Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’

The three internet giants Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google are joining together by agreeing to a common set of principles concerning conducting business with nations that restrict free speech and expression. They are basically trying to protect people’s information overseas with oppressive governments. I was interested to learn that the Human Rights First and Committee to Protect Journalists and nonprofits the Center for Democracy and Technology and Business for Social Responsibility took part in the formation of this humbly crafted entity known as the Global Network Initiative. What I found troubling was the lack of specific implications and obligations pertaining to these companies. Some other points of interest are the restrictions on citizenship and how that plays into this decision making. I would also like to hear the CCIPS chime in.

At least one human rights organization that didn’t sign onto the plan said it doesn’t go far enough. “More serious questions have to be asked about these company’s legal obligations,” said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA. For instance, he said he would have liked the document to address whether Internet companies are violating U.S. or international laws by complying with requests from certain governments.

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A team over at Microsoft Live Labs has created PhotoSynth, which is a revolutionary way to view photos online. It can use the combination of different media to show an unlimited amount of data on the screen in stunning visual layouts. Unfortunately there’s only a few ‘collections’ in their system so far, but what they’ve done so far is nothing short of amazing. The things I really find interesting about this system is how it “guesses” pixels to paint a 3-D picture in the background. Also, how they display the camera angles do really put in perspective where the person was at when the shot was taken. It almost feels like jumping around a famous location and soaking it all in. Enough of what I think, see for yourself.