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Berkman Buzz: Week of July 6, 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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*David Ardia: "Palin Threatens to Sue Blogger for Publishing Rumors of Investigation, Ensures Rumors Will Get Wide Attention"
*Ethan Zuckerman: "Activist media and selective amplifiers"
*Eszter Hargittai: "Popularity of Facebook and MySpace changes, but SES differences in use persist"
*Internet & Democracy Project: "Russian TV Ignores Obama Visit"
*Doc Searls: "Adjusting Business to A Networked World"
*David Weinberger: "News, process, webs and networks"
*Chris Soghoian: "Safecount: Please opt us out of TACO"
*Weekly Global Voices: "China and North Korea: Kim is like Chairman Mao"

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"Exercising one of the freedoms Americans celebrate on Independence Day -- the freedom to threaten an ill-conceived lawsuit -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin directed her lawyer to publish an open letter to Shannyn Moore, an Alaska blogger, radio personality, Huffington Post contributor, and frequent guest on MSNBC, threatening to file a defamation lawsuit against her.  The letter also warned the Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times, The Washington Post, and other news organizations that Palin would be "exploring [her] legal options"  if they claimed "as 'fact' that Governor Palin resigned because she is 'under federal investigation' for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing..."
From David Ardia's blog post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "Palin Threatens to Sue Blogger for Publishing Rumors of Investigation, Ensures Rumors Will Get Wide Attention"

"As some of the dust settles in Iran, we’re starting to see some sharp analysis of the use of social media during times of national upheaval. Colin Delany has one of the best analyses on TechPresident. He points out information and physical force are related, but not evenly opposed. The guys with the guns win, though information can help change the point of view of the guys with the guns. And he correctly analyzes social media in Iran as being selectively amplified - it’s made it possible for some views within Iran to gain international media attention, making it clear that there’s a substantial population who are dissatisfied with aspects of the current system..."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "Activist media and selective amplifiers"

"Two years ago, as part of a collection of articles researching social network site uses, I published a piece (blog post here) about the different predictors of Facebook and MySpace use among a diverse group of first-year college students. Some of the reactions to that paper suggested that the the differences by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status identified in the data were only temporary and would soon change..."
From Eszter Hargittai's blog post, "Popularity of Facebook and MySpace changes, but SES differences in use persist"

"While US media outlets have led daily news coverage with President Obama’s visit to Russia, including several days of special reports by the NewsHour and front page, above the fold articles in the New York Times, Russian media, and especially Russian TV, have almost completely ignored Obama’s visit. For example, Obama’s speech to the graduating class at the New Economic School was not covered at all on Russian TV, while President (oops, Prime Minister) Putin’s motorcycle antics received roughly the same amount of airtime as the US President’s visit..."
From The Internet & Democracy Project blog post, "Russian TV Ignores Obama's Visit"

"In response to The Trillion Dollar Market, which adds a few paragraphs to Gain of Facebook (below), which responded to How Facebook Could Create a Revolution, Do Good, and Make Billions, by Bernard Lunn in ReadWriteWeb, Nate Ritter raised some questions that I’d like to answer in detail … One question that needs to be solved is that if both suppliers and demanders are getting value out of the transaction why is it the suppliers are always fronting the money to make the connection..."
From Doc Searls' blog post, "Adjusting Business to A Networked World"

"Terry Heaton has yet another excellent entry in his continuing series on the media r/evolution. This one is on the news as a process — never done, never entirely right. I’ve been thinking for the past few days about the news as a network. I’ve been finding that the network view of institutions is helpful because it lets you think about the ways in which the odd properties of The Network, and especially the Web, may be getting applied to those institutions — how those properties fit and don’t fit, and what that means for how those institutions can and should interact with the Net..."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "News, process, webs and networks"

"It has been nearly four months since the first version of TACO was first released. The latest version supports 84 different behavioral advertising firms, has been downloaded nearly 250,000 times, and is in daily use by nearly 80,000 users. That means that my tool is responsible for 6.7 million opt-out cookies (actually, it's more, due to the fact that some networks require multiple cookies for different advertising domains). Holy cow..."
From Chris Soghoian's blog post, "Safecount: Please opt us out of TACO"

"On 4 July, the United States’ National Day, North Korea has launched seven missiles tests again and some of them were medium-range rockets that pose threat to Japan and South Korea. While Kim Jong Il has been portrayed as a crazy and authoritarian figure, Chinese netizens are eager to compare him with Chairman Mao. An article titled 'Kim Jong Il is just like Chairman Mao!' received a lot of attention in the Qiangguo Forum, a website run by state-owned the People’s Daily. In the article, chibilanting associates Kim Jong Il with Chairman Mao when dealing with military threats..."
From Winglok Hung's blog post for Global Voices, "China And North Korea: Kim is like Chairman Mao"