote a great post about the whole thing two days ago, and points to a Facebook group. The Council of Canadians has also set up an action alert, asking Canadians to write to the Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice.

This is another issue of Net Neutrality. Comcast in the US has been taken to task for doing the exact same thing. (They are now collaborating with BitTorrent - the company - to address more effectively issues of network management). The Canadian government and the CRTC should definitely be looking at setting up clear and enforceable rules to protect Net Neutrality.

New book on Telecom Policy in Canada

Published March 14th, 2008 in telecommunications policy | 1 Comment »

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has a released a book on the telecommunications policy in Canada: “For Sale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada“.

For Sale

“More than ever before, we depend on telecommunications services to conduct our economic, cultural and social lives. But, after 100 years of managing and controlling this industry to safeguard the interests of all Canadians, recent government decisions are leading us to a communications future that doesn’t include us all. Canadian interests in this vital sector are being traded off in the name of deregulation and harmonization. Whether it is about access or affordability, security or sovereignty, the essays in this book will be a wake-up call to anyone wondering how telecommunications policy affects our daily lives.”

Tagging, community and advocacy

Published March 6th, 2008 in advocacy, alternative media | No Comments »

The Briarpatch is an alternative news magazine based in Regina (circa 1973) making creative use of folkosomies and participatory metadata.

Their latest free monthly newsletter the B-List posted this effort to collect progressive/political news and links from their readers.

Are you an online news hound? Do you use del.icio.us to tag your favourite articles? Then you’ve got what it takes to become a B-List stringer! All you have to do is tag the best articles you can find (radical, insightful analyses of current events and important trends) with the tag briarpatchb-list. We’ll do the rest! If you want more info, just drop us a line.

-PC-

Canadian Book Exchange Centre closure

Published March 4th, 2008 in book exchange, information commons | No Comments »

The Library of Canada sent out a message on a listserv concerning its closure of the Canadian Book Exchange Centre, with the following statement as their introduction:

The Government of Canada has introduced a new expenditure management system as part of an ongoing commitment to sound management of government spending. The new system is focused on managing results and on the ongoing assessment of all direct program spending, or strategic review, to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and value for money.

Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) strategic review concluded that the Canadian Book Exchange Centre (CBEC) program was not appropriately aligned with the priorities of Canadians and with core federal responsibilities.

I suppose the Government of Canada could have asked whether the CBEC was aligned with the priorities of the Canadians working at the Woodland Cultural Centre on Six Nations land in Brantford, who have no library acquisitions budget and thus rely on the CBEC to receive things like government publications pertaining to First Nations. (story)

For those who don’t know, CBEC:

helps Canadian libraries help each other. A resource-sharing service provided by Library and Archives Canada, CBEC is a redistribution centre, a clearing house that arranges for the exchange of publications deemed surplus by one library but needed by another. The Centre ensures that the nation’s collective surplus holdings are accessible to all, keeps material in circulation and provides an efficient, practical method of using libraries’ excess materials to help fill each other’s collection requirements.

How to improve your privacy on Facebook … more info

Published March 4th, 2008 in privacy | No Comments »

This tip arrived in my email today via the CLA distlist.

Facebook continues to gather your browing history … this link provides some info on how to block it.

Thanks to Toni Samek for the head’s up.

-PC-

LibrarianActivist gets a facelift

Published March 2nd, 2008 in other | No Comments »

LibrarianActivist had been using a very old version of Wordpress. This weekend, I’ve given the blog a facelift with a new version of Wordpress, and a new theme. Apparently, our site was in dire need of an upgrade since it was being hacked (Thanks to Paula who discovered this!) Hope you all enjoy the new look (which might evolve over the next few days).

Update: There seems to be a problem with the RSS feed for this site when you subscribe through Bloglines. I will try to get this resolved as soon as possible.