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Berkman Buzz: Week of January 23, 2011

What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below.

* The OpenNet Initiative explains Egypt's "just-in-time" style of Internet censorship
* Herdict looks at the reports it's received from Egypt
* David Weinberger explores the realities of "search neutrality"
* Jonathan Zittrain discusses how editing an academic journal can be dangerous
* Doc Searls' discussion of Flickr has received nearly 100 comments
* Weekly Global Voices: "Special Coverage: Egypt Protests 2011"

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The full buzz.

"Shutting down Internet connectivity in reaction to sensitive political events is an extreme example of just-in-time blocking — a phenomenon in which access to information is denied during important political moments when the content may have the greatest potential impact such as elections, protests, or anniversaries of social unrest."
From Masashi Crete-Nishihata and Jillian C. York's blog post for the OpenNet Initiative, "Egypt’s Internet Blackout: Extreme Example of Just-in-time Blocking"

"We started receiving reports on the 25th of January coinciding with the first of the Egyptian protests. Egypt, historically, has conducted only minimal Internet filtering, so we don’t have many reports from there prior to the 25th. We saw a large spike of inaccessible reports for various websites–including Twitter–on the 25th and many comments from users surmising that it was the government behind the blockage."
From Laura Miyakawa's blog post for Herdict, "What the herd is saying in Egypt"

"Relevancy is not an objective criterion. And too much transparency allows spammers to game the system. I would like to be assured that companies aren’t paying search engine companies to have their results ranked higher (unless the results are clearly marked as pay-for-position, which Google does but not clearly enough)."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "Grimmelman on search neutrality"

"The European Journal of International Law published on an affiliated web site a short book review. The author of the book reviewed was displeased, and wrote to the editor asking for it to be taken down. He declined in a very thoughtful letter, part of a correspondence reproduced here. He suggested that he would forward the author’s comments to reviewer, and in “uncharted” territory, possibly be prepared to approve a revised review by the reviewer and substitute that in on the Web site. The reviewer declined to make any changes, and the editor stood by that decision. Three months later and the editor — not the reviewer — found himself the target of a criminal libel investigation in France."
From Jonathan Zittrain's blog post, "Edit a European academic journal, face a criminal trial?"

"Here is what I hope they see: some heavy Flickr users are getting worried. Those with the most cause for worry are at the ‘pro’ level, meaning we pay for the service. (In my case, I pay for three of the four at links above). One cause for worry is reports of sudden and unexplained account deletions. The other is the possibility that Flickr might fail for the same reason that, say, MySpace is now failing. That is, by declining use, disinterest or mismanagement by the parent corporation, or a decline in advertising revenues."
From Doc Searls' blog post, "What if Flickr fails?"

"Inspired by the Tunisian uprising that overthrew longtime president Ben Ali, Egyptian citizens and activists organized mass protests on January 25 calling for economic reform and an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. Expectations ran high, and so did public tension as thousands demonstrated in Cairo and other cities, as well as in front of Egyptian embassies abroad. On January 25, Twitter was blocked and mobile phones were cut off, but news of arrests and police repression still circulated online (hashtag #Jan25). Early on January 28, however, the Internet was widely cut off throughout Egypt, shortly before the day's protests were to begin." From Global Voices Online's special coverage page, "Egypt Protests 2011"

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The weekly Berkman Buzz is selected from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects and sometimes from the Center's wider network.

Suggestions and feedback about the Buzz are always welcome and can be emailed to rheacock@cyber.harvard.edu.