Berkman Buzz: December 2, 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.
* John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain advocate in Science for better data for a better Internet
* Mayo Fuster Morell discusses the Spanish Revolution and the Internet
* Jonathan Zittrain warns that the personal computer is dead
* Zeynep Tufekci explores the pack mentality in journalism
* The Citizen Media Law Project writes about undercover police monitoring of the Occupy protests in Nashville
* Weekly Global Voices: "Global Voices Podcast: Technology that Empowers!"
Bonus: Jonathan Zittrain appeared on The Colbert Report this week to discuss the Stop Online Piracy Act
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The full buzz.
"Decisions about when and how to regulate activities online will have a profound societal impact. Debates underlying such decisions touch upon fundamental problems related to economics, free expression, and privacy. Their outcomes will influence the structure of the Internet, how data can flow across it, and who will pay to build and maintain it. Most striking about these debates are the paucity of data available to guide policy and the extent to which policymakers ignore the good data we do have."
From John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain's article in Science, "Better Data for a Better Internet"
"On Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:30 pm I did a presentation at the Berkman Center Luncheon Series on The Spanish Revolution & the Internet: From free culture to meta-politics. I enjoyed the discussion. If you would like to see or take an idea of it here below there is the audio-video recording, tweets exchange and notes (thanks to Berkman tech team and Sasha Costanza-Chock). Comments welcome!"
From Mayo Fuster Morell's blog post, "Mayo Fuster Morell on the Spanish Revolution & the Internet: From Free Culture to Meta-Politics"
"The PC is dead. Rising numbers of mobile, lightweight, cloud-centric devices don't merely represent a change in form factor. Rather, we're seeing an unprecedented shift of power from end users and software developers on the one hand, to operating system vendors on the other—and even those who keep their PCs are being swept along. This is a little for the better, and much for the worse."
From Jonathan Zittrain's article in Technology Review, "The Personal Computer Is Dead"
"With shrinking number of foreign correspondents, and with too few correspondents covering too many countries (too big a beat – how can one person cover all of Middle East?), and too little time in any one country, it just makes sense to stick together. However, journalism isn’t just about multiple sourcing. Journalism also isn’t only about knowing the area one is covering, but it is also about knowing the audience one is communicating with, knowing how to evaluate and bring facts together, and knowing how to evaluate and tell a story to that particular audience. It’s a two-way street with competencies required on both sides of the equation, both compiling and presenting the news."
From Zeynep Tufekci's blog post, "Journalism, Social Media and Packs & Cascades: Lessons from an Error"
"In response to local Occupy protests, Tennessee Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons said in October that 'we don’t have the resources to go out and, in effect, babysit protesters.' But as the Nashville Scene recently reported, that’s exactly what police officers did — and they did so while undercover."
From Justin Silverman's blog post for CMLP, "Policing Political Speech or Just Sex Under the Magnolia Tree?"
"In this edition of the Global Voices podcast you can hear how women in Egypt are using technology to fight harassment, and what our Global Voices authors and editors got up to at the Mozilla Festival in London. We also mark World Aids Day by speaking to HIV/AIDS activists in Kenya and Egypt about the special work they do."
From Jamillah Knowles's post for Global Voices, "Global Voices Podcast: Technology that Empowers!"
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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.