Amazon's '1984' Deletion From Kindle Examined

From National Public Radio:

After Amazon learned that it was selling George Orwell's novel 1984 to Kindle owners though it had no right to do so, Amazon deleted the novel and others from the devices of the people who had bought the works.

Amazon founder and CEO apologized for the move, calling the solution "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles."

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, says devices such as the Kindle check in frequently with the mother ship.

"To be really useful you'd want to leave that wireless connection on," Zittrain, the author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, tells Robert Siegel. "An unanticipated feature of that though is that you can have Amazon or the vendor that runs the device be able to reach into the device and make changes to the way it works."

Bill Gates Weighs in on Education and Global Competitiveness

Bill Gates has been a longtime critic of American public schools and has used philanthropy to advocate for a better educational system. This is a great article by eSchool News.

The U.S. must improve its educational standing in the world by rewarding effective teaching and by developing better, universal measures of performance for students and teachers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on July 21.

Speaking at the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual legislative summit, Gates told hundreds of lawmakers how federal stimulus money should be used to spark educational innovation, spread best practices, and improve accountability.

USA Ranks 3rd in The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009

The Report stresses the importance of ICT as a catalyst for growth in the current global turmoil

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Denmark and Sweden once again lead the rankings of The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009, released for the eighth consecutive year by the World Economic Forum. The United States follows suit, up one position from last year, thus confirming its pre-eminence in networked readiness in the current times of economic slowdown. Singapore (4), Switzerland (5) and the other Nordic countries together with the Netherlands and Canada complete the top 10.

The Report underlines that good education fundamentals and high levels of technological readiness and innovation are essential engines of growth needed to overcome the current economic crisis. Under the theme “Mobility in a Networked World”, this year’s Report places a particular focus on the relationship and interrelations between mobility and ICT.

With record coverage of 134 economies worldwide, the Report remains the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.

The Report is produced by the World Economic Forum in cooperation with INSEAD, the leading international business school, and is sponsored by Cisco Systems.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009

The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden and Singapore. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit.

The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets.

The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a compre-hensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the report.