Digital Media Law Project Newsfeed

"Newsgathering in Massachusetts" Guide Now Available Online! (via @DMLPBerkman)

ashar — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:14:32 -0400

The DMLP Asks the Sixth Circuit to Safeguard Crowdsourced Research and Data-based Journalism

ashar — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:01:55 -0500

The Digital Media Law Project (formerly the Citizen Media Law Project), assisted by Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, has asked the Sixth Circuit to make clear that website operators that aggregate citizen reports and rely on that data to draw conclusions cannot be liable for defamation based on those conclusions.

The DMLP submitted an amicus curiae brief (pdf) last week to the Sixth Circuit in the case of Seaton v. TripAdvisor, LLC. The case concerns TripAdvisor’s 2011 “Dirtiest Hotels in America” list. The list, which was based on travelers’ ratings for cleanliness on TripAdvisor, named the Grand Resort Hotel & Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee the dirtiest hotel in America. Kenneth Seaton, the hotel’s owner, subsequently filed a claim for defamation and false light. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee granted TripAdvisor’s motion to dismiss the claim, holding that the statements at issue were purely subjective opinion and unverifiable rhetorical hyperbole. Seaton appealed the dismissal of his defamation claim to the Sixth Circuit.

The DMLP submitted its friend of the court brief urging the Sixth Circuit to affirm the district court’s decision. As the DMLP argues, opinions based on disclosed facts are not defamation under Tennessee law, and protecting such opinions is consistent with the goals of the First Amendment. By disclosing the reviews on which it relied, TripAdvisor enabled its readers to independently assess the rankings, subjecting its conclusions to the marketplace of ideas rather than the courts. The DMLP further called to the attention of the court that the use of crowdsourcing to collect data has become common in both data-based journalism and in academic research. Crowdsourcing is now crucial to journalists’ ability to play their traditional watchdog function, as well as their ability to provide up-to-date information in times of crisis. Failure to protect opinions based on such data would jeopardize those crucial functions.

"Crowd-sourced information gathered from online media platforms provides uniquely powerful data about breaking issues and large-scale events which would be difficult if not impossible for journalists and scholars to compile using traditional research techniques." said the DMLP's Director, Jeff Hermes.

The DMLP regularly contributes to amicus curiae briefs in cases with important implications for online speech, journalism, and the public good that are of direct interest to all members of the news media and, indeed, the public as a whole. The DMLP was represented on the brief by the Cyberlaw Clinic. The DMLP and the Cyberlaw Clinic are both based at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, an organization dedicated to studying the development of cyberspace. Cyberlaw Clinic students Jillian Stonecipher, Andrew Crocker, and Emma Raviv drafted the brief, alongside DMLP Director Jeff Hermes, DMLP Staff Attorney Andy Sellars, and Cyberlaw Clinic Assistant Director Christopher Bavitz.

Berkman Buzz: March 1, 2013

rheacock — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:44:47 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
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Peter Suber celebrates new White House open access mandate

The Obama White House today directed federal agencies to develop open-access policies within the next six months. The directive comes from John Holdren, President Obama's chief Science Advisor.

This is big. It's big in its own right, and even bigger when put together with FASTR, the bipartisan OA bill introduced into both houses of Congress just eight days ago. We now have OA mandates coming from both the executive and legislative branches of government.

From Peter Suber's blog post, "Second shoe drops: new White House Directive mandates OA"
About Peter | @petersuber

Dan Gillmor reflects on "factivism" and the role of the media

One of the most useful results of Bono's ode to factivism could be his use of the term. I'd like to see evidence-based everything, whether science, journalism, politics – you name it. Science is, for the most part, based on evidence, even if other interests twist the data to demonstrate falsehoods, or create uncertainty where the evidence overwhelmingly points to a conclusion.

But we live in a world where evidence, which can conflict with the imperatives of the rich and powerful, doesn't always impel those influential people to change their ways.

From Dan Gillmor's post for The Guardian, "'Factivism' for every field: why Bono is right to want more data and evidence"
About Dan | @dangillmor

New post: Open letter on the White House public access directive http://hvrd.me/Vevgeq
—Stuart Shieber (@pmphlt)

Christian Sandvig shines spotlight on Singaporean government's refusal to grant tenure to Internet freedom scholar

Noted freedom of expression scholar Cherian George has been denied tenure by the Singaporean government against the wishes of his faculty. His error was explaining basic tenets of political philosophy in an editorial. I’m writing about it because this is an American problem.

From Christian Sandvig's blog post, "Scholar of Internet Freedom Denied Tenure for Human Rights Advocacy"
About Christian | @niftyc

danah boyd explores how Facebook is changing the college experience

Sitting with a group of graduating high school seniors last summer, the conversation turned to college roommates. Although headed off to different schools, they had a similar experience of learning their roommate assignment and immediately turning to Facebook to investigate that person. Some had already begun developing deep, mediated friendships while others had already asked for roommate transfers. Beyond roommates, all had used Facebook to find other newly minted freshman, building relationships long before they set foot on campus.

From danah boyd's blog post, "Is Facebook Destroying the American College Experience?"
About danah | @zephoria

CMLP relaunches as the Digital Media Law Project

Many of you who have followed the adventures of the Citizen Media Law Project know that we have been contemplating a change of our project's name for quite some time (the eagle-eyed will have seen our new name and logo appearing in stealth fashion here and there on our site and elsewhere). The change from "Citizen" to "Digital" is a profound one for us, reflecting an ongoing discussion within our project (now and hereafter the "DMLP") about the nature of the online journalism and publishing ecosystem and our role in supporting those involved in it.

From Jeff Hermes' post for the Digital Media Law Project, "We are the Digital Media Law Project"
About the DMLP | @dmlpberkman

How teachers are using tech at home and at school, from @pewInternet http://t.co/WkLV6ArCsT
—David Weinberger (@dweinberger)

Russia's Feds Now Using Bloggers to Investigate Bloggers

Last week, blogger and corruption fighter Alexey Navalny was on top of the world, after he published information that led to the eventual resignation of a Duma deputy. The Russian Internet, however, is a fickle mistress. Today, Navalny is himself the victim of bloggers.

From Andrey Tselikov's blog post for Global Voices, "Russia's Feds Now Using Bloggers to Investigate Bloggers"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

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The Citizen Media Law Project is now the Digital Media Law Project

ashar — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:33:35 -0500

We are pleased to announce that the Citizen Media Law Project has now transitioned to its new name, the Digital Media Law Project.

The Citizen Media Law Project was created in 2007 to support the vibrant online culture of citizen media and independent journalism by providing free legal advice and information on a wide range of media law, intellectual property and business law issues.

Since then, there has been an explosion of novel online journalism and publishing ventures, with the development of new ways of bringing information of critical public importance to light. Experiments abound as innovators in the journalism space attempt to fill the information gap left by the contraction of traditional news organizations. These experiments often originate from citizen journalists attempting to improve their own communities, but they are as likely to come from professional journalists seeking a new voice through independent online ventures.

The expansion and complexity of the online publishing environment makes the change from “Citizen” to “Digital” a natural progression. Jeff Hermes, Director of the Digital Media Law Project (DMLP), explains: “Our new name recognizes the valuable contributions of all who seek to advance independent journalism, whether citizens or professionals. The change also reflects our own continuing development of new ways to support the legal needs of independent journalism ventures.”

Since its launch, the project has developed a coordinated suite of legal resources to address a journalism venture’s specific needs. The DMLP’s networks of attorneys, clients and scholars serve as an early warning system that allows the project to respond to breaking legal issues affecting journalism. The DMLP’s online legal guide provides detailed information on a wide range of media and business law topics, and the DMLP’s threats database tracks legal actions against online speech. The DMLP also operates a 50-state pro bono lawyer referral network to provide experienced counsel when direct representation is needed.

The project is part of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, a research center founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. For more information about the Digital Media Law Project, please visit the project website at our new URL, http://www.dmlp.org. Media inquiries may be directed to the Berkman Center at press@cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Web: http://www.dmlp.org
Twitter: @DMLPBerkman

Berkman Buzz: February 15, 2013

rheacock — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:41:08 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
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Peter Suber celebrates introduction of new open access bill

A new bill mandating OA to federally-funded research was just introduced into both houses of Congress. It's called the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research, or FASTR. It was introduced in the Senate by John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and in the House by Mike Doyle (D-PA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Kevin Yoder (R-KS).

From Peter Suber's blog post, "Major new bill mandating open access introduced in Congress"
About Peter Suber | @petersuber

New webcasts from the HLS/edX Copyright class

Join us throughout the Spring 2013 semester for a series of special webcasts featuring discussions from Professor Terry Fisher's Copyright course, hosted on the edX online learning platform. Each of the events features a guest expert and examines a difficult issue growing out of, or adjacent to, copyright law. In the courses overall, and in the special events in particular, considerable attention is devoted to the relationship between copyright law and creative expression in a variety of fields: literature; music; film; photography; graphic art; software; comedy; fashion; and architecture.

From the Berkman Center, "Live stream tonight of special event for Terry Fisher's copyright course: IP Protection for Fashion"
About CopyrightX

Mobile ads that use real-time location data beat ones that use zip+4 address, but get less than half the mobile spend http://bit.ly/VYVrBQ
—John Deighton (@HBSmktg)

David Weinberger explores the idea of the public ombudsman

On Sunday, the Times ran an article by John Broder on driving the Tesla S, an all-electric car made by Elon Musk’s company, Tesla. The article was titled “Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway,” which captured the point quite concisely.

Musk on Wednesday in a post on the Tesla site contested Broder’s account, and revealed that every car Tesla lends to a reviewer has its telemetry recorders set to 11. Thus, Musk had the data that proved that Broder was driving in a way that could have no conceivable purpose except to make the Tesla S perform below spec: Broder drove faster than he claimed, drove circles in a parking lot for a while, and didn’t recharge the car to full capacity.

Boom! Broder was caught red-handed, and it was data that brung him down. The only two questions left were why did Broder set out to tank the Tesla, and would it take hours or days for him to be fired?

Except…

From David Weinberger's blog post, "[2b2k] The public ombudsman (or Facts don’t work the way we want)"
About David Weinberger | @dweinberger

CMLP explores the White House's campaign against "online radicalization to violence"

For me, thinking about one of the Obama administration's latest initiatives to keep us all safe online is like one of those pattern recognition puzzles (you know, like "What is the next term in this sequence: O, T, T, F, F, S, S, E, N, __?"). Here, the sequence is:

cyber bullies, scammers, gangs, sexual predators, ________?

The pattern, you see, is perceived online threats against which the White House has taken action. In a February 5 post on the White House Blog, we get the administration's answer to what goes in the next blank: "online radicalization to violence."

From Jeff Hermes' post for the Citizen Media Law Project, " Heads Up, Online Radicals -- You're Next"
About the Citizen Media Law Project | @citmedialaw

Ethan Zuckerman investigates the state of American civics

The narrative of civics in crisis is one that resonates with other popular narratives about American culture in crisis. Robert Putnam made a compelling and controversial case in Bowling Alone that American civic life reached a peak with generations born from 1900 through the 1940s, and has been on the decline ever since – the “crisis in civics” narrative suggests that not only have we dropped out of bowling leagues, but our schools are no longer preparing us to be good citizens and good neighbors. There’s a common narrative about decreasing American achievement in comparison to other developed nations – decreasing civic knowledge is consistent with a narrative that shows the US falling behind in math and science as compared to OECD peers. And there’s a rich vein of commentary that suggests that technology – whether it includes television, video games or the internet – is making us less focused, more distracted, lonelier and stupider – in other words, less able to participate as civic actors.

So it’s somewhat surprising to discover that, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, students haven’t meaningfully shifted in civic knowledge between 1998 and 2010.

From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "Is civics in crisis? Or just changing its shape?"
About Ethan Zuckerman | @ethanz

Meet a 17-year old Sierra Leonean roboticist - http://t.co/Rk8ZTIAw - via @dsengeh, a 20-something Sierra Leonean biomechatronicist.
—Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz)

Incoming Chinese President's Mystery Fan Blogger Revealed

An anonymous blogger in China who ignited the country's curiosity with intimate details of incoming Chinese President Xi Jingping‘s comings and goings has revealed himself to be a college dropout unaffiliated with the communist party.

Bombarded with interview requests from the media and faced with mounting speculation over his real identity, Zhang Hongming, a migrant worker from China's southwestern Sichuan province, revealed in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press that he is the mastermind behind the “Xuesifensituan“ (Learning from Xi Fan Club) page on the popular Chinese micro-blogging website Sina Weibo.

From owen's blog post for Global Voices, "Incoming Chinese President's Mystery Fan Blogger Revealed"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

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Berkman Buzz: January 10, 2013

rheacock — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:45:24 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
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The Berkman Center is now accepting applications for its 2013 summer internship program. More information is available here.

Herdict recaps its past year of data

2012 was a great year for Herdict during which we saw substantial growth in user reporting. I thought I’d kick off 2013 by highlighting our year through facts and figures. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the project, Herdict is a crowdsourced platform for collecting reports about accessible and inaccessible websites, regardless of the root cause of the issue—from filtering to server problems to any other Web blockage.

From Ryan Budish's post for Herdict, "Herdict 2012: By the Numbers"
About Herdict | @herdict

Just a reminder about the public domain, and what might be in it. http://t.co/mRqYwh4p
—Chilling Effects (@chillingeffects)

Aaron Shaw reflects on Otey vs. CrowdFlower

The question of whether paid crowd work violates U.S. employment and minimum wage laws may finally make it into court thanks to Christopher Otey, an Oregon resident who is suing CrowdFlower Inc. for wages he claims the company owes him as an “employee.”

My initial reaction is that I can’t believe it’s taken this long for someone, somewhere in the United States to sue one of the companies engaged in distributing paid crowdsourcing work for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Smart lawyers like Alek Felstiner and Jonathan Zittrain have been making some form of the argument that this is a major issue for Crowdsourcing for at least three years now. Felstiner even made the case in a series of posts on CrowdFlower’s blog here, here, and here in 2010. I am hardly the only person to regard as remarkable the fact that a whole venture-funded industry has sprung up around a set of activities that, on the surface, seem to resemble a massive minimum wage violation scheme.

From Aaron Shaw's blog post, "Some initial thoughts on the Otey vs. CrowdFlower case"
About Aaron Shaw | @aaronshaw

David Weinberger ponders science as a social object

An article in published in Science on Thursday, securely locked behind a paywall, paints a mixed picture of science in the age of social media. In “Science, New Media, and the Public,” Dominique Brossard and Dietram A. Scheufele urge action so that science will be judged on its merits as it moves through the Web. That’s a worthy goal, and it’s an excellent article. Still, I read it with a sense that something was askew. I think ultimately it’s something like an old vs. new media disconnect.

From David Weinberger's blog post, "[2b2k] Science as social object"
About David Weinberger | @dweinberger

The CMLP reviews hate speech in the French Twittersphere

Last October I wrote about the rise in popularity among French Twitter users of the hashtag #unbonjuif ("a good jew"). In December we saw a growth in other offensive hashtags, including the homophophic #Simonfilsestgay, ("if my son is gay") or the xenophobic #SimaFilleRamèneUnNoir ("if my daughter brings a Black man home"). As with #unbonjuif, the "game" consisted of adding messages to these hashhags to create a "joke."

This time the hashtags prompted a response from the government. Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, France’s Minister of Women's Rights, reacted to these offensive tweets by writing an editorial published on December 28 in Le Monde under the title "Twitter must respect the values of the Republic." She described these tweets as being "morally reprehensible and illegal under our laws...."

Belkacem-Vallaud's comments garnered international attention and prompted prominent responses, both in support and against her remarks. While such a regime of state-controlled censorship is unthinkable here in the United States, it serves as an additional data point in the control of hate speech in France. What follows is an analysis of the applicable French law.

From Marie-Andree Weiss's post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "RT the Hate: France and Twitter Censorship, Part Two"
About the CMLP | @citmedialaw

Extensive, accessible recap of the US broadband disaster at http://ti.me/XMzuLU as told in #captiveaudience by @scrawford @TIMEBusiness
—Colin Maclay (@cmac)

Andrés Monroy-Hernández, danah boyd, and others publish new study on Twitter's role in covering drug-related violence in Mexico

A few weeks ago, while I was visiting a city in northern Mexico, I witnessed some of the drug-related violence people have been experiencing almost every day: several bodies were hung from a bridge and a number of shootouts were reported throughout in the city. As if that was not terrifying enough, I was not able to learn about those events through the news media. Instead, like many people in these cities, I learned about them on Twitter. Perhaps even more interesting was the fact that a handful of Twitter users, many of whom are anonymous, have emerged as civic media curators, individuals who aggregate and disseminate information from and to large numbers of people on social media, effectively crowdsourcing local news. We set to investigate this emergent phenomenon by looking at a large archive of Tweets associated with the Mexican Drug War and interviewing some of these new “war correspondents,” as one of them referred to herself.

From Andrés Monroy-Hernández's blog post for Follow the Crowd, "CSCW 2013: The Rise of Civic Media Curation in Urban Warfare"
About Andrés Monroy-Hernández | @andresmh

Interesting update on decentralized Facebook alternatives, including Diaspora, Friendica: http://t.co/qPQMadZe via @rodrigodavies
—Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz)

Technology Helps Kenyans Reveal Electoral Registration Fraud

As Kenyans gear up for the presidential elections in less than 90 days, technology is proving to be a friend and foe to the many politicians embroiled in political musical chairs by changing alliances faster than ordinary Kenyans can comprehend.

From Njeri Wangari's blog post for Global Voices, "Technology Helps Kenyans Reveal Electoral Registration Fraud"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

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Berkman Buzz: December 6, 2012

rheacock — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 09:23:38 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
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The Berkman Center is now accepting applications for fellowships in the 2013-2014 academic year! More information is available online.

PRX launches Matter Ventures, an accelerator for media start-ups

We are super excited to announce the launch of Matter Ventures, the new name for the Public Media Accelerator. Not only does it have a new name, but also a new space in San Francisco, and a new investor and partner in KQED, who is joining PRX and Knight to launch the new company.

From Jake Shapiro's blog post for PRX, Matter launches: new name, new space, new partner, applications open
About PRX | @prx

Ethan Zuckerman weighs in on the WCIT

The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT, pronounced “wicket”) opened Monday in Dubai. If you’re heard about the conference, it’s likely because many articulate and smart proponents of an open internet have been waving arms and warning of the potential dangers that may come from this meeting. Fight For the Future, an organization focused on mobilizing individuals to the defense of a free and open internet, have switched the Internet Defense League’s vaunted “cat signal“, urging supporters to stop an internet coup by the International Telecommunications Union, the UN agency responsible for communication technologies.

There are reasons to be concerned about WCIT and about the ITU asserting more control over Internet governance. But there’s also a great deal of exaggeration and fear-mongering that’s making it hard to see the issues clearly. And one of the reasons offered for defending against an ITU “takeover” is a disturbing one, the idea that the Internet works well enough as it is, and that we should be opposed to any changes that would alter how it functions and is governed.

From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, Good and bad reasons to be worried about WCIT
About Ethan Zuckerman | @ethanz

Alison Head and Rey Junco collaborate on Project Information Literacy infographic

From Alison Head: "Want to know how social media can work to spread the word to educators? Ask Rey Junco. In a pseudo-experiment first discussed 'in the ceiling,' Berkman Fellows Rey Junco and Alison Head decided to create an infographic about findings from the ongoing research study Alison directs, Project Information Literacy. Rey cajoled and coached Alison through the creative process.He also lent his corneas to colorize the finished product (Alison's colorblind; yes, really). They posted the finished infographic this week on Rey's blog, 'Social Media in Higher Education.' There were over 700 shares in two and half days."

See Rey Junco's blog post, How college students find and use information [Infographic], for the full infographic
See Project Information Literacy for more information
About Rey Junco | @reyjunco
About Alison Head | @alisonjhead

Kendra Albert explores the effect of kittens on profanity in online forums

Peruse ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 forums at length and you’ll see a peculiar phenomenon. There’s no swearing. There’s very little bad language, period, and I’ve never seen anyone actively try to get around the word filter. I had never seen a gaming forum with so little profanity before.

Sure, players have to agree to a lengthy Code of Conduct, but that’s the case everywhere online these days. (And I’ll be coming back to some of the major issues raised by the contents of said Code of Conduct in a later post.)

But here’s what it looks like when you try to swear: "Kitten that!"

From Kendra Albert's blog post, "Bullkitten: Filtering Profanity on Forums"
About Kendra Albert | @kendraserra

Thrilled to see my piece at @TheNation on women & like-ability is still on the most-read list http://t.co/0Gf5Hg5q
—Jessica Valenti (@jessicavalenti)

Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy: New Survey Findings from Pew Research Center and Berkman Center

“Teens...have mixed feelings about being friends with their parents on social networking sites like Facebook. Some teens like the fact that they are friends with their family members. Other young users prefer not to friend their parents, but do it anyway because it is expected from them. And yet others keep their profiles secret or restrict parents’ access to information,” said Sandra Cortesi, Director of the Youth and Media Project at the Berkman Center and a contributor to this report.

The findings of the study are detailed in a new report called, “Parents, Teens and Online Privacy” that is the result of a collaboration between the Pew Internet Project and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

From the Berkman Center, "Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy: New Survey Findings from Pew Research Center and Berkman Center"

Education in the Developing World: “There’s an app for that” - The Dewey Digest http://deweydigest.com/tech/794 Interesting student perspective
—Justin Reich (@bjfr)

The CMLP comes to the defense of the political fact-checker

One overarching theme of the 2012 election season was a struggle with truth. Both campaigns were accused of serial falsehoods, and continuing to spread incorrect information after the truth was reported. The utility of fact-checking in the election was also questioned: David Carr argued that the efforts of fact-checkers were irrelevant to the conduct of the campaigns, while the parsing of endless minutiae fed partisan bickering; Bill Adair of PolitiFact responded that the purpose of fact-checking was to inform voters so that they could better judge the candidates, not to moderate the statements of candidates directly.

As a lawyer who has defended more than a few defamation cases, all of this led me to consider the difficulties faced by those who attempt to analyze the truth of even seemingly simple statements.

From Jeff Hermes's blog post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "The Thankless Task of the Political Fact-Checker"
About the Citizen Media Law Project | @citmedialaw

Virtual Game Leads to Real Job as Football Manager in Azerbaijan

On November 21, 2012, Vugar Huseynzade, a 21-year-old university graduate whose favourite past-time is playing the computer game Football Manager, was confirmed as the new manager for Azerbaijan side FC Baku's reserve team. In an unprecedented move this gamer pipped former footballers including Frenchman Jean Pierre Papin to secure the job.

From Richard Wanjohi's blog post for Global Voices, "Virtual Game Leads to Real Job as Football Manager in Azerbaijan"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

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Berkman Buzz: November 2, 2012

rheacock — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:12:46 -0400

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
To subscribe, click here. | Browse online here.

The Berkman Center is now accepting applications for fellowships in the 2013-2014 academic year! More information is available online.

Zeynep Tufekci takes on political polling, statistical models, and election predictions

Pollsters can’t project but statistical models can and do—and they do some predictions very well. We rely on statistical models for many decisions every single day –-including, crucially, weather, medicine, and pretty much any complex system in which there is an element of uncertainty to the outcome– and dismissing them is not only incorrect, it is politically harmful for two reasons in the case of electoral politics.

From Zeynep Tufekci's blog post, "David Brooks is mistaken, Joe Scarborough is wrong, and Nate Silver type statistical models are good for democracy"
About Zeynep Tufekci | @techsoc

New election guide from Islawmix featured in HuffPo

What does sharia say about the issues that are relevant? What about voters who are interested in whether Islamic law could actually be relevant to the most pressing issues in this year's presidential election? For the most part, there has been little in the way of authoritative, accessible information. Now, a newly published guide from islawmix offers one expert's opinion on what Islamic law could have to say about the economy, healthcare, reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and more.

From the Huffington Post, "How Would the Prophet Muhammad Vote? You Might Be Surprised"
About Islawmix | @islawmix

Listen to @berkmancenter friend & associate @reyjunco, commenting on NPR about misinformation on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/cg8ahnn #infoquality
—Urs Gasser (@ugasser)

metaLAB pushes the ebook publishing paradigm

Asked to contribute to the recent Digital Book Summit at Olin College, metaLAB struggled to come up with something novel to offer. Held on a brisk fall day at Olin’s Needham campus, hosted by Olin library director Dianna Magnoni, the summit convened librarians, technologists, and publishers to reflect on publishing ventures that offer ebook technologies to academic audiences. Presentations from representatives of O’Reilly and Credo Reference regaled the audience with broad, ambitious narratives of state-of-the-art products and services.

What was left for metaLAB to do? We don’t have a product to demo; our technological work is intimate and propositional; we tend to favor projects that have a higher likelihood of failure than commercial ventures can sustain. Yanni Loukissas and I, the metaLAB participants in the summit, felt at loose ends: we’re hacks and makers, critics and humanists; our favorite class was Physics for Poets. What could we offer such a forum?

From Matthew Battles' blog post for metaLAB, "Beyond ebooks: playful interventions in publishing paradigms "
About metaLAB | @metalabharvard

GV bloggers were disappointed with the Guardian's list of African politicos on Twitter, so they're crowdsourcing one: https://t.co/CIzKyg7U
—Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz)

The CMLP announces a new guide to documenting the 2012 election

We expect that a number of individuals, including many journalists, plan to report from the polling place on November 6th. Photography and video can be critically important to document the election process and to preserve a record of any procedural improprieties and interference with voter rights. At the same time, however, voting is a very private matter, and attempts to record at the polling place are subject to strict regulation to safeguard voter privacy, protect against voter intimidation, and to ensure the proper functioning of the voting process.

In order to protect voters from interference and intimidation, state governments have enacted a complex array of election laws that regulate what activities are permitted at polling places on Election Day. These laws can affect your ability to shoot video or take photographs at a polling place, even if your purpose is just to document your own voting experience.

From the Citizen Media Law Project's "Documenting the Vote 2012"
About the Citizen Media Law Project | @citmedialaw

Former Brazilian Model Turned Beggar Stirs Debate on Racism

Tall, blue-eyed and wrapped in a blanket while roaming the streets of Curitiba in the south of Brazil, Rafael Nunes, a former Brazilian model (now known as the photogenic beggar of Curitiba) has gained international attention after his picture and story went viral on Facebook and Twitter.

Rafael, aged 30, ended up on the streets because of crack cocaine addiction and his story was only revealed after Indy Zanardo, a tourist, was approached by Rafael and asked if his picture could be taken

From Melissa Rossi's blog post for Global Voices, "Former Brazilian Model Turned Beggar Stirs Debate on Racism"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

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Document the Vote 2012 - the Digital Media Law Project's Guidelines for Avoiding Legal Trouble

rtabasky — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:13:05 -0400

Berkman Buzz: October 26, 2012

rheacock — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:02:16 -0400

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
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The Berkman Center is now accepting applications for fellowships in the 2013-2014 academic year! More information is available online.

Ethan Zuckerman explores the Radiolab "Yellow Rain" controversy

What went wrong with “Yellow Rain”? Kao Kalia Yang sees her experience with Radiolab as a demonstration of racism, an unwillingness of a privileged white author to abandon his frame and consider another frame. I think it’s clear that Krulwich wasn’t willing to abandon his frame, whether from an unwillingness to value Eng Yang’s experience in the face of an apparent contradiction from scientific research, or from an interest in pursuing a story to its journalistic conclusion. His behavior was most embarrassing when he accused Ms. Yang of attempting to monopolize the frame because, of course, that’s precisely what he was trying to do. Krulwich had a story he wanted to tell about yellow rain, and didn’t want Kao Kalia Yang’s story to get in his way.

From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "The ethics of attention: unpacking 'Yellow Rain'"
About Ethan Zuckerman | @ethanz

Kendra Albert delves deeper into gender performance and healing in MMORPGs

I’m unconvinced that there is a causal connection in the “play a female avatar -> heal more” direction, and my experience with the genre suggests to me that there might be a “play a healer -> play a female avatar” causal relationship that could also account for the data. Therefore, it’s difficult for me to see a conclusive success in showing the Proteus Effect, which dictates that given an identity conflict, players conform their behavior to that of the identity of their avatar.

So how do we test that? The answer, as it so often is in my life, is Guild Wars 2.

From Kendra Albert's blog post, "Gender, Healing and Guild Wars 2: A Study Design"
About Kendra Albert | @kendraserra

Fab animated comic from @phdcomics (voiceover by @phylogenomics & @R2RC) explaining #openaccess. - http://bit.ly/PTvDcy
—Stuart Shieber (@pmphlt)

David Weinberger wins World Technology Award

I won the World Technology Award in the field of Media & Journalism for Too Big to Know last night in NYC. Awards are given from among a set of 5-7 nominees in each field, nominated by fellows of the World Technology Summit, which is to say, by previous nominees and winners. So, I’m proud ‘n’ happy. Thank you, WTA!

From David Weinberger's blog post, "[2b2k] Too Big to Know wins World Technology Award"
About David Weinberger | @dweinberger

Adventures in metadata: drawings by Edward Lear; XML by Houghton Library; dataviz by @metalabharvard alumnus T. Bost http://t.co/1UPKXU5j
—Matthew Battles (@MatthewBattles)

The CMLP examines a new study on juror use of the Internet

A survey of jurors from 15 trials has found that jurors generally understand instructions not to use the Internet or social media to research or communicate about trials, but also that many jurors wish they could use technology to do some sort of research about the cases they sat on. Very few, however, reported that they had violated admonishments not to research or discuss the case with others prior to deliberations, and all of these involved pre-deliberation discussions with either fellow jurors or family members. None involved the internet or social media.

From Eric P. Robinson's blog post, "Study Finds Significant Juror Interest In Internet, But No Use -- Yet"
About the Citizen Media Law Project | @citmedialaw

Guyana: Upcoming Chris Brown Concert Upsets Anti-Violence Advocates

Back in 2009, when the news broke that Barbadian-born singing sensation Rihanna's then-boyfriend Chris Brown had allegedly assaulted her, Caribbean bloggers were outraged.

Just over three years later, the wound is still festering. Having got wind of an upcoming Chris Brown concert in Georgetown which is allegedly being financially supported (at least via tax breaks) by the Guyanese government, two blogs are voicing their discontent.

From Janine Mendes-Franco's blog post for Global Voices, "Guyana: Upcoming Chris Brown Concert Upsets Anti-Violence Advocates"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

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