Good article on Dan Gillmor
November 21, 2006
Hey, Dan is a major voice in participatory journalism, and I feel his Center for Citizens' Media is a big deal.
For an update, check this out.
... he is the unlikely revolutionary behind what may prove to be the reinvention of journalism. As the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a fledgling think tank affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Gillmor occupies the middle ground between the MSM and the blog triumphalists. His goal: to help the nascent citizen-journalism movement raise its standards and boost its influence, while also helping mainstream media organizations use technology to reach out to what he likes to call the “former audience.”“Contrary to some folks in this area, I’m a big fan of traditional media,” Gillmor says. “I want to help them work in ways that they’ve never done before. I want to work with people doing citizen media independently, and in places where that intersects with journalism, I hope I can help.”
more cities at craigslist?
November 19, 2006
Hey, Jim and the folks just added 135 cities to craigslist, bringing up the total to 450.
It helps when I'm out of the office, everyone's more productive.
One comment on the Chicago lawsuit
Hey, I'm not commenting, but here's some good commentary:
Back in February, a civil rights group sued Craigslist over discriminatory housing posts on their Chicago site. As we noted at the time, this seemed like a clear misunderstanding of how the internet works and internet law -- specifically section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says that online service providers should not be held liable for content that its users publish. There's a very good reason this law is in place. It keeps frivolous lawsuits from targeting the platform provider, rather than whoever actually created the content in question. In other words, it's like protecting the phone company from being guilty of a crime because someone breaks the law over the phone. It's purpose is simple: to focus lawsuits on those who actually broke the law, rather than the middleman who simply provides the technology platform to transmit the message.
Funding transparency in Britain
November 16, 2006
hey, you might recall that a lot of good groups, like porkbusters.org, got behind a bipartisan bill to show how some Federal money is spent.
Well, they're interested at Parliament as well, mentioned in a speech here
The Federal Funding Transparency and Accountability Act was signed into law this year on the back of bipartisan support. It will lead to the creation of a website that will allow any American citizen to search for exactly how federal money is being spent.Nothing like that exists in Britain. But I hope it might. Tomorrow is the start of the new Parliamentary year.
In this session we will be introducing a Bill which would create a similar website over here. It would open up spending by the Treasury to scrutiny. Taxpayers in their own home could find out where their pounds are being spent.
They have a lot more here
Santorum selling cubicles on CL?
November 11, 2006
Hey, some interesting speculation from Wonkette here
at craigslist, everyone gets a break.
Swiftboating neutralized?
November 10, 2006
Hey, it looks like the swiftboating during this election wasn't as bad as feared, or effectively neutralized.
I have a feeling that the folks at The Patriot Project are largely responsible. When the bad guys started smearing people like Jack Murtha, they helped set up counter ops. (The same swiftboaterssmeared John McCain and John Kerry in the past, and sometimes attack our site.)
They've also reported scams like "push poling."
I suspect they never get the credit they deserve, so please, take a look.
A few, very few, words on the election
November 07, 2006
Hey, the folks at the National Journal had me add a modest comment to their election blog here. Here's the gist:
“What’s different about this election is the role of the ‘net. People are connecting online to work together to defeat bad guys. My experience tells me that this is sustainable, in a way that’ll break the cycles of corruption and house cleaning.”