Berkman Buzz: April 22, 2011
What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below.
* Ethan Zuckerman documents Internet filtering at the National Science Foundation
* Radio Berkman talks to Steven Levy about the Googleplex
* The OpenNet Initiative covers the Ugandan government's new Internet filtering attempts
* David Weinberger speaks out in favor of net neutrality
* The Citizen Media Law Project reviews recent Righthaven copyright cases
* Weekly Global Voices: "Chile: Nurse Expedites Organ Transport Using Twitter"
Special Note: The Berkman Center's Digital Media Law Project is seeking a new fellow.
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The full buzz.
"The National Science Foundation is spending taxpayer money to (ineffectively) prevent scientists from learning about a debate about 'internet freedom' tools the US State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors are spending taxpayer money to support and promote, again using taxpayer money. Is there a Federal irony department where I can lodge a complaint?"
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "US National Science Foundation blocks Global Voices Advocacy website"
"The story of Google is not just one of innovation. It’s a coming of age story in which a young, idealistic startup is confronted with the harsh realities of growing into the world’s third largest tech company: antitrust investigations, lawsuits, and a particularly tense standoff with the leadership of the largest country in the world."
From Radio Berkman #179: The Googleplex
"Two legal developments in Nevada and Colorado last week make Righthaven a textbook example of how not to win a lawsuit. In their cases against the Democratic Underground and Brian Hill, Righthaven appears to be suing without owning the copyright and picking a fight with the judge handling dozens of still-pending cases, respectively."
From Joel Sage's blog post for the Citizen Media Law Project, "The Sound of Fury in Recent Righthaven Cases"
"It’s very simple. Once we have lost Net neutrality and the access providers are given a free hand to charge Internet companies for delivering their bits faster and more reliably than their competitors’ bits, we will experience this simply as how the Internet works, not as an artificial constraint put in to benefit the access providers."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "Why you won’t care that the Net isn’t neutral"
"With the exception of Ethiopia, which blocks a number of political and security-related websites, and a few cases of isolated Internet censorship related to political events, most of sub-Saharan Africa has historically been free of technical filtering. This week, however, the government of Uganda wrote to the heads of three of the country's major ISPs asking them to block Facebook and 'Tweeter' [sic] 'to eliminate the connection and sharing of information that incites the public.'"
From Rebekah Heacock's blog post for the OpenNet Initiative, "Ugandan Government Asks ISPs to Block Facebook, Twitter"
"Cristina Bizama (@cristi_enf), a nurse at Talca hospital in Chile, has devised a way to speed up the transport of organs for transplant from Talca to the capital, Santiago, some 260 kilometers away (162 miles). It all started with a tweet sent the night of April 12, 2011."
From Elizabeth Rivera's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Chile: Nurse Expedites Organ Transport Using Twitter"
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Compiled by Rebekah Heacock.
The weekly Berkman Buzz is selected from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects and sometimes from the Center's wider network.
Suggestions and feedback about the Buzz are always welcome and can be emailed to buzz@cyber.harvard.edu.