The OpenNet Initiative has just released a new bulletin on China's Web registration regulations. These new regulations add yet additional threads to the country's web of constraints on freedom of speech. By requiring citizens to register their blogs and websites, and shutting down the sites of those who do not comply, the Chinese authorities are effectively augmenting the already stifling climate of self-censorship and suspicion that exists for online communications in that country. By requiring website operators to register their personal information with the Ministry of Information Industry, these controls intimidate users of the Internet and allow the state to more effectively keep tabs on online content

The debates over corporate responsibility when it comes to Internet filtering and surveillance are growing in leaps and bounds, thanks in part to the work of the OpenNet Initiative. Kevin Maney's column in USA Today points out that the recent debates over Google and Yahoo in China are only the tip of the iceberg, with references to our recent research.

Meanwhile, I did a radio interview with Radio Canada International's Valerie Morand on the Citizen Lab's research and development of the Psiphon circumvention tool. You can access the piece here, for the European version and here, for the African version. HERE is a locally archived version. My piece begins at about the 20 minute mark.

There is an interesting article in the recent issue of Forbes Magazine that talks about varioius circumvention strategies with respect to the Chinese firewall, including a brief mention of the Citizen Lab's Psiphon circumvention software. It is nice to see Psiphon getting all of this attention before it is even done. We have a working concept and piece of software in rough form, but we still have a lot of work to do, work that we are presently intensifying greatly. We need volunteers with coding skills and and interest in the work. If you are interested and able, send your resume and cover letter to info at citizenlab.org

Some further news reports on Citizen Lab, Civiblog, and the OpenNet Initiative.

NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly that covers primarily local issues from a grassroots perspective, has a nice article on our activites. And p2P Net has done a reprint of the Globe and Mail article from yesterday on our Psiphon.

The story has also been Slashdotted

Yesterday there was a good piece in the Globe and Mail about the Citizen Lab's latest software project, called Psiphon. Psiphon is a circumvention technology that works through social networks of trust. Psiphon is funded by a generous grant from the Open Society Institute, and benefits from our collaborative relationships with the OpenNet Initiative and the InfoWar Monitor.

There have been a couple of news items recently covering the work of the Citizen Lab, the OpenNet Initiative, and some of our other projects -- from rather different ends of the media spectrum.

The Toronto Sun's Mike Strobel did a great little piece on his visit to the Lab and his impressions of our activities. And Jane's Intelligence Review has a lengthy piece on the OpenNet Initiative's work on China

There is a news item today in the CBC news about the grant to the OpenNet Initiative from the MacArthur Foundation. The grant is going to our ONI partners, the Berkman Centre for Internet & Society atHarvard Law School to fund the core ONI activities over the next several years. We are all very excited about the opportunity to keep the project up and running and indeed expand it into new territory. Look for new tools, new forms out outreach and advocacy, and new reports uncovering patterns of Internet censorship and surveillance worldwide.