Syndicated feeds
Henry Jenkins
- Au Revoir: Heading to Europe
- Announcing Rio's Henry Jenkins Transmedia Lab
- Otaku Culture in a Connected World: An Interview with Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji (Part Three)
Smart Mobs
- Twitter chief meets with US secretary of state - (AFP) – 1 day ago SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter chief Dick Costolo met on Friday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Internet age technologies play growing roles in world affairs. Pleasure to meet with Secretary Clinton and the @statedept team today,” Costolo said in a “tweet” he fired off at the popular one-to-many [...]
- How participatory cultures in healthcare are transformational - This article is based upon real world issues with the UK health service (but it an organizational problem many healthcare systems have) and the stories are taken from No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world. Designing and co-creating the best possible future for the National Health ServiceThe bitter public battle now being fought over the future of the NHS looks set to continue. Its future shape uncertain, and the mounting resistance that is so visceral is based upon fear, uncertainty and crucially a genuine lack of trust in those that claim to be guiding us to the best possible future the NHS.
- Mobile data growth and what it means for us - The research team at iStrategyLabs have produced and launched an infographic for Mobile Future that highlights the exponential growth in mobile data traffic — and what this subsequently means for the individual data consumer. The infographic charts the exploding and varied ways mobile devices are now being used to connect: •792 mobile apps are downloaded each [...]
Ideal Government
Centre for Democracy and Technology
Online Journalism Blog
- Inter-Council Payments and the Google Fusion Tables Network Graph - One of the great things about aggregating local spending data from different councils in the same place – such as on OpenlyLocal – is that you can start to explore structural relations in the way different public bodies of a similar type spend money with each other. On the local spend with corporates scraper on [...]

- Journalism Reloaded – What journalists need for the future - In a guest post Alexandra Stark, Swiss journalist and Head of Studies at MAZ – the Swiss School of Journalism, argues that it’s time for journalists to take action on business models for supporting journalism. Stark proposes a broadened set of skills and a new structure to enable greater involvement from journalists, while also fostering further teaching of [...]
- German social TV project “Rundshow”: merging internet and television - In a guest post for OJB, cross-posted from her blog, Franzi Baehrle reviews a new German TV show which operates across broadcast, web and mobile. There’s a big experiment going on in German television. And I have to admit that I was slightly surprised that the rather conservative “Bayerischer Rundfunk” (BR, a public service broadcaster in [...]
Lawrence Lessig Blog
- Announcing the hibernation of lessig.org/blog (from the blogs-deserve-a-sabbatical-too department) -
So my blog turns seven today. On August 20, 2002, while hiding north of San Francisco working on the Eldred appeal, I penned my first (wildly and embarrassingly defensive) missive to Dave. Some 1753 entries later, I'm letting the blog rest. This will be the last post in this frame. Who knows what the future will bring, but in the near term, it won't bring more in lessig.org/blog.
The reasons are many.
First, as I peer over the abyss of child number 3 (expected in a couple weeks), I can't begin to imagine how I would be able to allocate the time to give this space the attention it needs. I've already fretted about my failure to give this community the time it deserves in REMIX. Things will only get worse.
Second, even if I could, I'm entering a stage of my work when the ratio of speaking to reading/listening/thinking is changing significantly. I've just taken up my role as director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard. As announced, this means the launch of a 5 year research project on institutional corruption. While I expect that project will have a critical cyber-presence, I don't want its life to be framed by this blog. The mission, the understanding, the community is different.
Third, even if I could, and even if the work I was doing meant I should, there's an increasingly technical burden to maintaining a blog that I don't have the cycles to support. Some very good friends -- Theo Armour and M. David Peterson -- have been volunteering time to do the mechanics of site maintenance. That has gotten overwhelming. Theo estimates that 1/3 of the 30,000 comments that were posted to the blog over these 7 years were fraudsters. He's been working endlessly to remove them. At one point late last year, Google kicked me off their index because too many illegal casino sites were linking from the bowels of my server. I know some will respond with the equivalent of "you should have put bars on your windows and double bolted locks on your front door." Maybe. Or maybe had legislatures devoted 1/10th the energy devoted to the copyright wars to addressing this muck, it might be easier for free speech to be free.
This isn't an announcement of my disappearance. I'm still trying to understand twitter. My channel at blip.tv will remain. As will the podcast, updated as I speak. I will continue to guest blog at Huffington Post. And as Change-Congress.org enters a new stage, I hope to be doing more there. But this community, this space, this board will now rest.
Thank you to the endless list of people who have helped make this place as it is, or was. Theo and M. David especially. Marc Perkel for his free hosting at ctyme.com for so many years. And thank you especially to the inhabitants of this space, especially the fantastic commentators and loyal backbenchers (Three Blind Mice, you have to reveal yourself now and let me buy you a beer). I have enjoyed this wildly more than I have not (again, I whine in REMIX about the not). And I have been very proud to be responsible for certain bits of content -- especially the guest blogging by the interesting and famous (Howard Dean was a favorite, and I will always be proud that I got Judge Posner to experiment with blogging, leading to his wonderful blog with Gary Becker).
Comments on this post will remain open for a week. And then comments on all posts will be locked.
Thank you to everyone, again.
- Remix supporting a Medieval world (as critics have insisted) -

Five-year old Felix's mom, Kierstin, sent me this image a bit ago. "I thought you would get a laugh out of these photos where your Remix became a crucial supporting wall for a Medieval Castle, manned by Playmobile guards and a plastic dinosaur." Indeed.
- REMIX unmixed -
Dave Wiley has an interesting idea he calls unmixing (in contrast to remixing), which he demonstrates with the first bit of REMIX. Basically, using Yahoo's BOSS, he reassociates every three words to another text on the web. Give it a look. (I think I'd call it re-remixing).
Creative Class Group
Buzz Machine
- Creepy - I just reamed an ITN producer who emailed me this clip about Google seeking a patent for using background noise in audible search requests and wanted to talk to me “off the record” (why he’d offer that, I don’t know; bad reporters’ reflex) to find out what “worries” I had about privacy and security. Note [...]
- Consumer Reports’ moral panic - I’m very disappointed in Consumer Reports for falling into the moral panic about privacy and social services. Today it issues a survey and a Reefer Madness report that covers no new ground, only stirs it up, over privacy and Facebook. Let me address instead the survey. In its press release, Consumer Reports says — as [...]
- Social (network) pressure - By adding an organ-donation tool to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is setting up a dynamic of social pressure for virtue. Is that always good? Now getting us to sign our drivers’ licenses so our vital bits can be harvested to save others’ lives is a moderately low-impact decision. But what about the occasional calls for folks [...]
DavosNewbies
- A few truths about Davos - It’s the time of year when everywhere I turn, I read tweets and posts about Davos1, which was a huge part of my life for ten years. I’m a long way from the mountain top these days, but I find that too many people don’t understand some basic truths about the Annual Meeting of the [...]
- Google listens… if you shout loudly enough - Yesterday evening I wrote about the bizarre disappearance from Google News of my news site, Berkeleyside. What happens next is either an illustration of the power of digital democracy or an example of the value of friends with fantastic megaphones. Shortly after my post went up, a number of friends tweeted about it. Dave Winer [...]
- Local news: we’re at Google’s mercy - I spend the bulk of my time these days trying to figure out some of the future of journalism, with the local news site I started with two others, Berkeleyside. We’re unquestionably the leading news source for our city, and we’re widely recognized as such. The San Francisco Chronicle uses us to supply Berkeley news, [...]
Here comes Everybody
Wireless Watch
- NFC Handles Coming to Tokyo Subways -
This is Very Cool: NFC embedded handle grips coming to Tokyo subways - here's a sign of the future for you! http://bit.ly/LkBJKc - Japan Handset Models for Summer 2012 -
All three Jpn telcos have made 2012 Summer Season handset announcements today - here's our quick review http://bit.ly/JhLyNI - JEITA Releases Japan Smartphone Stats -
JEITA releases domestic handset sales for FYE 2011, smartphones up 3x YoY at 13.2M units for 43% of total http://bit.ly/K2fwTm
Logic+Emotion
- Five (Intuitive) Reasons To Bet on Facebook
- Social Business: Where It's Been & Where It's Going
- Own The Data, Own The Future
Master News Media
- Simple Presentation, Annotation and Whiteboarding Presentation Tool: PDF Presenter -
Robin Good: PDF Presenter is an open-source free cross-platform presentation software which allows you to edit and annotate existing content, import images and draw annotations .
With PDF Presenter you can type text next or over existing content, create multiple tabs with different whiteboards, and save your final work as a PDF file.
System requirements:
Java version 6 or higher.Works on PC, Mac and Linux.
Free to use.
More info and download it here: http://pdfpresenter.sourceforge.net/
(Thanks to Baiba Svenca for uncovering it)
- Share What You See, Think and Where You Are While You're Calling: Sidecar -
Robin Good: Sidecar is a mobile app for iOS and Android which allows you to make voice calls while enabling you to share video, images, notes or a map showing where you are in relationship to your other caller while you are talking.
Key features:
a) See What I See Video: Sidecar users can share amazing real-time videos of what’s happening around them.
b) Photos: Sidecar users can easily share vivid photos at the click of a button.
c) Locations: Sidecar lets users look at an interactive map, see where they are in relation to the person they’re calling, and share locations to meet up.
d) Contact Information: Sidecar lets users pass along and integrate contacts from their phone’s address book.
e) Whisper Text: Send a private text message to another Sidecar user during a call, and keep the conversation going when it’s hard to talk.
Sidecar users can call anywhere in the world for free: As long as both parties are using the Sidecar app.
Sidecar users can also call anyone in the US or Canada for free over Wi-Fi: The person you’re calling doesn’t need to have the app. (When you call, they’ll receive a text message telling them how to download Sidecar so next time you can use Sidecar’s exclusive smart calling features.)
(Calls to any number in the US or Canada from the Sidecar client over Wi-FI are free too. When using Sidecar over a 3G or 4G data connection, normal carrier charges for that service apply.)
Review on GigaOM: http://gigaom.com/mobile/sidecar-turns-the-simple-phone-call-into-a-media-sharefest/
Free to download and use.
for iPhone: http://itunes.com/apps/sidecarme
for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.sidecarFAQ: http://www.sidecar.me/faq.html
Find out more: http://Sidecar.me
- Beyond iBooks Author: Origami Engine Lets You Design Interactive Magazines Collaboratively -
Robin Good: If you are looking to an alternative to iBooks Author, Origami Design may fit perfectly that bill.
From the official site: "Origami Design is a desktop application for Mac with all the tools you need to design interactive magazines, books, or other publications.
You can design the magazine/book/app by yourself or in collaboration with others. There is support for import and merging of projects.
The Design tool exports a content package bundle (similar to what you deliver to the in-App store) that can be dropped into iTunes and tested on the fly on the iPad through the Origami View app (Download it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/origami-view/id478325469?ls=1&mt=8)
The Origami View App is the viewer for the Origami Engine. It lets you preview, share and test creations made with Origami Design on the iPad."
The Origami publishing system works all in the cloud.
The system is currently in private Beta.
Find out more: http://origamiengine.com/the-system/ and http://origamiengine.com/
(Thanks to Marco Toscano for discovering this one)
Creative Commons
- Creative Commons at WIPO for the 9th meeting of the Committee on Development and IP - Recently, Andrés Guadamuz from CC Costa Rica was in Geneva at the 9th session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) at WIPO. Andrés has represented Creative Commons over the past few years at WIPO. CDIP was established in 2008 and deals with intellectual property issues relevant to developing nations. CC gained permanent [...]
- A big thanks to Mike Linksvayer - The following post is by Cathy Casserly (CEO) and Joi Ito (Board Chair). Mike Linksvayer / Joi / CC BY Many of you know Mike Linksvayer, the first CTO and then Vice President of Creative Commons. Mike started at Creative Commons back in 2003 (almost a decade ago!), and since then has shepherded CC through [...]
- Sign the U.S. Petition to Support Public Access to Publicly Funded Scientific Research - This week, open access advocates in the United States and around the world are rallying around a petition that urges public access to publicly funded research. The petition is now live on Whitehouse.gov’s We the People platform: Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research. We believe in the [...]




