Paul Jacobson

Category: Policy issues

  • The web was built by hand

    The web was built by hand

    I’ve been a Firefox fan since Firefox was in pre-1.0 beta. Even though it isn’t my primary browser at the moment (wait 5 minutes, my defaults can change without notice), I still love what it stands for and the work the Mozilla Foundation is doing. This video nicely encapsulates that mission: I love this idea…

  • Bureaucracy and South Africa’s new Immigration Act rules

    Bureaucracy and South Africa’s new Immigration Act rules

    I just read an interesting overview of South Africa’s new Immigration Act rules which have just kicked in which require international travelers entering and leaving South Africa to produce birth certificates and identity documentation for kids and parents. Two things stand out for me. The first is the administrative headache traveling to and from South Africa with…

  • South African anti-Semitism means the country is like most others

    South African anti-Semitism means the country is like most others

    I came across the Citizen’s article titled “Alleged anti-semitic attack in Rosebank ” on Facebook today. According to the Citizen: The assailants allegedly hurled antisemitic insults at the youths and physically assaulted two of the three youngsters. “[The Jewish boys] were wearing kippah [yarmulke],” said Kahn, who stated that the attack was motivated by antisemitism,…

  • Technopanic and bad laws

    Jeff Jarvis has covered German publishers’ efforts to prevent Google and other search engines (but mostly Google) from linking to their publications and quoting snippets of their content unless a Google pays for the privilege. These publishers seem to be ignoring the fact that Google sends a substantial amount of traffic to them in the…

  • A Zionist Spring has begun, join today

    A Zionist Spring has begun, join today

    Our friend, Rolene Marks, is in South Africa this week talking to people about a new movement called The Zionist Spring. If you haven’t heard about The Zionist Spring yet, here is a brief introduction: The Zionist Spring is a grassroots initiative dedicated to restoring the greatness and vitality of the Zionist movement. The Zionist…

  • Perhaps you should reconsider targeted advertising

    Perhaps you should reconsider targeted advertising

    A paradigm-shifting conversation with one of my editors prompted to consider the merit of not targeting online ads using consumers’ personal information. That, in turn, led to my latest article on MarkLives titled “Marketers should reconsider targeted online ads” which was published today: Conventional wisdom in the marketing industry seems to be that better targeted ads…

  • Why are we abdicating responsibility online?

    Last week’s European Court of Justice ruling that Google must remove search result listings that EU citizens require it to remove (subject to their requests passing a test the court proposed) touched on a trend I’ve become increasingly concerned about: our collective reluctance to take direct responsibility for what we share online and where we…

  • The Firefox DRM implementation – a glimmer of light

    Mozilla’s decision to implement DRM code is disappointing and Cory Doctorow’s article titled “Firefox’s adoption of closed-source DRM breaks my heart” is worth reading for his perspectives. I noticed one positive aspect of the Firefox implementation, though – There are other ways in which Mozilla’s DRM is better for user freedom than its commercial competitors’.…