Berkman Buzz: February 25, 2011
What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below.
* DMLcentral explains the rise of Orkut in Brazil
* Herdict questions Internet filtering at the Wisconsin State Capitol
* David Weinberger reviews Google Lab’s attempts at increasing public data and metadata
* The Citizen Media Law Project explores the "spicy twist" in a recent copyright case
* Dan Gillmor wonders whether publishers will stand up to Apple's new subscription model
* Weekly Global Voices: "Kenya: #KenyaFeb28: Online Call to Nationalism"
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The full buzz.
"In just a matter of months, Brazil climbed into the top ten list of countries with the most Orkut users. This triggered another widely-embraced competition: to make Brazil the number one country in the world for Orkut. Users began making massive invites to more and more friends until Brazil reach the top in June 2004. Then, because of this milestone, Orkut began to appear in the news all over the country, creating greater awareness and desire to join. By 2005, Orkut was a cultural phenomenon in Brazil, and it became a motivation for many more people to start using the Internet, and to do so in more diverse ways."
From Raquel Recuero's post for DMLcentral, "Understanding the Rise of Social Networking in Brazil"
"Here at Herdict, we spend a lot of time looking at website blockages abroad, whether it be complete network shutdowns in Egypt or the ongoing blockage of sites like Youtube in China. But blockings occur at home as well, where their unexpected nature can make them a lot more insidious. For example, Amtrak offers wireless internet on its luxury Acela trains but routinely blocks sites it deems 'inappropriate' as well as all streaming video which would slurp up the shared and discrete bandwidth available to all customers. Monday, pro-union site DefendWisconsin.org announced that it was being blocked on the guest wireless at the Wisconsin Capitol Building."
From Laura Miyakawa's blog post for Herdict, "Filtering at the Wisconsin State Capitol"
"I’m finding Google Lab’s Dataset Publishing Language (DSPL) pretty fascinating. Upload a set of data, and it will do some semi-spiffy visualizations of it. (As Apryl DeLancey points out, Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas now work for Google, so if they’re working on this project, the visualizations are going to get much better.) More important, the data you upload is now publicly available. And, more important than that, the site wants you to upload your data in Google’s DSPL format. DSPL aims at getting more metadata into datasets, making them more understandable, integrate-able, and re-usable."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "Public data and metadata, Google style"
"Yesterday, the Media Bloggers Association filed an amicus brief in Righthaven LLC v. Hyatt, urging a federal judge in Nevada to award only minimal damages and no attorney's fees to Righthaven against a blogger who failed to appear in the case and is facing a default judgment. We've covered a number of Righthaven lawsuits in our legal threats database, but this case now has a spicy twist."
From David Ardia's blog post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "Media Bloggers Assn Files Amicus Brief in Righthaven Case, Blasts Business Model Behind Lawsuits"
"Is it finally dawning on the news business that Apple is not a friend, nor an ally, nor even a partner in any true sense of the world?There are some signs of sanity emerging in the week since Apple announced its terms of engagement for offering subscriptions via mobile apps, rules that were arrogant even by that company’s standard."
From Dan Gillmor's blog post, "Will Publishers Show some Spine with Apple? The Jury is Out"
"Monday 28, February 2011 seems to be significant for Kenya's netizens. For quite some time Kenyans have been discussing on Twitter, Facebook and even email as to whether they should use the twitter hashtag #KenyaFeb28 to marshal protest over political issues or whether the same platform should be utilized to spur a sense of nationalism."
From Collins Mbalo's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Kenya: #KenyaFeb28: Online Call to Nationalism"
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Compiled by Rebekah Heacock
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 buzz@cyber.harvard.edu.