Kan Suzuki’s boarded up SL headquarters Interesting article in the BBC about how Japan has instituted a freeze on all web-campaigning before their July 29 national elections. Reportedly, Japanese politicians are not allowed to create new websites or update their existing ones prior to the election. Diet member Kan Suzuki has even had to close…
Category: Information Society
Techology takes the sting out of distant love
I miss my girlfriend. But not as much as I would be missing her if we didn’t have Skype. And AIM. And SMS. And her blog. I’m going to sound like an old fogey right now: kids these days have it easy. Back when I was young and dumb and in love, I had to…
Net radio saved… negotiations between Sound Exchange and net broadcasters resume
It looks like net radio won’t go dark on July 15 as previously predicted. WIRED’s blog "Listening Post" reports that Sound Exchange, the consortium responsible for enforcing royalties for the music industry, has agreed before Congress that they will not collect fees from net radio stations under the proposed new fee structure until a new…
Ben Scott on why the iPhone sucks (hint, it rhymes with “AT&T”)
Here’s a great run-down by Ben Scott of the non-profit group Free Press of what’s wrong with the iPhone from a public policy perspective. (Recorded by Matt Stoller.) For those who can’t spare the time to watch Ben’s cogent 5 minute explanation, here’s the rundown: Consumer Choice: The iPhone locks consumers into one telephone company,…
I gave in to the hype: me and my new iPhone
I’ve been waiting for this bad boy for six months, saving my pennies and counting the days. I was unfortunately tied up all of June 29, so I couldn’t get in on the fun macgeek love-fest outside of Apple stores everywhere. But just as well. I got up at the crack of noon, cycled down…
9/11 3D “fly-through” and how media contextualizes experience
I just finished watching the fascinating video of a 3D representation of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center created by a bunch of researchers at Purdue. The goal was to create a visual representation to illustrate how the planes managed to destroy the buildings primary support structures, even though the architects had…
“Real Lives”: Learning about world cultures, one life at a time
My name is Manal. I am a six year old girl in Syria. I have an older brother and three older sisters. My mother and father are salespeople. We are sunni muslims. Tomorrow I begin school… So begins the life of my new character in the game "Real Lives" put out by Educational Simulations. A…
Gamers unite for Net Neutrality!
I forgot to mention last week that at the Games for Change Festival in New York Moveon.org and Games for Change announced a new joint initiative called "Gamers for Net Neutrality." The goal is to leverage the enormous energy and creativity of the digital gamers communities to push for freer, more open internet public policy….
Quick video of virtual broadcast of iCommons panel on “I versus Commons”
Here’s a quick video of Jonathan Zittrain answering a question I posed to him from Second Life. Namely: How do we win the fight for free culture when the hardware / OS layer is being increasingly locked down by Microsoft and Apple for freely creating, sharing and re-mixing our content? The context was a panel…
Larry Lessig speaking today at iCommons Summit, streamed in-world
Tireless advocate for free culture, enlightened intellectual property policies and an open internet, Dr. Lawrence Lessig will be speaking today at 11AM PST at the iCommons Summit in Dubrovnic, Croatia. You may know Larry as the CEO of the Creative Commons. For those who can’t jet over there, Larry’s talk will also be streamed into…