BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations. If you'd like to receive this by email, just sign up here.
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
Week of February 18, 2008
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What's going on...take your pick or browse below.
*Corinna DiGennaro discusses online political participation.
*danah boyd is sick of main stream media's drama.
*The Internet & Democracy Project looks at one website's Hopes.
*In the Middle East and North Africa popular blogs are disappearing. The OpenNet Initiative explains.
*Is the Wikileaks dispute finally over? Let's ask David Ardia
*Digital Natives would never talk about gossip site JuicyCampus.com behind its back
*Weekly Global Voice: "Iran: Students protest against 'gender apartheid'"
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The full buzz.
"With the primaries in full swing and the upcoming elections, one cannot but ponder what role new technologies such as the Internet are playing in facilitating citizens’ engagement in the political process. Is the Internet actually making a difference? The Internet has certainly lowered the barriers of participation – if one wants to get involved, there are numerous arguably low cost ways to do so..."
Corrina DiGennaro, "The Internet: politics as usual?"
"Last night, I turned off NPR in a state of complete disgust. It wasn't just the ongoing hellish pledge drive that drives me away from NPR for months at a time. (I _want_ to give to NPR, but the pledge drives tend to make me turn my back on NPR instead.) No, it was the framing of the election results. It was the way the story has been and continues to be framed. And it wasn't just NPR, but Fox News, CNN, and NYTimes have all made me blazingly angry this week. And it wasn't just about winners or losers, but about how the story is framed dramatically to get people to tune in..."
danah boyd, "enough already!"
"Jesse Dylan, the director behind Will.I.Am’s Yes We Can song video and Rob Holzer, CEO of Syrup NYC, want to bring their vision for political change through the Hope|Act|Change web site (http://hopeactchange.com). Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School professor, is moderating the discussion. They are looking for advice on how the Hope|Act|Change movement can go beyond Barack’s speech and the resulting video, and into an effective web presence. He calls it a nonofficial 'call to action' to get people connecting to each other and out to vote..."
The Internet & Democracy Project, "Jesse Dylan and Hope|Act|Change"
"In addition to blocking blogs and arresting bloggers, a new form of censorship has started to emerge in the Middle East and North Africa: blog-hosting services removing blogs from their servers. Arab bloggers complain that the major blog-hosting services, Maktoob Blog and Jeeran Blog, have removed popular blogs without providing any explanations or prior notice..."
The OpenNet Initiative, "Removing blogs: a new form of Web censorship in the Middle East and North Africa"
"As if the order by Judge White vacating the injunctions in the Wikileaks case weren't enough, the Banks that brought the case have now filed a notice of dimissal seeking to voluntarily dismiss the entire case. It's a short filing, so I've quoted it in its entirety below..."
David Ardia, "Banks in Wikileaks Case Back Down, Seek to Dismiss Case After Losing Fight Over Injunctions"
"In light of recent discussions about managing online reputations, how about something you can’t really control – gossip. JuicyCampus.com is a website aimed at becoming a compendium of gossip at college campuses. The gossip posted is, unsurprisingly, is often malicious and hateful, leading to some backlash in the media..."
Digital Natives, "Gossip You Can't Manage"
"Hundreds of students continued a protest at Shiraz University against 'gender apartheid' on Tuesday 4th of March. The students want their university to put an end to a policy that began in February of separating men and women into different classrooms..."
Global Voices, "Iran: Students protest against 'gender apartheid'"