Berkman Buzz: June 10, 2011
A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations
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What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below.
* Wendy Seltzer explores privacy in public
* Ethan Zuckerman navigates privacy walls and thresholds
* Dan Gillmor reviews the FCC report on the future of media
* David Weinberger interviews Peter Suber about open metadata
* The OpenNet Initiative evaluates what a new treaty on gambling could mean for Internet filtering in Germany
* Weekly Global Voices: "Syria: True Identity of Arrested Blogger Questioned"
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The full buzz.
"We learn to negotiate privacy choices as we see them reflected around us. Yet technological advances challenge our privacy instincts by enabling non-transparent information collection: data aggregators amass and mine detailed long-term profiles from limited shared glimpses; online social networks leak information through continuous feeding of social pathways we might rarely activate offline; cell phones become fine-grained location-tracking devices of interest to governments and private companies, unnoticed until we map them."
From Wendy Seltzer's blog post, "Privacy, Attention, and Political Community"
"Societies evolve norms around privacy. We don’t join other people’s conversations at a restaurant, and if we listen in, we try to disguise our behavior. In traffic jams, people forget their cars are transparent – they get dressed and pick their noses, and we try to look away. Those norms allow for privacy in public spaces. In law, on the other hand, privacy sometimes seen as a goal in itself, not just a means to an end."
From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "Walls and thresholds – physical metaphors at Hyper-public"
"So many things are disappointing about the FCC’s just-released future of media report that it’s tempting to write it off entirely. That would be a mistake."
From Dan Gillmor's blog post, "FCC Journalism Report Is a Voluminous Disappointment"
"One of the outcomes of the the LOD-LAM conference was a draft of an idea for a 4-star classification of openness of metadata from cultural institutions. The classification is nicely counter-intuitive, which is to say that it’s useful. I asked Peter Suber, the Open Access guru, what he thought of it."
From David Weinberger's blog post, "Peter Suber on the 4-star openness rating"
"An inter-state treaty that will overhaul Germany’s gambling regulation could prove a threat to the open net. Should a recent draft be adopted, ISPs would be obliged to prevent users from accessing unauthorized gambling websites, which critics fear will mean the establishment of a censorship infrastructure that would breach constitutional rights."
From Simon Columbus's blog post for the OpenNet Initiative, "In Germany, a new treaty on gambling might open the door to Internet filtering"
"Since reports emerged that a Syrian blogger named Amina Arraf, known as “Gay Girl in Damascus” had been seized by authorities on Monday, 6 June 2011, serious doubts have surfaced that the blogger may not be who she claims."
From Jillian York's post for Global Voices Online, "Syria: True Identity of Arrested Blogger Questioned"
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Compiled by Rebekah Heacock.
The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly 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.