People & Blogs

Facebook's future: "Wall" or nothing?

by Andrew Jacobs, posted on July 2, 2009 - 1:55pm

In “The Great Wall of Facebook,” Wired’s Fred Vogelstein contends that Facebook and Google are approaching a “full-blown battle over the future of the Internet.” Vogelstein’s assessment boils down to two predictions: (1) Facebook will lead and monopolize a fundamental shift to “a more personalized, humanized” web search, based entirely on information supplied by one’s social network; and (2) the vast amount of personal information supplied to Facebook by third parties and users themselves will (barring user revolt) yield massive profits through online brand advertising. A prediction that Facebook will gain some advantage over Google through its proprietary data would be hard to argue against. But Vogelstein’s particular vision of that general future—in which Google is conquered by a News Feed search based purely on users’ networks—runs into problems.

Substantive Tags: privacy

Coming Through the Rye No More

by Melissa Singson, posted on July 2, 2009 - 8:55am

The verdict has just come through in the US District Court of Manhattan that has effected an injunction versus a Swedish author's "unauthorized" sequel to JD Salinger's beloved "Catcher in the Rye." The judge argues that the story, revolving around the adventures of an elderly man named "Mr. C." escaping from his retirement home, does not adequately fulfill the qualities of being a parody of the iconic protagonist Holden Caulfield.

Substantive Tags: Fair Use Project, free speech

Technically Women

by Ryan Calo, posted on June 30, 2009 - 11:05am

Inspired by a blog post last year by ZDNet's Dennis Howlett, a group of prominent women in technology have formed a new blog called Technically Women.

Free tags: code, women

New leadership at Creative Commons South Africa

by Andrew Rens, posted on June 30, 2009 - 6:56am

Creative Commons South Africa (CC Za) is now hosted at Intellectual Property Law Research, at the Department of Private Law at the University of Cape Town Law School.

Supreme Court Denies Cablevision Review

by Zohar Efroni, posted on June 29, 2009 - 5:51pm

Today the Supreme Court reportedly resolved not to hear the appeal on the Second Circuit’s Cablevision decision. This denial comes shortly after the Court has received the U.S. Government's brief recommending to reject the petition.

Debunking evo psych

by Colin Rule, posted on June 26, 2009 - 7:18am

Sharon Begley in Newsweek: "These have not been easy days for evolutionary psychology. For years the loudest critics have been social scientists, feminists and liberals offended by the argument that humans are preprogrammed to rape, to kill unfaithful girlfriends and the like.

Go big or go home

by Colin Rule, posted on June 26, 2009 - 7:14am

Reading today's Paul Krugman: "On one side there’s Barack the Policy Wonk, whose command of the issues — and ability to explain those issues in plain English — is a joy to behold.

But on the other side there’s Barack the Post-Partisan, who searches for common ground where none exists, and whose negotiations with himself lead to policies that are far too weak...

Typography for lawyers

by Colette Vogele, posted on June 25, 2009 - 10:09am

Through the fortunes of Twitter, @VBalasubramani (and his RT of @AdrianL), I came upon this awesome guide for lawyers who are sticklers for how their documents look - It's called Typography For Lawyers. A CC-licensed guide that will back me up on use of curly quotes and one space after periods. Yay!

The Most Important Federal Agency That Only Exists in Theory

by Barry Steinhardt, posted on June 23, 2009 - 11:51am

Question--What's the most important federal agency that only exists in theory? Answer--The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

Substantive Tags: privacy
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