Tuesday, April 08, 2003

In his talk at CFP last week (audio available streaming or for download), Larry Lessig showed this video (Windows Media in that link) of Bush and Blair ''singing'' the duet "Endless Love" to illustrate how ''Rip, Mix, Burn'' can do something transformative and be meaningful when communicating to criticize culture in a way the culture understands. Run on. Sorry. Well, not technically a run on, perhaps, but long. It'll have to do, though. Check 'em out. 9:59:19 PM    comment []

Scott notes that Californians can now pre-register for the telemarketing "do not call" list. I just did. 8:58:38 PM    comment []

Fab news from xian: Weblogs at Seybold. Running out the door right now, late for a meeting, but I just heard that my proposal for a weblogs seminar at this September's Seybold conference in S.F. was accepted. Coooool. Thanks to Scott R. and Dave for the tip and the lead. I'll post more info about schedule, agenda, etc., when I get a moment free. [Radio Free Blogistan] 8:54:24 PM    comment []

Why Wine Costs What It Does. Why does one bottle of fermented grape juice cost $135, and another just $15? There is much more to the cost of a bottle than the wine inside. By Amanda Hesser. [New York Times: Business] 8:49:50 PM    comment []

"Chance Discovery" of social networks. I blogged about the work of Tyler, Wilkinson, and Huberman in regard to the detection of social networks by analysis of email patterns. Important prior work in this field has been done since 1998 by Yukio Ohsawa et al, including Featuring Web Communities Based on Word Co-occurrence Structure of Communications. In these studies since 1998, Ohsawa et al applied original techniques (e.g. KeyGraph) visualizing the structure of a document, e.g., a sequence of messages. As a result, significant words, leading people, messages, words, or web pages have been extracted. This method is already used in leading companies for discovering significant on-line communities and significant messages in them. These methods take advantage of the "small-world" structure of graphs, i.e. the clusters and by "Chance Discovery," a theme on which the American Association of Artificial Intelligence hold a symposium last fall. A summary of chance discovery methodology is more suitable for lay readers. [Smart Mobs] 11:39:31 AM    comment []

Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed... in 42 days, by Andrew Orlowski, The Register [via Daypop Top 40]. 11:22:40 AM    comment []

Don't Want To Snitch, So We Shred Like A Bitch. Plastic::Politics::Privacy: The Santa Cruz public libraries have come up with their response to PATRIOT Act provisions allowing the government to subpoena library records +#8212; don't keep the records. [Plastic: Most Recent] See also this coverage last month on A blog doesn't need a clever name. 11:17:04 AM    comment []

Benetton backs off from RFID tags. A Benetton spokesman said on Monday that the company is still studying if it will use RFID tags to track it's products, and has to date, only purchaced 200 tags. Although the spokesman attributed the "clarification" to economics, there was quite an outcry from privacy advocates. It's unclear if their concerns factored into the Benetton backdown. [Smart Mobs] You can download MP3 or listen to a streaming cast in MP3 or WMA format of last week's CFP2003 session on just this issue, Auto ID: Tracking Everywhere, with Katherine Albrecht, Mark Roberti, Richard M. Smith and J.D. Abolins. 7:06:24 AM    comment []

Study Finds Charter Schools Lack Experienced Teachers. A new study has found that charter schools, an alternative to low-performing public schools, rely heavily on young, uncredentialed teachers. By Sara Rimer. [New York Times: Education] 6:58:38 AM    comment []

Better Schools Through Better Teaching? How Novel. Anna Switzer is the excessively caffeinated and preternaturally motivated principal of City Hall Academy, the much-critiqued multimillion-dollar educational innovation. By Robin Finn. [New York Times: Education] 6:57:21 AM    comment []