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…
A2K: it’s a movement, it’s an analytic framework, it slices, it dices!
Just got home from the excellent Access to Knowledge (A2K) conference in Yale. The weekend was chock-a-block with provocative speakers during the sessions and stimulating discussions during the coffee breaks. Some of the more memorable bits: Eric von Hippel of MIT Management School talking about the case of French Chefs as a norm based intellectual…
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…
The UN Employment Scam Unpacked
I’ve been getting lots of responses from people who have also received these fake emails from groups pretending affiliation with the United Nations. A nice person forwarded to me all of the documents and communications that she received when she applied for a job with the “US Committee for the UN.” She notes that after…
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….
UN Spam: Just Another Phishing Scheme
I am pretty sure at this point that these fake UN emails advertising cushy job postings and free travel to UN conferences are just elaborate phishing schemes hidden in UN-ese double-speak. This suspicion was confirmed when "Ernest" commented in a previous post here about his experience in replying to the "Youth conference" email: i have…
UN Agency for Sustainable Growth Wants You! (More UN Spam)
Here’s the latest United Nations spam that I received from the "United Nations Agency for Sustainable Growth." The job descriptions are almost identical to the ones from the "U.S. Committee for the U.N". Weirder and weirder: The mission of the Agency for Sustainable growth (UNASG) is the creation of physically and socially sustainable cities. UNASG’s…
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…