Thoughts on the social impacts of information and communication technology policy.
From the Desk of David Pogue - Tech Terms to Avoid - NYTimes.com
For anyone who does tech support here is Pogue’s list of words to avoid when talking to “normal” people (things like content, client, and display). I had intended to share this when it first came out, but it fell under the radar.
Larry Lessig writes preview of his new book in a Wall Street Journal column this weekend. Lessig makes some bold and compelling statements for one who is working less in the realm of copyright. Many of his arguments are actually near to the work I am doing on my dissertation–it’s nice to be in good company 
A few points are worth further comment:
“We could craft copyright law to encourage a wide range of both professional and amateur creativity, without threatening Prince’s profits.” …I like this argument for a balance in the law where professional creative-types are still able to profit, while still loosening control for equally valuable amateur copying.
“Peer-to-peer file sharing is the enemy in the “copyright wars.” Kids “stealing” stuff with a computer is the target. The war is not about new forms of creativity, not about artists making new art.” …another great distinction between replacement copying (which carries an economic harm) and profitless but creative amateur creativity.
“Our kids live in an age of prohibition, where more and more of what seems to them to be ordinary behavior is against the law. They recognize it as against the law. They see themselves as “criminals. … That recognition is corrosive. It is corrupting of the very idea of the rule of law” …it’s not in the article, but gobs of theory and research can back up Lessig’s claim here.
I’m not sure if Lessig was responsible, but the sidebar with mash-y creations is also a good compilation for the unititiated. His policy recomendations are not bad as well. I’m looking forward to the book.
Ars pointed me to the C-SPAN debate hub and while I didn’t use it during the debate, I have to say it’s a site worth a look. There’s a lot of information on the page, but it seems pretty well designed to me. It includes video and transcripts from segments from the debate, twitter feeds, blog posts, infoporn about what the keywords were during the debate and who spoke when. I’ll definitely check it out during the next debate.
C-Span has come a long way since the flap about videos of Colbert at the press club.
Edit: Looks as though The Current is trying something similar.
I felt like doing some web work this weekend and thought I would try my own take on how to make Drupal work as a wiki. My work colleagues are aware that I’ve been steeped in a fun Drupal project — taking the suggestions of the UW-Madison Teaching Academy and the Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning and designing their new website: Teaching & Learning Excellence at UW-Madison. It’s been a fun project and has whet my appetite to try a few more interactive websites.
Druwiki is nothing fancy. The main challenge is trying to keep some of what Drupal does so well, namely organizing content in taxonomies, while downplaying it’s more blog-like functions. I trust anyone who reads this blog to try it out, so I’ll leave registrations open for a bit if anybody would like to kick the tires. I’d love feedback, ideas, or to hear about strategies you’ve considered.
I’ve joked about a “blicki” in the past (a merge of a blog and a wiki), and browsing around looking for the answer to one of life’s little technology questions, I stumbled by this post by Jim Groom of UMW. It looks like they’ve been doing some great stuff with WordPress, and have now integrated it with their support wikis in MediaWiki.
The Support pages are awesome, and this marks for me one of the most significant leaps forward over the last year. Namely, the Bliki has arrived people! … So support pages like the FAQ, WordPress Guide, and “10 Ideas for Using UMW Blogs” are all MediaWiki articles posing as blog pages.
Way cool!
John is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He studies the social impact of media technology law and policy, with a special emphasis on copyright.
John doesn't update his blog often, and many of the thoughts are probably half-baked. While the web has sort of an eternal memory, the current and future reader is urged not to take all of this too seriously.
Think of this blog as "John thinking out loud."
(For more on this idea and why I blog, please see this category.)
John's homepage is:
http://johnthomson.org/
