Berkman Buzz, week of April 30

BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School
Week of April 30, 2007

What's going on... take your pick or browse below.

*Wendy Seltzer pushes for increased privacy through identity technology.
*Dan Gillmor recommends ‘brilliant’ program on wartime press coverage.
*Jake Shapiro watches Talent Quest turn into Gawker hot topic.
*Ethan Zuckerman digests processing key pandemonium.
*Lawrence Lessig mourns passing of Jack Valenti.
*Creative Commons seeks support for iSummit scholarship.
*Doc Searls promotes PBS program on slain journalist.

The full buzz.

“While digital signatures are widely used for verification, the same signature on each item is a privacy-busting linkage. With the help of third parties and selective disclosure proofs, however, we can make assertions that are minimal and don't leave a trail. We can create digital one-time cards each time we're asked for a facet of our identities.”
Wendy Seltzer, “Selective Disclosure and Privacy.”

“If you missed the live program, as I did, you can watch ‘Bill Moyers Journal: Buying the War’ -- a brilliant documentary that everyone who cares about the future of American journalism should see. The report ‘examines the press coverage in the lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift in the role of journalists in democracy and asks, four years after the invasion, what’s changed?’”
Dan Gillmor, “How Press Failed on Iraq.”

“Snarkier-than-thou Gawker focused its lazy weekend eye on our very own Public Radio Talent Quest, kind of dissing it and loving it at the same time. My guess is they were going in for a short dig and then, like the rest of us, got drawn into the remarkably evolving and compelling world of this contest. Listening to random entries back-to-back is addictive enough, and now the message boards and comments are taking on a life of their own.”
Jake Shapiro, “Gross! Contest Attracts Public Radio Amateurs.”

“Widespread use of Flickr to spread the URLs of unlocked proxy servers could have an effect in countries like China, UAE and Ethiopia… until governments began blocking Flickr (which they have in many countries that filter the Internet.) To spread clandestine information, it’s important not to have a single point of failure, like a single website that can be blocked. That, in turn, requires that an idea “go viral”, that hundreds of individuals decide to start spreading the information.”
Ethan Zuckerman, “Does the Number Have Lesson for Human Rights Activities?”

“I met Valenti just about 10 years ago while I was at Harvard. Soon after I met him, he published a piece that was extremely nasty about me. A couple months later, he came to Harvard to debate me. He began by apologizing, marking the piece as the “dumbest” thing he had written. From that moment on, every moment I was privileged to know the man was also a surprise. He was brilliant, and funny, and extraordinarily generous. We debated four times. In each he was self-deprecating, funny, and very very clever — feigning ignorance where it helped, pouncing when it worked.”
Lawrence Lessig, “Jack Valenti Dies.”

"I’m writing you today to inform you of an amazing opportunity that makes more urgent our need for you help. A donor has GENEROUSLY offered to give $100,000 towards the iCommons iSummit, if we are able to raise $100,000 to match that gift by May 10th. This gives us nine days to raise a lot of money. I think we will be able to raise at least half of the $100,000 that we need from some long time supporters of Creative Commons. But this makes meeting our goal of $50,000 from the community even more important.”
Creative Commons, “An Exciting New Challenge: $100k in Matching Funds for iSummit.”

"Tonight at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific), the PBS program Now will broadcast the story of Steven Vincent, the journalist whose blog, In the Red Zone, outlives him. Steven was murdered on August 2, 2005, three days after the New York Times published an op-ed piece by him. His wife Lisa later wrote, 'Steven ... has the dubious distinction of being one of the few foreign journalists in this Iraq conflict specifically targeted for execution.'"
Doc Searls, "Now on Then."