Title:	NATIONAL INTERNET OR A CENSORED PUBLIC CLOUD?
Author(s):	Farid Shirazi
ISBN:	978-972-8939-67-0
Editors:	Piet Kommers and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2012
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Actor Network Theory, Cloud Computing, Halal Internet, Web 2.0, Virtualization
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	242
Last Page:	248
Language:	English
Cover:
Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the landscape of communication among citizens and the way organizations communicate and conduct business. It has also assisted the public sector more effective and efficient ways to deliver services to citizens in form of e-government settings as well as the construction and formation of smart cities. In short, ICTs dramatically changed all aspects of today’s human life and lifestyles. The recent notion of cloud computing is claimed to offer promising opportunities for service delivery to organizations and communities in sharing the computing power, storage and network infrastructure in a more effective and efficient manner. Cloud computing involves also many other issues and concerns, including the security concerns associated with the use of shared resources, the embedded control and monitoring systems, the physical storage location and management as well as the tools and services that otherwise may offer governments in non-democratic countries the ability to impose a more restrictive Internet access. This study critically investigates the recent controversial national Internet introduced by Iran. It argues that the national Internet, in essence, is a public controlled cloud to restrict citizens’ access to free information available on the Net and therefore should be viewed as an intensified Internet content and filtering method, exercised by elites in power.
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