Reason Magazine
Copy Catfight
"There is an inherent conflict between intellectual property rights and freedom of speech, a tension between your right to control a story you've written and my right to use it as raw material for my own work. Thanks to two trends, that tension is turning rapidly into a collision... On one hand, as information has grown more valuable, copyright and trademark law has become increasingly restrictive. At the same time, there has been, in the words of MIT media studies professor Henry Jenkins, an "explosion of grassroots, participatory culture," a new high-tech folkway that not only draws on pop culture but appropriates from it more easily than ever before, and disseminates itself on a wider scale."
"There is an inherent conflict between intellectual property rights and freedom of speech, a tension between your right to control a story you've written and my right to use it as raw material for my own work. Thanks to two trends, that tension is turning rapidly into a collision... On one hand, as information has grown more valuable, copyright and trademark law has become increasingly restrictive. At the same time, there has been, in the words of MIT media studies professor Henry Jenkins, an "explosion of grassroots, participatory culture," a new high-tech folkway that not only draws on pop culture but appropriates from it more easily than ever before, and disseminates itself on a wider scale."
Slashdot Thread: Reason Magazine on Copyright Legislation11:46 AM
Slate
Is Natural Selection the Result of Design?
Steven Pinker: "Warm rooms are a goal of thermostats, thermostats a goal of people, people a goal of their genes. Darwin, and then Dawkins, made it scientifically respectable to talk about genes as having goals, because natural selection makes them act as if they do. But natural selection itself, being a product not of a teleological process but of the physics and mathematics of replicating systems, has no right to have a goal in the way that genes or people or thermostats do."
Robert Wright: " A system can be entirely mechanical, complying with the laws of physics and mathematics, yet be teleological, designed to realize a purpose. In fact, that seems to be true of all teleological systems I know of, including genes and people and thermostats." 8:41 AM
Steven Pinker: "Warm rooms are a goal of thermostats, thermostats a goal of people, people a goal of their genes. Darwin, and then Dawkins, made it scientifically respectable to talk about genes as having goals, because natural selection makes them act as if they do. But natural selection itself, being a product not of a teleological process but of the physics and mathematics of replicating systems, has no right to have a goal in the way that genes or people or thermostats do."
Robert Wright: " A system can be entirely mechanical, complying with the laws of physics and mathematics, yet be teleological, designed to realize a purpose. In fact, that seems to be true of all teleological systems I know of, including genes and people and thermostats." 8:41 AM
The Guardian Online
Why content isn't
king
"Imagine the discussions that must have gone on around the invention of the telephone: a new medium for delivering content directly to households. Indeed, that was exactly how some people did use it. In Budapest you could pick up the telephone and listen to music and news until the first world war... It didn't turn out that way because people preferred listening to each other: they preferred "self-generated" content."
"Companies with a strategy that facilitates communication between people, a strategy that facilitates self-generated content, will prosper as the world becomes more interactive and broadcast becomes just one sector of a much richer media world."
"Imagine the discussions that must have gone on around the invention of the telephone: a new medium for delivering content directly to households. Indeed, that was exactly how some people did use it. In Budapest you could pick up the telephone and listen to music and news until the first world war... It didn't turn out that way because people preferred listening to each other: they preferred "self-generated" content."
"Companies with a strategy that facilitates communication between people, a strategy that facilitates self-generated content, will prosper as the world becomes more interactive and broadcast becomes just one sector of a much richer media world."
The Cluetrain Manifesto - Thesis #1: Markets are conversations.11:05 PM
The New York Times Magazine
The Recycled Generation
[requires 'free' registration]
"After stuffing every cow egg with its little spud of human DNA, Sawyer prepares the next step. She gives the cells a zap of 120 volts. The jolt of electricity effectively fuses man and beast into a single biological fate. After one final step, this . . . this thing will believe it has been fertilized and, if all goes well, begin cleaving, or dividing, in the bubbling, momentous arithmetic of life lifting off the pad: 2 cells, 4 cells, 8 cells, 16 cells, 32 cells --" 8:33 PM
[requires 'free' registration]
"After stuffing every cow egg with its little spud of human DNA, Sawyer prepares the next step. She gives the cells a zap of 120 volts. The jolt of electricity effectively fuses man and beast into a single biological fate. After one final step, this . . . this thing will believe it has been fertilized and, if all goes well, begin cleaving, or dividing, in the bubbling, momentous arithmetic of life lifting off the pad: 2 cells, 4 cells, 8 cells, 16 cells, 32 cells --" 8:33 PM
salon
The shape of open source to come
"VA Linux, a vendor of computer hardware preinstalled with the Linux-based operating system, announced that it is spending around $1 billion in cash and stock to purchase Andover.net, a collection of Web sites that includes Slashdot, the Net's premier source for news and rumors about open-source software..”
"Malda is a delightfully ornery soul who surely will not take kindly to being told what he can or cannot do. Slashdot readers can count on that. But isn't this a case in which Caesar's wife must be above suspicion? Malda declined to be purchased by VA Linux last year because he wanted to avoid even the perception that Slashdot might not be its own editorial master.
Too bad. That perception exists now, and there's little that Malda can do to change it. The world of free software is all the poorer." 7:05 AM
"VA Linux, a vendor of computer hardware preinstalled with the Linux-based operating system, announced that it is spending around $1 billion in cash and stock to purchase Andover.net, a collection of Web sites that includes Slashdot, the Net's premier source for news and rumors about open-source software..”
"Malda is a delightfully ornery soul who surely will not take kindly to being told what he can or cannot do. Slashdot readers can count on that. But isn't this a case in which Caesar's wife must be above suspicion? Malda declined to be purchased by VA Linux last year because he wanted to avoid even the perception that Slashdot might not be its own editorial master.
Too bad. That perception exists now, and there's little that Malda can do to change it. The world of free software is all the poorer." 7:05 AM
NetFuture
The Trouble with Ubiquitous Technology Pushers (Part 2)
"The subtitle of this series of articles is "Why We'd Be Better Off without the MIT Media Lab". Let me broaden that here. What we'd be better off without is every organization that pushes purely technological "solutions" as if they were what could make us better off.” 5:57 AM
"The subtitle of this series of articles is "Why We'd Be Better Off without the MIT Media Lab". Let me broaden that here. What we'd be better off without is every organization that pushes purely technological "solutions" as if they were what could make us better off.” 5:57 AM
First Monday
Interactive Features of Online Papers
"According to McAdams, who helped create the Washington Post's online service, "A journalist with little online experience tends to think in terms of stories, news value, public service and things that are good to read, but a person with a lot of online experience thinks more about connection, organization, movement within and among sets of information and communication among different people". Journalists today must choose. As gatekeepers they can transfer lots of information, or they can make users a smarter, more active and questioning audience for news events and issues. Making users smarter means involving them in a collaborative experience; i.e. interaction ” 10:17 PM
"According to McAdams, who helped create the Washington Post's online service, "A journalist with little online experience tends to think in terms of stories, news value, public service and things that are good to read, but a person with a lot of online experience thinks more about connection, organization, movement within and among sets of information and communication among different people". Journalists today must choose. As gatekeepers they can transfer lots of information, or they can make users a smarter, more active and questioning audience for news events and issues. Making users smarter means involving them in a collaborative experience; i.e. interaction ” 10:17 PM
"...being able to judge a looming or translating object had consequences for people throughout our evolution. It was critical, for example, to know whether the animal you were hunting was coming at you or retreating. But, there were no similar instances that made a memory mechanism for rotating objects important...because rotations held no evolutionary significance for us, the brain simply developed to ignore them at highly cognitive levels.”
Humans Remember Objects Poorly -- Inability May Have Evolutionary Roots 7:37 AM
Humans Remember Objects Poorly -- Inability May Have Evolutionary Roots 7:37 AM
"Robo-monkey has 14 motors controlling a fully-articulated body and a computer brain to direct all its
movements.
The human instructors have told it some equations for swinging and the distance between the rungs - it must do the rest. ”
Thinking is robot's play 7:30 AM
The human instructors have told it some equations for swinging and the distance between the rungs - it must do the rest. ”
Thinking is robot's play 7:30 AM
"James Schrager, a professor at the University of Chicago's business school, is among the most blunt at summarizing the e-tailers' outlook. "Amazon's model doesn't work, the same with most e-commerce companies," Schrager said. "Amazon has discovered that the more they sell, the more they lose. All the
numbers are going backwards."”
Stellar IPO prices fall despite e-commerce boom 9:09 PM
Stellar IPO prices fall despite e-commerce boom 9:09 PM
"If ever there was a concept seeking an audience desperate to believe, it is "clicks and mortar." It's an answer to the incumbent's prayer. At last, something for the old-line corporation to bring to the Internet party.”
Hold the Mortar 9:05 PM
Hold the Mortar 9:05 PM
"If somebody has this predisposition and nothing bad ever happens to them, it may never be expressed,” says study co-author David Bakish, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and head of the
psychopharmacology clinic at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. “But if they lose their job or whatever, then it may come into play.”
People often come into emergency rooms with suicidal thoughts, he says. “With a test, you could say, ‘You have this mutation, you are at higher risk. Maybe you’d benefit from long-term treatment.’”
Suicide Gene? 7:57 AM
People often come into emergency rooms with suicidal thoughts, he says. “With a test, you could say, ‘You have this mutation, you are at higher risk. Maybe you’d benefit from long-term treatment.’”
Suicide Gene? 7:57 AM
"Reports of 691 serious adverse events in gene therapy experiments swamped the NIH as a result of the agency's reminders, which officials hope will shed light on the mysterious September death of
18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger in a University of Pennsylvania trial.
Federal rules demand that such reports be filed "immediately" as problems arise. But 652 of the 691 had never before been seen by the NIH, according to an agency summary requested by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). That means less than 6 percent were filed on time. "
Gene Test Deaths Not Reported Promptly 7:46 AM
Federal rules demand that such reports be filed "immediately" as problems arise. But 652 of the 691 had never before been seen by the NIH, according to an agency summary requested by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). That means less than 6 percent were filed on time. "
Gene Test Deaths Not Reported Promptly 7:46 AM
"While issues of privacy have been far more debated in this day and age then environmental concerns were in Carson's era (for instance, polls consistently show that the public does care very much about privacy, both online and off), Garfinkel's work is the first time a writer has decisively and persuasively marshaled all the information together to show how our right to privacy is under constant attack, often by people who claim to have our best interests at heart. "
Database Nation 8:09 AM
Database Nation 8:09 AM
"...Are they being derived from the constant spin control that internet speed companies have to put on their insane valuations? Or is it symbolizing the way technology drains away our time from family and the more important things in life?"
swirling memes 7:49 AM
swirling memes 7:49 AM
"As a friend of ours once said, information architecture is similar to chronic fatigue syndrome. We often don't know what's wrong or how to fix it, so we endure."
An Interview with Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville 7:33 AM
An Interview with Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville 7:33 AM
“"You're not a designer, you're not a writer, and you're not an editor!"
Well, no, blogger, you're not. And therein lies your gift. Because even if it's true the vast majority of blogs would not be missed by more than a handful of people were the earth to open up and swallow them, and even if the best are still no substitute for the sustained attention of literary or journalistic works, it's also true that sustained attention is not what Web logs are about anyway. At their most interesting they embody something that exceeds attention, and transforms it: They are constructed from and pay implicit tribute to a peculiarly contemporary sort of wonder.
...[T]he Web log reflects our own attempts to assimilate the glut of immaterial data loosed upon us by the "discovery" of the networked world. And there are surely lessons for us in the parallel. For just as the cabinet of wonders took centuries to evolve into the more orderly, logically crystalline museum, so it may be a while before the chaos of the Web submits to any very tidy scheme of organization.”
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