I got an email invite to a "future of learning" event on April 21 sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation. I had to chuckle about the byline at the bottom of the email that said that MacArthur had launched a "$50 digital media and learning initiative." Wow, $50! I think I can get a mansion and…
Category: Information Society
Stanford proposes Library of Congress archive “historically significant” computer games
Henry Lowood of Stanford University recently announced his proposal to the Library of Congress that video / computer games be added to the list of important digital media being archived by the Library. QJ.net reports that on March 8 at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Henry Lowood unveiled a proposed "game canon," i.e. a list…
TurboTax is taxing my patience
Trying to be a good citizen for once and file my taxes well ahead of April 15. TurboTax has done a decent job in the past, but tonight it’s pissing me off. Somehow the program has gotten into its head that I need to make estimated tax payments in 2007, which is totally wrong. My…
Free track from legendary 80s electronic group Information Society!
Wow, who knew that the ground-breaking electronica group Information Society was still kicking around? That’s so sweet. Apparently, despite some group drama and new members, they have held together in some form through the 90s and into the 00s. They recently had a big hit in Brazil. Even sweeter is that they have a new…
Profile of Tim Wu: intrepid Net Neutrality academic-activist
The Blue and White newspaper at Columbia University has done a nice profile of Tim Wu, the pioneering communications scholar who championed the cause of Net Neutrality back when no one was talking about it. Now of course Tim is a minor celebrity in the net activist community. But four years ago, he was virtually…
UN Millennium Campaign wants your ideas for games for the $100 laptop
I got a nice message from Amil regarding the UN Millennium Campaign’s effort to create games for the $100 laptop (aka OLPC) that would educate children about the Millennium Development Goals. The Campaign has set up a wiki where anyone can submit ideas for computer games suitable for children that could run on the tiny…
C-SPAN to make videos available online under Creative Commons-type license
This is quite exciting: C-SPAN has announced that they plan to making available on the web their video of congressional, White House and Federal events under a Creative Commons-type licensing structure. They are implementing a "liberalized copyright policy" which will allow non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution. I.e….
RIAA to levy new fees on net radio stations
The website that I help run, Yehoodi.com, has provided a free streaming radio show featuring the best swing jazz since 2001. So I was particularly alarmed to learn that the RIAA on Friday successfully got the US Copyright Office to accept a new set of exorbitant song royalty fees for netradio stations like ours (full…
UN Spam of the Week: UNICEF has a job for you!
It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten a spammish e-mail from someone purporting to be working for the United Nations. So I was delighted to find this "job offer" in the mail yesterday from Mr. "Patrick Evans": United Nation International Children and Educational Fund (UNICEF), a humanitarian organization under United Nation Organization (UNO) urgently needs you…
Awesome new net neutrality video from SavetheInternet.com
Gotta love this new video from the SavetheInternet.com folks. It clearly and cogently describes the issue and what you can do to defend freedom of expression on the internet. Awesome stuff.