Berkman Buzz: Week of September 15, 2008

September 19, 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 University

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*Doc Searls revisits the Intention Economy
*And Kevin O'Keefe looks at how it applies to lawyers
*The OpenNet Initiative discusses the silencing of independent voices in Malaysia
*Harry Lewis takes up the issue of YouTube takedowns
*danah boyd gives her take on Oprah's show on child pornography online
*Digital Natives Rerporters in the Field: "azn.play: a conversation with blogger Qin Zhi Lau"
*Weekly Global Voices: "China: Media Manipulation on the Poisonous Milk Powder Scandal"

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"VRM is part of the Intention Economy I first wrote about here. The gist: 'The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don’t need advertising to make them. The Intention Economy is about markets, not marketing. You don’t need marketing to make Intention Markets...'"
From Doc Searls' blogpost, "Building the Intention Economy"

"What's this got to do with law firm marketing? And lawyer blogs? A lot. Lawyers don't need advertising to make or get clients. Lawyer advertising wasn't even allowed until the Supreme Court decision in Bates versus Arizona. Lawyers get work as a result of networking via conversations, relationships, and having a reputation as a trusted and reliable authority. Lawyers need to proactively do something to get work this way -- you don't sit back and let advertising, marketing, business development, and PR professionals network and reputation build for you..."
From Kevin O'Keefe's blogpost, "Revisiting the 'Intention Economy' : The case for lawyer blogs"

"The arrest of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act on September 12, just as his website Malaysia Today (http://mt.m2day.org/) was reported to be unblocked, provides an ominous reminder that there may be more effective ways of silencing independent voices than Internet filtering..."
From the OpenNet Initiative blogpost, "Speaking Out in Malaysia"

"Google’s YouTube is huge, much huger than any other video sharing service. Like Google’s search service, it has become the place to go for a certain kind of information — a kind of information that is rapidly becoming a part of daily life for millions of people, especially the young. Like Google search, there is absolutely no barrier to someone starting a competing service, except for the quality of the product and the snowball effect — people tend to use the service they know other people are using, especially for sharing information..."
From Harry Lewis' blogpost, "YouTube Takedowns"

"When I first learned that Oprah was doing a show on internet predators, I was wary. Her site emphasized a list of rules for kids centered around "don't talk to strangers" and centered around the language of "Internet sex predators" and linked to Dateline's very problematic show. I was concerned that she might use her stature to further ongoing myths about online predation. Oprah proved me wrong. Her show wasn't talking about internet predators in the sense most people do (although her website reinforces myths); her show focused on the connection between internet child pornography and physical molestation in communities..."
From danah boyd's blogpost, "Oprah, Senate Bill 1738, Child Porn, and Pedophiles"

"Rest your eyes — we’re going audio-only this week. Digital Natives reporter Nikki Leon chatted online with Qin Zhi Lau, a second-year Princeton student who runs the blog aznplay.com in his spare time. Although the blog started as a side project for QZ (as he’s sometimes called), it’s become a small-scale hub for English-speaking fans of Asian music. In this interview, QZ gives insight into what it’s like to manage an online community and how being a digital native has shaped his view of the world..."
From the Digital Natives Project blogpost, "azn.play: a conversation with blogger Qin Zhi Lau"

"When the poisoned milk scandal goes from bad to worse and raises international concerns, China government started to increase their control over the media in China. As the scandal involved most well established brands like Yili and Mengniu, ordinary people like Boyue feel that there is nothing else can we believe in....'"
From I-fan Lin's blogpost for Global Voices, "China: Media Manipulation on the Poisonous Milk Powder Scandal"