The U.S. financial overhaul bill signed last Friday by House and Senate negotiators, has a provision that would highlight the use of ” conflict minerals ” by makers of computers, cell phones and other electronics. The Dodd-Frank bill will require companies to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission the nature and origin of some of the materials they use in creating their products. These minerals are used much in the same way “blood diamonds” were, by strong men and rebels to finance brutal wars and massacres. Sponsor Minerals affected by the bill include the following. + Tantalum: stores electricity in cell phones + Tungsten: creations vibrations in phones + Tin: circuit boards + Gold: used to coat wiring Of the countries involved in the sale of conflict materials, none has been so woefully affected as Congo , according to the anti-genocide group Enough . 5.4 million deaths, countless rapes and mutilations have been fueled by the country’s mineral resources over the past decade and a half. The groups fighting each other, primarily in the eastern part of the country, make $180 million off the four minerals listed above. Instead of fighting against this legislation, any of the major computer or cell phone manufacturers could come out against it. This would have few negatives in exchange for some titanic PR. Oh, and maybe fewer people would die too. We have a request for comments in to Steve Jobs. We will let you know if he responds. Photos from the Grassroots Reconciliation Group , devoted to helping ex-child soldiers. Discuss

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If there’s anything that a recent ear ache taught me, it’s that searching for answers on the Internet can be a trying task at times. The world is full of people – all of them doctors in their own mind – and the Internet is a wonderful representation of all their opinions. While we love this fact when it comes to political discourse and daily musings, health and medicine are a different game, which is why we’re sure to appreciate Google’s latest offering – medication listings in search results. Sponsor As Greg Sterling writes, Google first “began integrating structured health-related content at the top of search results” last year as a way to provide authoritative and reliable answers to health-related searches. That same functionality is expanding today to searches for both name brand and generic medications, with the result summarly linking to information as provided by the National Institutes of Health . The summary, which is offered at the top of the search results, offers a quick summary of the drug along with quick links to commonly-sought information such as side effects, precautions, dietary instructions and how to take it. According to Sterling, the feature is currently only available in the U.S. and Google declined to say whether or not it would expand to other countries. Discuss

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If you’re looking to say something contentious on the Internet, then Iceland is the place to go. The Icelandic Parliament unanimously passed a proposal yesterday to make the country a “new media haven” in an initiative inspired and strongly backed by Iceland-based whistleblower website WikiLeaks . The proposal, entitled the ” Icelandic Modern Media Initiative “, “resolves to task the government with finding ways to strengthen freedoms of expression and information freedom in Iceland, as well as providing strong protections for sources and whistleblowers.” Sponsor According to the text of the initiative , Iceland hopes to become the international home of news organizations worldwide by way of providing these protections: The legislative initiative outlined here is intended to make Iceland an attractive environment for the registration and operation of international press organizations, new media start-ups, human rights groups and internet data centers. It promises to strengthen our democracy through the power of transparency and to promote the nation’s international standing and economy. It also proposes to draw attention to these changes through the creation of Iceland’s first internationally visible prize: the Icelandic Prize for Freedom of Expression. The proposal goes on to acknowledge that where a particular media is published has become irrelevant in many ways and that the creation of these laws could help create an environment that fosters quality journalism, unafraid of prosecution. “We can create a comprehensive policy and legal framework to protect the free expression needed for investigative journalism and other politically important publishing,” the initiative reads. When Al Jazeera covered the budding proposal last March, it said that “the idea behind IMMI is simple but it’s ambitious – bring together some of the most progressive media laws from many different countries to create one holistic law that will position Iceland at the forefront of the battle to protect journalists, whistleblowers and their sources from oppressive libel laws.” As both Al Jazeera, the Nieman Journalism Lab and others question, however, can laws in one country protect journalists from prosecution in other countries? The article on Nieman Journalism Lab suggests that the laws may not ensure protection from other countries laws, but “if nothing else, it would probably prevent your servers from being forcibly shut down”, were your content hosted in Iceland. For now, however, the effects of IMMI are yet unknown, as it is merely a proposal for laws that remain to be written and tested in international waters. There is also the question of whether or not Iceland has the bandwidth to support large media servers, although the IMMI clearly states that Iceland “has fast undersea cables to some of the world’s largest consumers of information”. Whatever the case, the passing of such a proposal is promising, if just in an altruistic and optimistic journalist’s point of view. Discuss

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A year ago, we covered the global mapping of social networks by Vincenzo Cosenza , a public relations specialists and former Microsoft Italy marketer. Almost a year to the day later, Cosenza remapped the global use of social networks. Sponsor Like his previous effort, Vincenzo’s new maps were based on Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data. Among the trends the earlier exercise identified were Facebook ‘s near-colonization of Europe and its 200 millions users; the status of China’s QQ as the largest social network in the world, with 300 million users; and MySpace ‘s loss of leadership everywhere except in Guam. Unsurprisingly, the biggest change is the furtherance of a trend: Facebook’s growth. +Facebook is eating its local competitors +Facebook now has almost 500 million users +In terms of visitors, Facebook is now larger than QQ +Out of 131 countries surveyed, 111 show Facebook as the leading social network In-country exceptions to the Facebook rule includes China, where QQ still rules, and seems to still have a few more active users than Facebook and Russia, where Odnoklassniki and V Kontakte social networks remain the most popular. Orkut is still the most popular in Brazil but is losing significant ground in India, where Alexa, but not Google, gives Facebook the #1 position. A scattering of other countries retains its affection for local networks. Some of these, like Syria ( Maktoob ) and Iran, ( Cloob ) may have political considerations that effect their choices. The use of non-Latin writing systems may also have a part to play. Cosenza concurs. “In my researches (I’m director of Digital PR , an Italian social media agency owned by Hill & Knowlton – WPP) I saw that social networks adoption is driven by cultural, social and political factors. So I strongly agree.” Other interesting elements to note are the gain by Twitter against MySpace in Australia and Canada and the (slow) growth of LinkedIn. Discuss

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Bangladesh lifts Facebook ban . Following a similar agreement with Pakistan, Facebook has agreed to more self-censorship. It has removed the Everybody Draw Muhammed Day page in Bangladesh and Bangladesh has removed the block on Facebook. Australia joins list of nations investigating Google . Australia announced it is officially investigating Google for its collection of personal information. The company used its Google Street View cars to map Wi-Fi locations but picked up personal information as well. Other countries investigating include the U.S., Germany, Italy, France and Canada. Sponsor China releases Internet policy white paper . The most interesting part of this official Chinese communication is the emphasis its government puts not just on control of free expression, but on measures that will force its citizens to use China-made communications products. Sometimes it announces an intent to block something, like the U.S.-made Google Earth , in an apparent attempt to ensure Chinese Internet users stay with Chinese services, which are, in turn, more controllable. Cuba and Vietnam infect Internet cafe computers . “Cybercafés in Havana will start using software called AVILA, designed to spy on which websites the users visit. This tool is a real trap to hunt Internet users. Since the past couple of years, this software application, whose main purpose is to capture the user’s private information, has been installed in Internet access services of most of the Havana hotels.” The software keeps external drives from being used as well. Vietnam has actually infected a popular software that allows the use of Vietnamese language typing with malware to monitor Internet use. Venezuelan President indicts news website. Again . Hugo Chávez railed against a news website, Noticiero Digital , and the federal prosecutor immediately announced it would begin “proceedings” against the site. The site had reported on concerns by members of the military regarding Mr. Chávez’s reign and was promptly accused of calling for a coup. Photo of wall in abandoned Cuban school by Paul Keller Discuss

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