Berkman Buzz: Week of May 12, 2008

May 16, 2008

BERKMAN BUZZ:  A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations.  If you'd like to receive this by email, just sign up here. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School

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*Berkman@10 is finally here! David Weinberger liveblogs
*Here's more on Berkman@10 from conference attendee Ari Melber
*Ethan Zuckerman blindfoldblogs Berkman@10
*John Palfrey announces the launch of Publius
*Wendy Seltzer looks at Sony BMG's alternative to YouTube takedowns
*Persephone Miel discusses Blog for Palestine Day
*Doc Searls slams Reunion.com spam
*Weekly Global Voices: "Korean internet site attacked by Chinese hackers"

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The Full Buzz

"After Dean Kagan (correctly) identifies JZ with the Berkman Center, JZ begins by talking about the importance of the fact that the Net at its start was unconstrained by a need to make money. They therefore didn't have to count how many people were on it or how much they were using it. So, they made it so anyone could get on just be hooking in. Anyone can build on it. It explains the hourglass shape of the Net: Diverse media, diverse tasks, all going through Internet protocol..."
From David Weinberger's blogpost, "[b@10] Jonathan Zittrain"

"Before the Internet changed everything, the Berkman Center was there. Founded as a different kind of research lab about ten years ago, Harvard Law School's unusual project – blending think tank freedom with academic rigor – is celebrating its first big anniversary this week. The sold-out conference features celebrities in the world of Internet culture, like professors Yochai Benkler and Jonathan Zittrain, and actual celebrities catapulted by Internet culture, like Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, named one of the world's most influential people by Time magazine..."
From Ari Melber's blogpost for The Nation, "Internet Gurus Flock to Harvard Conference"

"I came to the Berkman at Ten conference under doctor’s orders to keep my eyes closed. This leads to an unusual - for me, at least - approach to conference-going. I’m here in Ames Courtroom at Harvard Law School with a heavy blindfold on, sitting next to my friend Thomas Kriese, who’s telling me about the slides projected at the front of the room..."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blogpost, "Eyes closed at Berkman at Ten"

"This morning, at our 10th Anniversary celebration, we are talking about the future of politics and the Net. The notes I’ve prepared with my colleagues in advance of the session are here, on the conference wiki; have at them!) Before we start the real-space conversation, a quick pause to introduce a new project, called Publius.  This post is more or less a cross-posting of my Preface to the Publius project..."
From John Palfrey's blogpost, "A Kick-Off for the Publius Project"

"As reported on Valleywag and picked up by Slashdot, Sony BMG has been testing an alternative to copyright takedowns of unauthorized music videos on YouTube: inserting a link to the band’s official page instead.  'An eagle-eyed Valleywag tipster with a taste for Modest Mouse spotted an interesting new feature on YouTube. Uploads of music videos from the band by non-official sources now carry a link reading “Contains content from Sony BMG,” which leads users to the official Modest Mouse page on the site...'"
From Wendy Seltzer's blogpost, "Sony BMG Sends YouTube Ads Instead of Takedown"

"May 15th is Blog for Palestine Day. 20,000 protesters in Nazareth were met with tear gas a couple days ago. If you missed these stories, or if you’d just like to broaden your perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is a good time to check out a partnership highlighting Middle East news between three terrific non-profits: Global Voices, LinkTV, and NewsTrust.net. (Full disclosure, I have friends in all three organizations.) The first two focus on highlighting new sources of news of the world, NewsTrust helps discover high-quality journalism on all topics..."
From Persephone Miel's blogpost, "Your Birthday is our Catastrophe; Broadening the Israel @ 60 Story"

"This morning I got a request from a friend to connect through Reunion.com. Seemed innocent enough, and I fell for it. Which is to say, they got one of my email addresses. Nothing more. Far as I know. But somehow they put X and N together and began spamming people I know.  Now I have five emails from friends, so far, plus one each from my wife and my sister, each with copies of spams from Reunion.com. The reunion.com emailings go like this..."
From Doc Searls' blogpost, "Reunion.com spam alert"

"The biggest auction site in Korea, “Auction,” was involved in a hacker attack in February and lost the personal information of at least 11 million customers. Recently, the hackers were found to be Chinese. In addition, Koreans are related to this crime. The fact that the personal information is used by Chinese netizens in China at present shocks Korean netizens and they question how they have to deal with this problem...'"
Excerpted from Hyejin Kim's blogpost for Global Voices, "Korean internet site attacked by Chinese hackers"