Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Small-world network animations. Large social networks are often scale-free (aka "small world") networks. Judy Breck has created "A Very Simplified Small World Network Primer for Nonscientists" that uses simple animations to introduce the key ideas of networks, nodes and links, degrees of separation, small worlds, hubs, and dynamic nets. [Smart Mobs] 10:08:02 PM    comment []

LexisNexis: 280,000 more possible data theft victims. An internal investigation at the LexisNexis division of Reed Elsevier has uncovered evidence that as many as 310,000 more people may have had their personal information exposed to unauthorized individuals who compromised the security of a massive database of public and private information, including Social Security and drivers license numbers. [InfoWorld: Top News] 5:03:24 PM    comment []

Seth answers: Note To Some Library Folk - You Cannot Hack The DMCA. [In the US, the DMCA, hacks you] Theshiftedlibrarian - Could the DMCA Exemption for Libraries Lead the Way through the DRM Maze? (thanks, Bruce Umbaugh) quotes a mistaken belief: "The DMCA already has a built-in exemption for libraries and other such nonprofit entities, which means it looks like you're free to convert those problematic encrypted WMA files into MP3 so that the majority of your patrons will be able to access and play said files in a noninfringing manner." And asks: "... grants are due in June, and this year there's finally a "dream big" one that my organization could apply for. I've already pitched a half dozen ideas, two of which we're probably going to submit and one of which a member library is going to submit. But what if we submitted a grant to actually do what Ben proposes? What would the implications be? Is it realistic?" Kill this now. I am not a lawyer, but I do know the DMCA cases very, very, well. Don't even think about it. The DMCA provision for libraries is extremely limited, having to do with evaluation of works. The above idea is another version of the problem of "substantial-non-infringing use" versus the DMCA. So far, sadly, the DMCA wins. [Infothought] 7:11:38 AM    comment []

Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest, By JIM DWYER, NYT. ennis Kyne put up such a fight at a political protest last summer, the arresting officer recalled, it took four police officers to haul him down the steps of the New York Public Library and across Fifth Avenue. "We picked him up and we carried him while he squirmed and screamed," the officer, Matthew Wohl, testified in December. "I had one of his legs because he was kicking and refusing to walk on his own." Accused of inciting a riot and resisting arrest, Mr. Kyne was the first of the 1,806 people arrested in New York last summer during the Republican National Convention to take his case to a jury. But one day after Officer Wohl testified, and before the defense called a single witness, the prosecutor abruptly dropped all charges. During a recess, the defense had brought new information to the prosecutor. A videotape shot by a documentary filmmaker showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures. Nor was the officer seen taking part in the arrests of four other people at the library against whom he signed complaints. A sprawling body of visual evidence, made possible by inexpensive, lightweight cameras in the hands of private citizens, volunteer observers and the police themselves, has shifted the debate over precisely what happened on the streets during the week of the convention. For Mr. Kyne and 400 others arrested that week, video recordings provided evidence that they had not committed a crime or that the charges against them could not be proved, according to defense lawyers and prosecutors. Whoa. Good read, this story. And multimedia illustrations (still photo series in the print version): Cut and Uncut A film archivist discovered a difference in two versions of the same police videotape of protesters during last year's Republican National Convention. Video of Jim Dwyer Windows | Real Player 7:11:25 AM    comment []

I'm not attending this year [sniff, sniff] -- Cascio mentions Panopticon and CFP: The 15th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy starts tomorrow in Seattle, Washington. The theme: Panopticon. Over time, and particularly recently, surveillance of ordinary citizens has increased to dramatic levels. Not only are governments watching more aspects of their citizens’ lives, but those in the private sector are increasing surveillance of people as well. Often lost in the race to “increase intelligence” are discussions about different approaches to address problems like the threat of terrorism that are equally or more effective, but do not involve extensive and constant surveillance. The speaker and session lists are online. The topics look provocative and interesting, and we hope to have a report or two from the conference here at WorldChanging. [WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] 7:03:47 AM    comment []

Doc blinks Chip Hoagland: Would Marcel Marceau Blog? I was thinking, Maybe if he were still alive... So I checked and it turns out he is, and he's still touring. I looked up Marcel Marceau weblog and got this. Which inspired the headline. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 7:02:25 AM    comment []

Falling Fortunes of the Wage Earner. Wages for the average American worker fell last year, after adjusting for inflation - the first such drop in nearly a decade. By STEVEN GREENHOUSE. [NYT > Business] 6:06:35 AM    comment []

Bloggers Speak Out in Apple Case: Journalism Is a Verb, Not a Noun (Donna Wentworth). Big news over @ Deep Links, where there's a new kind of bloggers' "A-list": Groups working to protect journalists' press freedoms, the creator of a blog-search tool, weblog publishers, and more than a dozen individual online journalists/bloggers filed a friend-of-the-court brief (PDF) today in Apple v. Does -- the case in which Apple Computer is seeking to unmask online journalists' confidential sources for articles about forthcoming Apple products. The amici urged the court to adopt "a functional test for the newsgatherers' privilege that does not discriminate between reporters, regardless of the medium in which they publish." They ask the court to "adopt a test that will not impede journalists' use of the Internet to report news by limiting their constitutional protections when they publish there." The amici are (in alphabetical order): Jack M. Balkin The Center for Individual Freedom Julian Dibbell Feedster, Inc. The First Amendment Project A. Michael Froomkin Gawker Media, Inc. Gothamist, LLC Groklaw Happy Mutants, LLC Ben Hammersley Joichi Ito Joel Johnson Kimberly A. Kralowec LawMeme Rebecca MacKinnon Joshua Micah Marshall The Media Bloggers Association Markos Moulitsas Reporters Without Borders Glenn Harlan Reynolds Peter Rojas Jay Rosen Scott Rosenberg Doc Searls Silicon Valley Watcher Kevin Sites Eugene Volokh [Copyfight] 6:04:20 AM    comment []

iPotus update. As blogged earlier, the NY Times today did a piece on President Bush's iPod playlist. Now, the most authoritative Bush-blogger I know, Patrick Ruffini, has "thrown away a perfectly fine evening to create a compelling user experience," an iPod iMix (requires iTunes) of songs mentioned in the article and other tunes Patrick believes are similar to those mentioned. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 6:00:52 AM    comment []

A Political Dispute Puts a City in the Dark. When an American energy giant cut the lights at 85 buildings owned by the city government of São Paulo, it was dragged into the middle of an ugly political fight. By TODD BENSON. [NYT > Business] 5:57:55 AM    comment []

Global Voices on BBC News. Global voices speak through blogs (BBC News): But the blogosphere is a noisy place. There are more than eight and half million bloggers, writing about everything from what happened in Kyrgyzstan to what they had for breakfast. So the Global Voices website is picking and choosing. It is highlighting what blogger Hossein Derakhshan calls "bridge bloggers." They are bloggers who, according to Mr Derakhshan: "can make a bridge between two languages, or two cultures." Mr Derakhshan is originally from Iran, but he now lives in Canada and blogs under the name "Hoder" in both English and Persian. He has a large following in both languages. He says bridge bloggers can serve as cultural interpreters. "These are the people we need to start with to have a more and deeper understanding of what's going on in that other culture," he says. [Editor: Myself (English)] Also, see hoder's Banned reporter turns to weblog. 5:53:20 AM    comment []

Boing Boing's first two years as a series of illustrated keywords Phillipp sez, "The illustrated 'Significant Boing Boing' is based on the Boing Boing archive from 2000 and 2001, completely auto-generated using the Yahoo API's term extraction and image search services." This is pretty cool -- it's basically the "significant words" from every post from the first two years of BB, along with pictures from the public web that match those words. Link (Thanks, Phillipp!) [bOing bOing] 5:52:48 AM    comment []

Foiling Spies at the Vatican. When the cardinals convene to select a new pope next week, every effort will be made to frustrate high-tech spies bent on eavesdropping on the proceedings. Vatican officials say they're ready. Others aren't so sure. [Wired News] 5:50:57 AM    comment []