Saturday, March 26, 2005

Iranian weblogs growing up. Amazing things are happening in Iranian blogs these days. Now I'm seeing what I was expecting in terms of my third metaphor, blogs as cafes, where a unique, interactive space for public political debate has been created. First example is about the behind the scenes of the reformist candidate's campaign which is, for the first time, being somehow revealed in some blogs. Javad Rouh and Ali Seyedabadi have separately written about a session in which reforest journalists were invited to meet and talk with campaign officials. Its' fascinating to see how the journalists had openly criticized the campaign and the candidate himself and how the campaign managers reacted to them. (According to Rouh, Mostafa Tajzadeh has been more receptive than Ali Mazrooie, to the criticism.) Second example is how about a dozen of independent weblogs, either journalist or regular people, have reported and discussed the situation of Azadi stadium after the extremely crowded and emotionally charged soccer game between Japan and Iran, which unfortunately, led to the death of a few people. I can imagine how all of you, who can't read Persian, wish you could have. [Editor: Myself (English)] 8:25:04 PM    comment []

Asra Nomani: Standing Alone in Mecca. Former Wall Street Journal reporter and Salon correspondent Asra Nomani has written a book, Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam. This month she launched the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour, ... [ms.musings] 8:23:49 PM    comment []

Thomas Nelson's corporate blogging policy, take 2. Last week, as I blogged, Michael Hyatt,  president of the Nashville-based and publicly-traded corporation, Thomas Nelson Publishers, the world's largest publisher of Bibles and Christian literature, posted a draft of a "corporate blogging policy" on his blog and invited comments, not only from Thomas Nelson employees, but from the blogosphere. He got lots of advice (scroll down to the comments), many concerned with the "formality and legalese" of the document. So, he and others listened to the advice and came up with Draft #2, which he has now posted. A much friendlier, understandable guideline.  The policy relates to employees who blog about their work and who would to be included in a new feature on the company's website that will aggregate any feeds from employees who wish to be included, and who abide by the guidelines. As I said last week, it's nice to see such an enlightened model of corporate blogging being encouraged by one of Nashville's high profile companies. Here are the company's ten guidelines (each is explained in greater detail in the policy): 1. Start with a blogging service. 2. Write as yourself. 3. Own your content. 4. Write relevant. Write often.   5. Advertise—if you wish.    6. Be nice. 7. Keep secrets. 8. Respect copyrights. 9. Obey the law. 10. Remember the (company) Handbook. See how much easier it is to understand when one translates legalese into English. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 8:18:14 PM    comment []

"Blair Witch Project" director distributes new show through Bit Torrent. Six years after making the most profitable movie of all times and pioneering Viral Marketing, "Blair Witch" creator Daniel Myrick has a new project:The Strand. Set in Venice Beach, California, The Strand features "real people and actors that populate a fictional world in which spontaneous as well as scripted dialogue bring a sense of unpredictability and realism to the characters and situations." The Strand is episodic, but it's not a TV Show, since it won't be be seen on TV. Myrick is using Bit Torrent as the distribution channel for each "webisode" of the series, in combination with micropayment system BitPass. While the first episode is free, the folllowing ones will be 0.99$ each. According to Myrick, using Bit Torrent as a distribution channel allows him to drop down the price significantly, since an standard download of each file (around 600 MB) from a central server would have cost him around 4 dollars. [Smart Mobs] 1:39:35 PM    comment []

Grokster Briefs demonstrating the point of p2p. A cool new (or I think they're new) organization, outragedmoderates.org has posted a BitTorrent link of all the briefs filed in the Grokster case. [Lessig Blog] 1:23:57 PM    comment []

America, Online. On its online interactive forum, "Ask the White House," the Bush administration never ducks the tough questions. By HART SEELY. [NYT > Opinion] Some samples from the piece: "Can you salsa dance?" ("Danny" to Mel Martinez, secretary of housing and urban development, Oct. 2, 2003) • "Can you dunk a basketball?" ("Jon" to James B. Comey, deputy attorney general, July 15, 2004) • "In your picture, you are wearing red. Does that mean you like Spider-Man?" ("Andy" to Margaret Spellings, assistant to the president for domestic policy, May 14, 2004.) • "Has anyone ever said to you, 'You're such a card,' without knowing your last name in advance?" ("Monty" to Andy Card, White House chief of staff, Aug. 12, 2004) • "Do people ever laugh that you work at Treasury - and your last name is Nichols (like the five-cent piece - the nickel)?" ("J" to Rob Nichols, assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs, Oct. 17, 2003) • "Do you watch 'American Idol'?" ("Kelly" to Desiree Sayle, Freedom Corps director, April 21, 2004) 7:49:04 AM    comment []

Republicans Discuss Vote on New Stem Cell Policy. A vote this year on stem cell research policy could open another contentious moral, theological and scientific debate about when life begins and ends. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK. [NYT > Science] 7:43:12 AM    comment []

Hollywood Profits v. Technological Progress (Donna Wentworth). Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fordham University history professor Doron Ben-Atar makes short work of the entertainment industry's and the US Solicitor General's arguments in MGM v. Grokster: On the face of it, the case for harmony of interests between the studios and the nation is clear. P2P technology allows individuals and organizations to reproduce unlicensed copies for personal viewing and even commercial sale here and abroad. Every pirated version downloaded by an American college student or sold for a couple of dollars at New Delhi's Palika Bazaar, according to this logic, is a net loss of the retail price for the studios and also adds to America's growing trade imbalance. But that point of view is disingenuous and shortsighted. There is no denying that commercial use of copyrighted material is both illegal and immoral. Yet estimates of the cost of piracy are misleading. They don't account for the fact that piracy fuels demand for entertainment products: 2004 was a banner year for pirates; it was even better for the movie industry, where rentals and sales of DVD and VHS movies accounted for nearly $26-billion. When Hollywood cries poverty, as the victim of pilfering teenagers and workers who live on a couple of dollars a day, it is laughable. And the studios' suit could severely curtail P2P programs' development in America as a resource combining multiple databases, allowing real-time cooperation on a vast scale in science, business, and education. For more on the entertainment industry crying poverty, see Cory's post @ BoingBoing: Record Sales Up, P2P Sales Up -- RIAA's Story Doesn't Add Up. (Cross-posted @ Deep Links.) [Copyfight] 7:40:02 AM    comment []