Berkman Buzz: Week of January 31, 2011

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

* Yashomati Ghosh describes bringing ICT to India's citizens
* Josh Sprague reviews essential mobile phone apps for journalists (and you)
* David Weinberger critiques Malcom Gladwell's dismissal of the role of social media in the North African protests
* Stuart Shieber discusses the costs of open access
* Wendy Seltzer explores the legality of the US government's recent domain name seizures
* Weekly Global Voices: "Gabon: The Invisible Revolt"

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The full buzz.

"When it was my turn for leading the discussions I was faced with the challenge of identifying an issue which would on one hand fall within the notion of ‘web exceptionalism’ and would also be linked to society. Being a research scholar from India it was an additional need to present Internet culture from the perspective of Indian people and their needs."
From Yashomati Ghosh's blog post, "A Technological Endeavour to Fulfill the Right to Work(MG NREGA): Bringing ICT to the door steps of the Common People of India"

"A great discussion began on Quora asking “What apps should every journalist have on their iPhone?” Both professional journalists and recreational reporters jumped in on the discussion with enough suggestions to cover most bases when you need to capture news and publish it quickly from a mobile device. While not all are as useful to non-professional journalists, having some of the same apps available can serve the you well in the pursuit to be an active media participant."
From Josh Sprague's blog post for Mediaactive, "Mobile Applications Journalists (and You) Should Have on Your Phone"

"Gladwell is in the unfortunate position of having published a New Yorker article dismissive of the effect of social media on social protest movements just weeks before the Tunisian and Egyptian revolts. Now Gladwell has posted a 200-word commentary that maintains his position without emendation."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "Gladwell proves too much"

"Phil Davis’s recent post over at The Scholarly Kitchen on whether open access might save the academic world some money misses the point of the COPE initiative and Harvard’s open-access fund (HOPE). Davis speculates that for the case of one set of journals that happened to be mentioned in my colleague Bob Darnton‘s recent NYRB piece, HOPE would cost the university more than its current subscriptions, echoing a more general claim he has made in previous work that OA article processing charges (APCs) will cost many universities more than they now pay in subscription fees."
From Stuart Shieber's blog post, "The Tetrahedron test case"

"Now I don’t want to judge the sites’ legality one way or the other based on limited evidence. Chilling Effects has DMCA takedown demands from several parties demanding that Google remove from its search index pages on some of these sites — complaints that are themselves one-side’s allegation of infringement. What I’d like to see instead is due process for the accused before domain names are seized and sites disrupted. I’d like to know that the magistrate judge saw an accurate affidavit, and reviewed it with enough expertise to distinguish the location of complained-of material and the responsibility the site’s owners bear for it: the difference between direct, contributory, vicarious, and inducement of copyright infringement (for any of which a site-owner might be held liable, in appropriate circumstances) and innocent or protected activity."
From Wendy Seltzer's blog post, "Super Bust: Due Process and Domain Name Seizure"

"Protests in Gabon have failed to make a dent in the international news cycle as all eyes are still turned towards the Egyptian crisis. However, what was considered negligible protests before by Ali Bongo and his partisans seems to have created enough political turmoil to provoke the censorship of a television channel and repression of public protests."
From Julie Owono's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Gabon: The Invisible Revolt"

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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.