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Julian Assange's secret chat with Eric Schmidt
Julian Assange's secret chat with Google's chairman | Internet & Media - CNET News: ". . . Assange said the genesis of the site was in response to what he saw as a "crippled" information distribution system. "I fundamentally believe that disinformation becomes so easy to generate because of, because complexity overwhelms knowledge, that it is in the people's interest, if you will over the next decade, to build disinformation generating systems, this is true for corporations, for marketing, for governments and so on," Assange said. "And it makes the job for a legitimate journalist that much harder, right." Just as Bitcoin is a distributed currency, Assange suggests creating a distributed publishing system. "Every reference to some other part of human intellectual content, is precise, and can be discovered if it exists out there anywhere at all, and is not dependent on any particular organization," he said. Schmidt also broaches the subject of WikiLeaks' alleged threat to national security, asking for Assange's version, "which obviously we are sympathetic to.". . . ." (read more at link above)
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Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "On the 23 of June, 2011 a secret five hour meeting took place between WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who was under house arrest in rural UK at the time, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Also in attendance was Jared Cohen, a former Secretary of State advisor to Hillary Clinton and Lisa Shields of the Council for Foreign Relations. Schmidt and Cohen requested the meeting, they said, to discuss ideas for "The New Digital World", their forthcoming book to be published on April 23, 2013. We provide here a verbatim transcript of the majority of the meeting; a close reading, particularly of the latter half, is revealing. . . . " (read more at link above)
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Digital Public Library of America
Now, With No Further Ado, We Present ... the Digital Public Library of America! - Rebecca J. Rosen - The Atlantic: " . . . If that moment was the Digital Public Library of America's conception, then today is its birth, with the launch of DP.LA, . . . The idea behind the Digital Public Library of America is fairly simple actually -- it is the attempt, really a large-scale attempt, to knit together America's archives, libraries, and museums, which have a tremendous amount of content -- all forms of human expression, from images and photographs, to artwork, to published material and unpublished material, like archival and special collections. We want to bring that all together in one place. . . . "
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Media Boston Blunders
Twitter more reliable than CNN!--
Media shrug at Boston blunders - James Hohmann - POLITICO.com: "The inaccurate report by CNN and other news organizations about an arrest in the Boston bombing case was arguably one of the most flagrant errors on a story of major national consequence in years. When the news organizations later corrected their mistakes, there seemed to be something missing — any big shows of contrition, or even a sense of the magnitude of the error. It fell to Twitter and the merciless mockery of Jon Stewart, who devoted much of “The Daily Show” to skewering CNN’s John King, to call out the media for their failures. . . ."
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Media shrug at Boston blunders - James Hohmann - POLITICO.com: "The inaccurate report by CNN and other news organizations about an arrest in the Boston bombing case was arguably one of the most flagrant errors on a story of major national consequence in years. When the news organizations later corrected their mistakes, there seemed to be something missing — any big shows of contrition, or even a sense of the magnitude of the error. It fell to Twitter and the merciless mockery of Jon Stewart, who devoted much of “The Daily Show” to skewering CNN’s John King, to call out the media for their failures. . . ."
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Atomization in Publishing
Shatzkin: Soon, Most People Working in Publishing Won’t Be Working at Publishing Companies | Digital Book World: "The publishing industry is going through “atomization,” according to industry consultant and DBW partner Mike Shatzkin. He writes in his latest blog post at The Shatzkin Files: Soon — in the next 5 or 10 years — every university (perhaps most departments within a university), every law firm and accounting firm and consulting firm, certainly every content creator in other media, as well as most manufacturers and retailers will become book publishers too."
Atomization - The Shatzkin Files: "The next wave will be everybody else: every brand with a following, a meaning, a reputation, a website. The next group will need editorial services which presents a whole new set of opportunities for writers, agents, and, especially, packagers. . . ."
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Atomization - The Shatzkin Files: "The next wave will be everybody else: every brand with a following, a meaning, a reputation, a website. The next group will need editorial services which presents a whole new set of opportunities for writers, agents, and, especially, packagers. . . ."
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Tumblr Closes News Blog Storyboard
Daily Report: Tumblr Shutters a News Blog, Not Yet a Year Old - NYTimes.com: "Susan Etlinger, an industry analyst with the research firm Altimeter, based in San Mateo, Calif., offered one common theory why Storyboard was closed. “Tumblr has taken in a lot of money and is trying to get to profitability this year,” she said. “They are looking to cut anything that does not contribute to the bottom line. I think it may be as simple as that.”"
It's called monetization.
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It's called monetization.
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Blogs join books at British Library
Blogs join books at British Library as UK sets out to preserve its digital domain
Vancouver Sun (blog)
The library has kept for centuries a copy of every book, pamphlet, magazine and newspaper published in Britain. Starting Saturday, it will also be bound to record every British website, e-book, online newsletter and blog in a bid to preserve the nation ...
Vancouver Sun (blog)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos invests in Business Insider?
Wonder what Jeff Bezos sees in Business Insider?
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos invests in Business Insider - Apr. 5, 2013: "Business Insider plans to use this latest round of capital "to invest aggressively in many areas of the business, including editorial, tech/product, sales and marketing, subscriptions, and events," as well as office expansion, Blodget said in his memo."
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos invests in Business Insider - Apr. 5, 2013: "Business Insider plans to use this latest round of capital "to invest aggressively in many areas of the business, including editorial, tech/product, sales and marketing, subscriptions, and events," as well as office expansion, Blodget said in his memo."
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TIME and its decline
"Instead of simply becoming another anodyne tub of liberal mush," Time could have been more--
The evitable fall of Time, Inc. - NYPOST.com: " . . . The problem was that “growing” the readership of Time and Fortune and Sports Illustrated practically required dumbing down the magazines to appeal to a wider and (by definition) less literate and less engaged audience. Time could have resisted the lure of this pitch, and instead focused on its loyal readers and readers in general — people who liked magazines rather than those who wanted the Sports Illustrated football-shaped phone offered by the cute girl with the headset in the ads. It could have doubled down on seriousness rather than draining its books of it — not to be pompous, but to define a new upscale mass market. But it went the other way and the serious market came to be defined instead by the Economist, which mints money . . . " (read more at link above)
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The evitable fall of Time, Inc. - NYPOST.com: " . . . The problem was that “growing” the readership of Time and Fortune and Sports Illustrated practically required dumbing down the magazines to appeal to a wider and (by definition) less literate and less engaged audience. Time could have resisted the lure of this pitch, and instead focused on its loyal readers and readers in general — people who liked magazines rather than those who wanted the Sports Illustrated football-shaped phone offered by the cute girl with the headset in the ads. It could have doubled down on seriousness rather than draining its books of it — not to be pompous, but to define a new upscale mass market. But it went the other way and the serious market came to be defined instead by the Economist, which mints money . . . " (read more at link above)
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Obama Broke His Promise of Transparency
Barack Obama is worse than George W. Bush when it comes to transparency--
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Obama's Promised Transparency: Where the Hell is It?: " . . . Whether it’s responding to Congress, media questions, or FOIA requests, this administration is no better than its predecessor. The big difference: Obama is a Democrat. And because he is a Democrat, he’s gotten a pass from many of the civil liberty and good-government groups who spent years watching President Bush’s every move like a hawk. In March 2010, the Associated Press found that, under Obama, 17 major agencies were 50 percent more likely to deny FOIA requests than under Bush. The following year, the presidents of two journalism societies— Association of Health Care Journalists and Society of Professional Journalists—called out President Obama for muzzling scientists in much the same way President Bush had. Last September, Bloomberg News tested Obama’s pledge by filing FOIA requests for the 2011 travel records of top officials at 57 agencies. Only about half responded. In fact, this president has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined. And an analysis released Monday by the Associated Press found that the administration censored more FOIA requests on national security grounds last year than in any other year since President Obama took office. One of the most glaring examples of Obama’s failure on transparency is his response to the “Fast and Furious” fiasco—the botched attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to find Mexican drug lords by tracking guns smuggled from the United States into Mexico. The debacle came to light when ATF whistleblowers met with investigators working for Sen. Grassley. Grassley sent a letter to the Department of Justice demanding answers; not realizing Grassley already had documents that laid out the operation, officials at Justice responded with false and misleading information that violated federal law. . . ." Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/03/obamas-promised-transparency-where-hell.html#7lgjjFYZGARyIBu2.99
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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Obama's Promised Transparency: Where the Hell is It?: " . . . Whether it’s responding to Congress, media questions, or FOIA requests, this administration is no better than its predecessor. The big difference: Obama is a Democrat. And because he is a Democrat, he’s gotten a pass from many of the civil liberty and good-government groups who spent years watching President Bush’s every move like a hawk. In March 2010, the Associated Press found that, under Obama, 17 major agencies were 50 percent more likely to deny FOIA requests than under Bush. The following year, the presidents of two journalism societies— Association of Health Care Journalists and Society of Professional Journalists—called out President Obama for muzzling scientists in much the same way President Bush had. Last September, Bloomberg News tested Obama’s pledge by filing FOIA requests for the 2011 travel records of top officials at 57 agencies. Only about half responded. In fact, this president has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined. And an analysis released Monday by the Associated Press found that the administration censored more FOIA requests on national security grounds last year than in any other year since President Obama took office. One of the most glaring examples of Obama’s failure on transparency is his response to the “Fast and Furious” fiasco—the botched attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to find Mexican drug lords by tracking guns smuggled from the United States into Mexico. The debacle came to light when ATF whistleblowers met with investigators working for Sen. Grassley. Grassley sent a letter to the Department of Justice demanding answers; not realizing Grassley already had documents that laid out the operation, officials at Justice responded with false and misleading information that violated federal law. . . ." Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/03/obamas-promised-transparency-where-hell.html#7lgjjFYZGARyIBu2.99
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Resale of Digital Books and Music
Revolution in Resale of Digital Books and Music - NYTimes.com: " . . . On Thursday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published Apple’s application for its own patent for a digital marketplace. Apple’s application outlines a system for allowing users to sell or give e-books, music, movies and software to each other by transferring files rather than reproducing them. Such a system would permit only one user to have a copy at any one time. . . ." read more at link above
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Free Speech and the Gagging of Great Britain
Interesting take on free speech--
The Gagging of Great Britain... and Beyond | Neurobonkers | Big Think: "There are many things we can criticise the US for, but freedom of speech is not (at present) one of them. The US not only have the valuable First Amendment rights to freedom of speech but these rights have been explicitly expanded by "The Speech Law", a law with the express purpose of protecting Americans from the toxic laws of the British libel courts. London has become the "global capital" of "libel tourism", a shameful place where the laws are so deeply in favour of wealth that rich dictators and crackpots can silence writers all over the world. . . . We are now at a tipping point, the end of a truly massive three year campaign for libel reform in the UK. The reform bill which received all party support before the last general election has now been dropped from the Parliamentary timetable after a sabotage attempt by a bunch of Lords whose "prior restraint" "wrecking ammendment" would see British law sent back to the stone age. The amendment would mean "censorship before publication – that has not existed in this country for 300 years and that is explicitly outlawed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)"... "the wreckers also wish to punish newspapers that do not submit to state-sanctioned regulation by obliging them to pay exemplary damages if defeated in actions for libel". There are now only nine days left to get the Defamation Bill back in to Parliament before the bill is killed for good. So, if you care about free speech, forward this news to your friends in the UK and ask them to write to their MP and ask them to keep their pre-election promise to protect freedom of speech and do everything in their power to block the prior restraint wrecking amendment that has been introduced at the eleventh hour. . ."
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The Gagging of Great Britain... and Beyond | Neurobonkers | Big Think: "There are many things we can criticise the US for, but freedom of speech is not (at present) one of them. The US not only have the valuable First Amendment rights to freedom of speech but these rights have been explicitly expanded by "The Speech Law", a law with the express purpose of protecting Americans from the toxic laws of the British libel courts. London has become the "global capital" of "libel tourism", a shameful place where the laws are so deeply in favour of wealth that rich dictators and crackpots can silence writers all over the world. . . . We are now at a tipping point, the end of a truly massive three year campaign for libel reform in the UK. The reform bill which received all party support before the last general election has now been dropped from the Parliamentary timetable after a sabotage attempt by a bunch of Lords whose "prior restraint" "wrecking ammendment" would see British law sent back to the stone age. The amendment would mean "censorship before publication – that has not existed in this country for 300 years and that is explicitly outlawed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)"... "the wreckers also wish to punish newspapers that do not submit to state-sanctioned regulation by obliging them to pay exemplary damages if defeated in actions for libel". There are now only nine days left to get the Defamation Bill back in to Parliament before the bill is killed for good. So, if you care about free speech, forward this news to your friends in the UK and ask them to write to their MP and ask them to keep their pre-election promise to protect freedom of speech and do everything in their power to block the prior restraint wrecking amendment that has been introduced at the eleventh hour. . ."
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Yahoo! no longer a digital media company?
Silicon Valley is a "Media Valley" It's a giant virtual Gutenberg machine made up of powerful media technologies that have replaced the innovation of movable type with that of programmable type -- the extraordinary ability to publish pages of complex content on-the-fly and change them in real-time -- across a massive distribution network that has enabled the end-points to publish back. (source ZDNet, infra)
Yahoo! says it's no longer a digital media company | ZDNet: " . . . Colleen Taylor at Techcrunch, reports that Yahoo! has changed the way it describes itself in its latest 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yahoo is now labeling itself first and foremost as a “global technology company,” in the place where it used to call itself a “digital media company.” . . . A far better description of Yahoo! would be as a "technology media company." It uses sophisticated media technologies to publish digital content and advertising. What's not "media company" about that? Technology companies develop and sell technologies, such as databases (Oracle), microprocessors (Intel), software as a service (Salesforce.com). What technology can you buy from Yahoo!? Google is a media company and so is AOL, Facebook, Twitter, and hundreds of Silicon Valley companies, too. Is Yahoo!'s change of description wrong timing yet again? . . . it gave away its media technologies for very little money such as licensing its pay-per-click IP to Google, without which it wouldn't have had such a lucrative business. Google is a media company but it prefers to be described as a tech company because it partners with traditional media companies. In the mid-2000s it struck deals with the New York Times and other large publishers to manage their online advertising. The NYTimes.com front page was full of Google delivered ads, often with a link, "If you'd like to advertise on this site click here" taking you to straight to Google. The NYTimes had handed over its advertising customer relations to Google - a rival media company! If the New York Times considered Google to be a media company at the time, which it was, it would have approached such a partnership with a lot more caution. . . Even Eric Schmidt, Chairman and former CEO, often refers to Google as a media company. . . ."
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Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction
Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction | Open Culture: "Before he was a big game hunter, before he was a deep-sea fisherman, Ernest Hemingway was a craftsman who would rise very early in the morning and write. His best stories are masterpieces of the modern era, and his prose style is one of the most influential of the 20th century. Hemingway never wrote a treatise on the art of writing fiction. He did, however, leave behind a great many passages in letters, articles and books with opinions and advice on writing. Some of the best of those were assembled in 1984 by Larry W. Phillips into a book, Ernest Hemingway on Writing. We’ve selected seven of our favorite quotations from the book and placed them, along with our own commentary, on this page. We hope you will all–writers and readers alike–find them fascinating. 1: To get started, write one true sentence. . . ." (read full article at link above)
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