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Berkman Buzz: April 1, 2011

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

* Christian Sandvig's epic saga through the finer points of Comcast's customer service comes to an end
* Ethan Zuckerberg uses Media Cloud to measure the change in media cycles
* Herdict explains how crowdsourcing is being used to monitor Japan's nuclear crisis
* David Weinberger reflects on the Google Books Settlement decision
* The Citizen Media Law Project reviews a new memo on smartphone policies in the courtroom
* Weekly Global Voices: "Nigeria: What Are Nigerian Bloggers Saying About the 2011 Elections?"

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The full buzz.

"My telephone number port came through from Comcast today. This is the number port I’ve been railing about for weeks in this previous and increasingly-lengthy blog post. According to the FCC’s one-day porting rule (which you can read about here), a port like this should take… you guessed it… one day. Let’s see how that measures up to some other units of measure. Since I ordered the service on February 21 and it is now March 28, one “FCC day” actually equals 5 weeks or 25 business days or 35 real life actual honest days."
From Christian Sandvig's blog post, "A one day port, 35 days later"

"International news very rarely is the dominant story in US media – when the fine folks at Project for Excellence in Journalism noted that the protests in Iran were one of the very few international stories that led a US news cycle, I analyzed a few years of their data and concluded that, aside from coverage of the Olympics, it was virtually the only non-US story in recent years to have led a US news cycle. This year, we’re seeing this trend reversed – interest in the Japan disasters was extremely high in US media, and in protests in Egypt and Libya – perhaps there’s been a shift in public attention, in media coverage, or both."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "How restless a searchlight?: Using Media Cloud to measure the change in media cycles"

"In the aftermath of Japan’s recent earthquake, the Japanese have turned to crowdsourcing in their battle against the nuclear crisis. RDTN.org recently launched online, allowing people to submit their own radiation readings that are then posted in comparison to data contributed by official sources."
From Qichen Zhang's blog post for Herdict, "Crowdsourcing Japan’s Nuclear Crisis"

"The GBS (which, a couple of generations ago would have unambiguously referred to George Bernard Shaw) was worked out by Google, the publishers, and the Authors Guild without schools, libraries, or readers at the table. The problems with it were legion, although over time it had gotten somewhat less obnoxious. Yet, I find myself slightly disappointed. We so desperately need what Google was building, even though it shouldn’t have been Google (or any single private company) that is building it."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "Doing Google Books right"

"The U.S. Judicial Conference, which helps set policy for federal circuit (appeals) and district (trial) courts, has issued a memo, first reported by Wired's "Threat Level" blog, that is meant to help individual courts set policies on when and how smartphones and similar devices can be brought into and used in courthouses and in courtrooms."
From Eric P. Robinson's blog post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "Federal Courts Discuss Smartphone Policies"

"As the 2011 Elections in Nigeria draws near, the blogosphere is fervent with loud screams. Nigerian bloggers are busy talking but creating a national conversation about the future of their country."
From Nwachukwu Egbunike's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Nigeria: What Are Nigerian Bloggers Saying About the 2011 Elections?"

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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.