Berkman Buzz: Week of April 13, 2009

April 17, 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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*StopBadware.org: "Network reputations"
*David Weinberger: "The future of the book"
*Citizen Media Law Project: "First Circuit Webcasting Argument Stems From Long History of Rules on Cameras in Courts"
*Ethan Zuckerman: "Catching up on politics and social media via Global Voices"
*Gene Koo: "Hub2 wins MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition"
*Herdict: "Herdict Takes Off in Saudi Arabia!"
*Corinna di Gennaro: "The Internet and the 2008 US election: participation and/or fragmentation?"
*Harry Lewis: "Should Using a Proxy Make a Crime Worse?"
*Weekly Global Voices: "Global Recession: 'Underdevelopment is a mixed blessing'"

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"Yesterday, some of my colleagues and I attended a talk at Harvard’s Center for Research on Computation and Society. The talk was given by Mike Collins, a network security researcher who currently works at RedJack, and it focused on the limitations of intrusion detection systems as a form of network defense. The primary content of the talk was rather technical and quantitative, but Mike ended with an interesting conclusion: it may be possible to significantly decrease network-based attack traffic (e.g., port scanning, worm spreading, etc.) by blocking incoming access from the IP addresses and subnets that have historically behaved badly..."
From Maxim Weinstein's blog post for StopBadware.org, "Network reputations"

"I just came from a discussion of the future of the book at Harvard, although it was actually more like the propedeutic for that discussion. Quite fascinating though. First spoke Ann Blair, a history professor at Harvard, who has a book on the history of information overload (particularly in the early modern period) coming out in the fall of 2010. She talked about how printed books were first received: Positively, the printing press was appreciated for the labor it saved..."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "The future of the book"

"On Wednesday, April 8, the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard oral argument (mp3) on whether a trial of a Boston University student sued for music downloading, Sony BMG Music v. Tenenbaum, should be allowed to be webcast live. Federal district judge Nancy Gertner had agreed to allow the webcast, but the recording industry plaintiffs appealed..."
From The Citizen Media law Project blog post, "First Circuit Webcasting Argument Stems From Long History of Rules on Cameras in Courts"

"Three stories on Global Voices will help you catch up on some interesting stories around the world if you, like me, have been distracted by #amazonfail, Susan Boyle and teabagging tea parties. Collectively, they’re an interesting reminder for me of just how much is taking place at the intersection of new media and political change, a field I try to follow closely, and frequently miss important developments in..."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "Catching up on politics and social media via Global Voices"

"I’m very excited and honored that Hub2 has won one of this year’s MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning prizes, alongside our partners the Asian Community Development Corporation and Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Hub2 offers a robust process for community constituents to participate meaningfully in the design of their public spaces. This iteration of the project is called 'Participatory Chinatown'..."
From Gene Koo's blog post, "Hub2 wins MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition"

"Since the launch of Herdict Arabic last week, the Herdict team has been excited to see Saudi Arabia trot to the front of the herd (with 1,854 reports in the past seven days, 914 of which are inaccessible). Although the inaccessibility reports indicate trends in filtering (see ONI’s report on Saudi Arabia here), such reports also indicate a desire in Saudi Internet users to share and discuss the issue..."
From the Herdict blog post, "Herdict Takes Off in Saudi Arabia!"

"The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just released a report on the role of the Internet in the 2008 US election, which analyses trends in how people consume political news & information and the ways they use the internet to engage with politics. Here are some of the key findings: More than half  (55%) of the voting-age population has used the Internet to get involved in the political process during the election year (74% of Internet users)..."
From Corinna di Gennaro's blog post, "The Internet and the 2008 US election: participation and/or fragmentation?"

"Federal sentencing guidelines are being modified to provide that using an Internet “proxy” to commit a crime should be taken as evidence that you are a particularly evil and devious sort of criminal and should get a stiffer sentence. Proxies are simply machines that sit between your computer and the Internet for the purpose of making you appear to be elsewhere. People in oppressive regimes use proxies such as Tor to surf the Web while hiding their IP addresses..."
From Harry Lewis' blog post, "Should Using a Proxy Make a Crime Worse?"

"There are governments which insist that their countries are not affected by the global economic crisis. Most of the time they are not convincing; and their constituents do not believe in the supposed improvement of the economy. But some of these governments might be telling the truth. They may not be completely honest about the real economic situation of their countries but they may be correct when they insist that the fearsome credit crunch, housing bubble, and other familiar crisis indicators are not visible in their territories..."
From Mong Palatino's blog post for Global Voices, "Global Recession: 'Underdevelopment is a mixed blessing'"