Berkman Buzz: Week of February 2, 2009

February 06, 2009

BERKMAN BUZZ:  A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations.  If you'd like to receive this by email, sign up here.

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*Maxim Weinstein explains StopBadware.org
*The Citizen Media Law Project says goodbye to JuicyCampus.com
*The Internet & Democracy project looks at the shrinking Web in Iran
*Digital Natives intern Diana Kimball discusses widespread, and ever-spreading, geekery
*On the ProjectVRM blog, Doc Searls suggests a new business model for newspapers
*Ethan Zuckerman reports from TED 2009
*Publius Essay: "The Need for a 'Knowledge Web' for Scholarship" by Carolina Rossini
*Weekly Global Voices: "Video: Vlogging for the Blind"

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"For those just joining us, Saturday was an unusually busy day for us here at StopBadware.org. One result of Saturday’s incident is that it left many asking, “What is StopBadware.org, anyway?” Some reporters did a nice job of answering that question, based largely on content from our "about" page. [Update Feb. 3: See also this well-done piece by CNET reporter Elinor Mills.] What may still not be clear to readers is what problem we’re trying to solve and how we’re trying to solve it..."
From Maxim Weinstein's blog post for StopBadware.org, "What is StopBadware.org, anyway?"

"You know the economy's bad when even college rumor-mongering isn't making a profit any more.  That's right, JuicyCampus.com, the website dedicated to anonymously posted collegiate gossip, has closed up shop.  In a post announcing the shutdown, Matt Ivester, the founder and CEO, put the blame on "these historically difficult economic times," in which "online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved..."
From Arthur Bright's blog post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "Juicy No More"

"According to the Iranian paper Etemad Melli,  the Iranian government has increased its blocking of Web sites, particularly foreign news sites. It appears that as the Iranian election campaign gets into gear that the government has begun to crack down on opposition Web sites, as well as Persian language sites of Western news outlets. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Persian sites of Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Germany’s Deutsche Welle radio have been blocked. Deutsche Welle is one of the few foreign news organizations that are allowed to have a full-time foreign journalist based in Iran. And the BBC Persian Service, one of the most heavily trafficked Western media sites in Iran, was recently declared illegal and a threat to national security..."
From the Internet & Democracy Project blog post, "Iranian Government Says It Will Increase Blocking of Web"

"When I first started investigating the Internet, I spent what felt like hours every day on Lifehacker and BoingBoing. I downloaded every new program; I signed up for every new service. I didn’t always know what to do with them, but I was so eager to experience novelty. Free novelty! The programs felt like toys..."
From the Digital Natives Project blog post, "Digital First"

"Rex Hammock is right to gripe about the newspaper turtles pulling their heads in their shells and complaining that readers aren’t paying for the goods papers offer for free online. In that post he runs down some of the drumbeats he’s been hearing: The notion that newspapers should become financially endowed institutions was published a few days ago in the New York Times..."
From Doc Searls blog post, "PayChoice: a new business model for newspaper"

"TED University features numerous short talks by TED fellows and attendees. Some of the speakers in this segment: Pat Mitchell from the Paley Center for Media tells us about the huge crowds in the streets in Kabul as people attempt to get tickets to Afghan Star, the most popular show in the country. 15 million people watch it a week, and there are two women in the finals, violating sharia law and attracting the hatred of mullahs..."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "TED U, take 2"

"In many ways, our society is not taking full advantage of the generative possibilities the web brings to us. As James Boyle has noted, the networks bring enormous transformative power to us as consumers – of shoes, music, hotel rooms, gambling – but the systems by which we perform science and education remain remarkably untransformed, with few exceptions..."
From Carolina Rossini's Publius essay, "The Need for a 'Knowledge Web' for Scholarship"

"Nicomedes Flores from Voces Bolivianas blogging movement in Bolivia explains how Open Source Software designed for the visually impaired helps him communicate online with chatting, emailing and blogging. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, an UNESCO and the International Telecommunication Union sponsored organization trains the blind and those with visual disabilities on how to use computers and communication technologies, and an employee and advocate of the ENOVIB network for the blind speaks to youth about how blindness can be an opportunity instead of a disability..."
From Juliana Rincón Parra's blog post for Global Voices, "Video: Vlogging for the Blind"