Ok, so here’s my brilliant idea for how to market "saving the internet" for Jeff Pulver’s viral marketing contest: Internet Defender. It’s a flash-based video game that highlights the increasing restrictions and bottlenecks being put up by ISPs. A side-scrolling shooter, similar to the classic game Defender, the set-up would be a web surfer trying…
Category: Information Society
“Save the Internet” marketing contest – $1,000 prize!
Jeff Pulver has decided to put his money with his mouth is, stop just blogging about preserving the principles of Net Neutrality and the end-to-end principles and do something. Jeff is sponsoring a viral marketing contest to save the internet. Here’s his pitch: We need to harness your individual genius and our collective genius (for…
Free Press launches “Save the Internet” campaign
The advocacy group Free Press has just launched a "Save the Internet" campaign website, as a major public push in support of the "Network Neutrality" principle. The campaign coalition believes: the Internet is a crucial engine for economic growth and democratic discourse. We are working together to urge Congress to take steps now to preserve…
Reframing IPR -> Access to Knowledge
I’m off in a couple of hours to the “Access to Knowledge” conference at Yale University this weekend, April 21-23. The goal of the conference is to come up with a new analytic framework for analysing the possibly distortive effects of public policies relying exclusively on intellectual property rights. Beyond this aim, the A2K initiative…
Bluetooth headsets are officially not dorky anymore
I’ve been noticing a proliferation of bluetooth cell phone headsets out on the streets lately, and not just on chauffeurs and cabbies. These devices seem to have passed the threshold from dorky early adopter to cutting edge hepster. It’s only a matter of months before all the soccer moms have them and then look for…
Gothamist debate on Laptops on the Subway
My lil post today about “Mac’in on the R Train” made it onto the Gothamist blog (one of my favs). Thanks, Jen! It set off a debate about whether or not its safe to use your laptop on the subway. Of the 24 comments, 16 thought it was a bad idea with only 4 indicating…
Mac’in on the R Train?
I snapped a picture of this woman using her 17" Powerbook on the subway this morning! The R train uptown, from City Hall to 28th Street, about 9am, in case you are interested. I guess that’s another sign that New York is becoming safer. I’ve blogged previously about electronics and personal safety in public spaces….
AOL hates my e-mail too
Free Press, the LA Times and others are reporting that AOL has been systematically blocking email that contain references to the dearAOL.com campaign, aimed at getting AOL to drop their pay-to-send email filtering system. AOL has been working on instituting a new email filtering system that would only allow unsolicited emails from senders who pay…
New York gov website ranks 1st for usability, 13th for citizens participation
A joint study by researchers at Rutgers-Newark and Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, of the official websites of the world’s major cities ranked Seoul, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Sydney as the top five municipalities in “digital governance.” They define "Digital governance" as "the degree to which a website – in this instance those of 100…
“Book Signing” on April 12 at National Model UN Convention
My friend Walter Hoffmann has convinced me to do a "book signing" for the little study I did called e-Democracy and the United Nations (2004) for his group the Center for UN Reform Education . The event will be on April 12 at the National Model United Nations convention, which is taking place at the…