Hello folks! Happy Friday. Are you feeling merry?
Let's get this show on the road.
Do you think that Google with reinvest the engineering firm in a neighboring country? What do you predict their next steps would be?
So, Google hasn't said anything about its plans -- including, really, even confirming that they're pulling out of Russia -- so it's hard to forecast exactly where that will go.
I do think that it's an interesting move though, in the context of what will happen if the Internet becomes less global.
As Nancy pointed out last week, laws around the world are encroaching on Internet freedom, and this could easily be a sign of how businesses will react.
Without getting into the specifics of the Russia case -- I'll be honest, I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet -- but Google is finding itself running into some global trouble that it is going to have to contend with. You may have heard that it is shuttering Google News in Spain over that country's new copyright law. The fascinating thing there is that it's finding itself having to relitigate what I just decided this morning to call "the right to snippet." One might have thought that 13 years into Google News' existence, that issue would be settled, but it isn't.
More simply put, Google is facing some pretty clear existential threats. That's fascinating to watch, though probably far less fascinating to experience from where they're sitting.
Do you remember that German publisher that played chicken with Google? They wanted Google to pay them for their headlines and so Google just stopped including them in Google News. This publisher later ended up on their knees with their tail between their legs after their web sites' traffic (and thus, ad click-through rates) plummeted and they had to beg Google to have them back. Spain should take heed of that...
Another really interesting wrinkle: there will be data! Spanish newspaper editors will have the Web traffic numbers pretty quickly to know if they're suffering from the absence of Google News. Not that they'd share that with the rest of us, necessarily, but Google is pretty much forcing them to contend with the cold, hard numbers that will result from their choices.
A thought that occurs to me now: I wonder how Spanish reporters are feeling about all this?
I don't watch either either. I'm like Hayley, I binge watch stuff. My work/activity schedule makes it hard to have appointment viewing. The only thing I currently watch on TV consistently is Star Wars Rebels...but it's in reruns with its holiday hiatus. And football. I can't look away from the mess that is Washington football, and I'm not even a fan!
I think the most interesting thing about Agents of Shield is it's relationship with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some of its best episodes were reactions to events from the movies, particularly Captain America 2. This season they are introducing things that seem like they will have a significant impact on the movies, and it pushes the show, and movies in fun and interesting directions.
I read somewhere that this is all part of Marvel's effort to blur the line between TV and cinema — they've already got a ton of movies lined up for the next few years that hook into this universe and are endlessly self-referential. Kind of fitting with the state of our culture, no?
Hm. Now that I could get into, and it's smart cross-channel media strategy. Of course, that would also mean I'd have to go to the movies more often.
Hi All, with the bill the house passed, what can we predict will happen with the planned handoff of ICANN oversight in 2015?
As I understand it, the handoff would be delayed past that timeframe. Doesn't mean it won't happen; it'll just take longer because of — you guessed it — politics.
I've got some feelers out on this because it isn't clear that the language Republicans have written would actually stop the transition. Stay, as they say, tuned.
1. don't name your files "master passwords." 2. email is not private. 3. internal security is as important as external security? And do you think there will be more interest in data-at-rest encryption both in the private and public sector?
These are all good lessons. I'm cautiously optimistic at this point the sheer embarrassment of the Sony Pictures thing might cause some companies to freak out and take a look at their internal encryption practices. My experience has been that a lot of places practice a sort of crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside type of security which really just doesn't work in this day and age. Most experts assume clients will be hacked at some point, and then its about being able detect it, isolate affected systems and do damage control. That becomes a lot scarier if a single entry point can give an adversary access to all of your business.
Are you biggest threat. A snub, bad review or getting the wrong office can send an employee into the hands of your enemies or a foreign govt. Employers really need to think about this. Also employees with big time financial problems can and will cause serious damage. A DOD Personnel Security Professional "Fear the Insider Threat"
Agreed. Although they may not be doing bad things; they're doing dumb things. Please don't click that random link in an email. Please.
See you next week!
