Skip to the main content

Berkman Buzz: Week of May 17, 2010

BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations
If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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

* OpenNet Initiative notes Pakistan is blocking Facebook.
* David Weinberger grapples with too much difference.
* danah boyd considers Facebook's utilityness.
* Harry Lewis rounds up news on privacy.
* A year ago in the Buzz: "Top Conservative on Twitter Takes Critic to Court"
* Fernando Bermejo reads the Google Adwords policy page.
* Chilling Effects does the math on the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
* Ethan Zuckerman blogs Miriam Meckel's talk on "social media journalism."
* Dan Gillmor asks how we're going to sort good info from bad.
* Weekly Global Voices: "South Africa: 32 teams and 40,000 prostitutes for 2010 FIFA World Cup?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The full buzz.

"There has been significant response on Facebook itself, with a number of users planning to boycott or quit Facebook on May 20. And today it was announced that a Pakistani high court has ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block Facebook until May 31, at which point a longer hearing will take place."
From Jillian York's blog post for ONI, Facebook Blocked in Pakistan Following 'Draw Mohammad Day' Competition

"The previous chapter left the reader thinking that there’s no bottom to the worldwide disagreements the worldwide web is making apparent. There’s too much difference. So, I’m beginning Chapter 4 with some rules of thumb for scoping diversity — that is, getting the right amount that a group can work together and make itself smarter, as opposed to either falling into groupthink or falling apart because people just disagree too fundamentally. I seem to have four heuristics, although, as always with such sets, that there are four and not three or fifteen is more arbitrary than any of us would like to believe..."
From David Weinberger's blog post [2b2k] Scoping diversity

"I cannot imagine that Facebook wants to be regulated, but I fear that it thinks that it won’t be. There’s cockiness in the air. Personally, I don’t care whether or not Facebook alone gets regulated, but regulation’s impact tends to extend much further than one company. And I worry about what kinds of regulation we’ll see. Don’t get me wrong: I think that regulators will come in with the best of intentions; they often (but not always) do. I just think that what they decide will have unintended consequences that are far more harmful than helpful and this makes me angry at Facebook for playing chicken with them."
From danah boyd's blog post Facebook is a utility; utilities get regulated

"The deputy prime minister refers to a “culture of spying on its citizens” and says “It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding citizens get treated as if they have got something to hide.” In the U.S. the politics of surveillance seem to be the reverse of the attitudes in England. Here it is the left that complains about the violations of individual liberty occasioned by surveillance, either governmental or commercial, and it is the right that defends surveillance, either as an aid to law enforcement and national defense, or as a free exercise of unrestrained capitalism."
From Harry Lewis' blog post All the news on the privacy front

"In addition to monetary damages, Leahy argues that he is "entitled to see the complete records of all Facebook communications and telephonic communications between Grasmick and her 283 Facebook friends, as well as public and private messages sent by Grasmick to those 469 persons she follows on Twitter, in order to determine the identity, if there is such, of any additional defendants who should be named in this complaint." Compl. ¶ 18. Can you say improper fishing expedition?"
From David Ardia's blog post for CMLP, Top Conservative on Twitter Takes Critic to Court [originally included in the Berkman Buzz in May 2009]

"The recent petition in Spain was triggered by the upcoming legislative change that will lift some restrictions on abortion practices in the country–abortion was until now legal, but subject to wider restrictions. What ensued was an exchange—both in private and through the media—between Google and the petitioners, with Google showing its willingness to discuss the issue and review its norms if necessary, and the clinics engaging the Government in their support and threatening with legal action."
From Fernando Bermejo's blog post "Don't do..."

"In the time it takes you to read this article, at least one URL may have disappeared from Blogger as a result of a takedown notice from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. While the IFPI's takedown of several high-profile music blogs has raised eyebrows over the past several months, an analysis of the Chilling Effects notice archive reveals that IFPI's campaign is much larger in scope than previously understood, likely facilitated by automated infringement detection tools."
From Balke Ellis Reid's blog post for Chilling Effects, The IFPI's Takedown Campaign: By the Numbers

"Between June 7-26th, 2009, [Miriam Meckel's] team collected 2 million Iran-focused tweets from 480,000 accounts. They selected the 200 most active users, and filtered that set down to the 100 most “relevant” users talking about the protests. Their analysis of The Lede suggests that [Robert] Mackey chose 12 highly relevant Iran sources accessible on Twitter and relied heavily on them as sources. “Almost 60% of (51) iran related blog entries show mentions of Twitter users as sources.”"
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post Miriam Meckel – Iran, Robert Mackey and information brokers

"We are in a splintering media world where anyone can commit a globally visible act of journalism — or deception. This means we’re awash in both good and bad information, and if Theodore Sturgeon’s maxim is true, most of it is crud. But with the huge amount of new stuff out there, this also means that there’s an enormous amount of good stuff, too. So how do we sort the good from the bad? I’ve discussed it at some length in my own new project, but I’d like to be sure I haven’t missed anything."
From Dan Gillmor's blog post IdeasProject: What Can We Each Do to Get Reliable Information?

"If you are going to South Africa to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup, you should probably be prepared to meet 40,000 prostitutes from around the world who are expected to flock to South Africa…well, that is if you believe in rumours!"
From Ndesanjo Macha's blog post for Global Voices, South Africa: 32 teams and 40,000 prostitutes for 2010 FIFA World Cup?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Berkman Buzz is curated weekly from the blogs of current Berkman Center directors, fellows, projects: http://cyber.harvard.edu/planet/current/