Berkman Buzz, week of January 5
A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations. If you'd like to receive this by email, just sign up here.
What's going on... take your pick or browse below.
* Doc Searls asks "Can we relate?"
* Dan Gillmor predicts the media landscape for 2007
* Creative Commons launches a new beta tool for authors to manage rights
* Lawrence Lessig needs your help!
* David Weinberger investigates the Miscellaneous Hamlet
* Charles Nesson plans moot trial of real case in Second Life
The Full Buzz:
"Imagine being able to relate to vendors -- productively, on mutually agreeable terms -- rather than just paying them money for whatever they're selling, and occasionally giving them 'feedback' through surveys that aggregate our 'input' inside some impersonal 'customer relationship management' (CRM) system. That's the idea behind VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management. It's the reciprocal of CRM: a toolset for independence and engagement. That is, of independence from vendors and engagement with vendors."
Doc Searls, "Can we relate?"
"What will happen in American journalism in 2007? Here, in the multiple-choice format borrowed from (and with grateful apologies to) columnist William Safire, are my own best guesses....
1. The biggest network-news shock will occur when:
A. A major broadcast network kills its evening news show due to low ratings and the prospect of making more money with a 'reality' show
B. CBS replaces Katie Couric with Howard Stern
C. Google launches a highly viewed daily 'newscast' featuring editor- and audience-selected YouTube videos, and syndicates the program to independent TV stations"
Dan Gillmor, "Media Predictions, 2007"
"Briefly, the U.S. Copyright Act gives creators a mechanism by which they can reclaim rights that they sold or licensed away many years ago. Often artists sign away their rights at the start of their careers when they lack sophisticated negotiating experience, access to good legal advice or any knowledge of the true value of their work so they face an unequal bargaining situation. The 'termination of transfer' provisions are intended to give artists a way to rebalance the bargain, giving them a 'second bite of the apple.' By allowing artists to reclaim their rights, the U.S. Congress hoped that authors could renegotiate old deals or negotiate new deals on stronger footing.... Despite this admirable Congressional intention, the provisions are very complex and have not been frequently used. CC’s tool is intended to go some way towards redressing that."
Creative Commons, "'Returning Author’s Rights: Termination of Transfer' Beta Tool Launched"
Lawrence Lessig is looking for examples of "read only v. read-write" and "commecial v sharing" environments:
"Commercial v. Sharing environments.... This is distinction between the objectives of the site. It is a fuzzy distinction, but the core difference is this: Commercial sites aim primarily to make money. They are usually run by commercial enterprises, and they measure their success in financial terms. Sharing sites are not aimed primarily at making money. It’s not that creators and users of these sites are communists. It’s just that creators and users of these sites do things other than (try to) make money at least part of the day. Think of the Wall Street mogul who teaches Sunday School (and there are these)....
It’s fairly easy to build a list of examples of each of these four categories.... But what I’m particularly interested in is the combination of these two distinctions...."
Lawrence Lessig, "Help needed: Looking for examples"
"There are three established editions of Hamlet, so when you want to point to Hamlet, which one do you point to? Not to mention the various publishers, editions, and versions, from large print to translations to ones with modern spellings to parodies to coloring books. It's a big stinking problem that cannot be solved once and for all with precision because Hamlet is a cloud..."
David Weinberger, "Miscellaneous Hamlet"
"In the final week of the class we will doing a first-of-its-kind Second Life event. We will be holding a moot trial of Bragg v. Linden Labs in our new courtroom on Berkman Island. Bragg v. Linden Labs is a real case currently making its way through the United States federal court system. Bragg is a former Second Life resident whose SL account was terminated and SL property was seized by Linden Labs after they determined that he had exploited the property purchasing system. He is suing for the value of his SL property that he bought through legitimate means in Second Life. We will try the case twice in our courtroom, once under the Second Life Terms of Service Agreement and once at common law. Professor Nesson will serve as the judge in both trials. Teams of Harvard Law students enrolled in Evidence will serve as the lawyers. We are seeking volunteers from within the Second Life community to serve as jurors or to role play the parts of witnesses. We also welcome all at-large participants to participate in the trial by sitting in the public gallery from which we can see all the action in the courtroom but also have our own discussion of the proceedings without disrupting them."
Charles Nesson, "Levin Lectures"