Berkman Buzz: Week of November 17, 2008

November 21, 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.

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*danah boyd unveils an ethnographic study of digital youth
*Ethan Zuckerman tries to make sense of the arrest of Iranian blogger Hossein Derakshan
*danah boyd gives us a glimpse into the Internet Safety Technical Task Force
*Persephone Miel sheds some light on micro-funded journalism
*Future of the Internet intern Yvette Wohn looks at how the Tenenbaum trial will shape the net
*Corinna di Genarro attends a panel on Barak Obama's next steps
*Harry Lewis presents the Copyright Follies
*Digital Natives intern Sarah Zhang gabs about Yelp
*Weekly Global Voices: "Egypt: Convicted for being a Blogger"

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"For the last three years, I've been a part of a team of researchers at Berkeley and USC focused on digital youth practices. This project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, brought together 28 different researchers (led by Mimi Ito and my now deceased advisor Peter Lyman) to examine different aspects of American youth life. As many of you know, I focused on normative teen practices and the ways in which teens engaged in networked publics. We are now prepared to share our findings..."
From danah boyd's blogpost, "Living and Learning with New Media: Findings from a 3-year Ethnographic Study of Digital Youth"
You can also read John Palfrey's take.

"An Iranian newspaper is reporting that Hossein Derakshan - 'Hoder' - is under arrest for susicion of espionage on behalf of the state of Israel. This is likely a result of a trip Hossein made to Israel in 2006, travelling on a Canadian passport. At that point in his career, Hossein’s blog was strongly aligned with Iranian reformers, and he was interested in getting a picture of Israel, a state that most Iranians can’t travel to. In recent years, his writings have become highly critical of the US and Israel and strongly pro-regime. As friends who’ve reported on Hossein’s situation have noted, this shift in perspective has confused and distanced some of his earlier supporters..."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blogpost, "Free Hoder?"

"'Online Threats to Youth: Solicitation, Harassment, and Problematic Content' is a draft of the Literature Review that Andrew Schrock and I prepared for the Internet Safety Technical Task Force with the help of members of the Research Advisory Board. The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was formed to consider the extent to which technologies can play a role in enhancing youth safety in online spaces. The Task Force was collaborative effort among a wide array of Internet service providers, social network sites, academics, educators, and technology vendors..."
From danah boyd's blogpost, "Draft Version of the ISTTF Literature Review concerning Children's Online Safety"

"I’ve long been a fan of David Cohn’s Spot.us, so after reading this note he sent to a journalism mailing list we’re both on: 'I strongly believe that it is up to the citizens of a city to ensure that journalism continues by either donating time or money. Both are helpful. Take Spot.Us: We have one pitch which is just $135 shy of being fully funded! It’s a good story too - on the rise of tent cities during this economic crisis...'"
From Persephone Miel's blogpost, "Tent cities and micro-funded journalism"

"Joel Tenenbaum was one of thousands, perhaps millions of teenagers. When he was 17, he allegedly downloaded seven songs from the Internet using a peer-to-peer file sharing program called Kazaa [Both parties appear to agree this is a downloading case, not (solely) an uploading case like many of the others]. Now, 10 years later, he is being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), along with Capital Records and Sony BMG. What does the RIAA want from Mr. Tenenbaum? $1 million..."
From Yvette Wohn's blogpost, for Jonathan Zittrain's Future of the Internet blog, "Tenenbaum Trial and Future of the Internet"

"Today an outstanding panel gathered at Harvard Law School to discuss Obama’s election and the next steps for Obama’s administration and the American people: 'In Order To Form a More Perfect Union: Next Steps for President-Elect Obama and For We the People...'"
From Corinna di Gennaro's blogpost, "Next steps for president-elect Obama and We the people"

"In a new low for abuse of copyright, Toyota has demanded  that a site providing desktop backgrounds remove all images that contain a Toyota, Scion, or Lexus, even in a photography whose copyright is properly held by a third party. The site asked Toyota to identify which images in particular needed to be removed, and Toyota responded that if they had to go to the trouble of identifying what they were objecting to, they would have to be paid for their work..."
From Harry Lewis' blogpost, "Copyright Follies"

"Aside from being innovators themselves, Digital Natives are also forcing businesses to innovate. The entertainment industries, confronted with the breakdown of traditional distribution models for music and movies, are one particular striking example. But this is also true on a more microlevel – even for local businesses. Let’s take Yelp as an example..."
From the Digital Natives project blogpost, "Digital Natives as Customers and Critics"

"Is blogging a serious crime? And is speaking up for others something which warrants punishment? Egyptian blogger Hanan El Sherif wrote about blogging and bloggers in Egypt (Ar) saying: 'Blogging is a means of expressing one's opinion. In the beginning, the term 'blogger' used to raise a lot of eyebrows and people wondered what the word meant. In a few months blogging gained fame, prestige, and power among different segments of the Egyptian society, starting from renowned writers and celebrities to youngsters who are yet to be 13. It has become a voice louder than that of opposition Press and being a blogger became associated with negative connotations; crime, conviction, and rebellion...'"
From Marwa Rakha's blogpost for Global Voices, "Egypt: Convicted for being a Blogger"