John Thomson: Thinking out loud » Worth a Look

Social networking too proprietary

john — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:41:07 +0000

I can’t begin to say how much I agree with this. Standards and open platforms for online social networking would be huge. The network effect would likely slow a migration down, but I’m glad someone is working on it.

Could open source tools make Facebook the next AOL? – Computerworld.

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Online-driven evolution of social mores

john — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:45:39 +0000

On Facebook, Google, and Our Evolving Social Mores Online – John Battelle’s Searchblog.

This is along the same lines of my previous post about the Tweeting CNN editor, but zooms out for a much broader view of the impact of online social networks on our moral frameworks. I have to dig deeper on this one, so I can’t comment here, but hopefully someone finds it interesting.

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Catch up

john — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:37:41 +0000

I have a backlog of articles that are a little stale, but resonated to such a degree that i can’t resist commenting a bit on them. Hopefully they are new news to someone.

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Taxes, privacy at center of Amazon tiff with North Carolina

john — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:45:19 +0000

Taxes, privacy at center of Amazon tiff with North Carolina.

Way to go Amazon!

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Economist: copyright terms should be shorter

john — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:03:47 +0000

From The Economist!

The question is how such a deal can be made equitably. At the moment, the terms of trade favour publishers too much. A return to the 28-year copyrights of the Statute of Anne would be in many ways arbitrary, but not unreasonable. If there is a case for longer terms, they should be on a renewal basis, so that content is not locked up automatically. The value society places on creativity means that fair use needs to be expanded and inadvertent infringement should be minimally penalised. None of this should get in the way of the enforcement of copyright, which remains a vital tool in the encouragement of learning. But tools are not ends in themselves.

via Protecting creativity: Copyright and wrong | The Economist.

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