Category — General

GEORGE PLIMPTON, R.I.P.. Laurence Simon has the news. Michele is right–there have been a freakish number of major celebrity deaths this month…. [OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY]

Doctor Who?. Doctor Who is back [MetaFilter]

—–

one of the best shows EVER! I'm happy its back.

80's singer Robert Palmer has passed away. 80's singer Robert Palmer has passed away. CNN reports that the British rocker who is famous for his 80's hit “Addicted to Love” died of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 54. [MetaFilter

Diebold controversy.

Declan McCullagh's Politech pointed to an article on the Daily Kos concerning Diebold. Seemingly Diebold forced a website, BlackBoxVoting.org, offline. The domain now appears to be back on, though resolving to a different URI (http://www.talion.com/blackboxvoting.org.htm) – I am unsure whether this is a new development. According to the site:

After 15,000 internal memos were leaked, Diebold tried to force www.blackboxvoting.org to shut down, claiming copyright because of a LINK on the site, but also sent a cease & desist letter to Global Free Press demanding removal of a search engine which quickly and easily finds information in the memos.

Diebold, for those who may be unaware, is a major operator of electronic voting systems. Their CEO hit headlines (in alternative outlets and here on funferal) earlier in the year when he committed himself, at a fundraising event, to delivering Ohio's votes for Bush next year….

[funferal]

author of Orientalism and many other interesting books and essays has been extremely ill and has passed away. his voice of reason was a significant bonus in crosscultural and crossnational interests in the middle east and the u.s. he will be missed.

My job! Mine! Mine!. I found the job I want. Here it is. I can’t have it, of course, because I have a ways to go for my MLS… but I am telling you, that is my job right there. We wants it, precious, we wants it, we does! (As long as they’ll let… [Caveat Lector]

——-

been there, done that, it's interesting enough until you reach the point of interaction where suddenly everything changes and the digitized content isn't in a form that can be easily transformed, but then i'm not a librarian, i'm more of a researcher and producer in this area.

NLII – Educause Learning Ecosystems. Quote: “The NLII has argued that institutions of higher education operate within a sociotechnological context, and, as communication and knowledge technologies change, that context changes. Sometimes the implications are not straightforward. For example, because of new developments in technology, students can have more direct access to information without having to go through an intermediary. If we can immerse ourselves in a sea of information that used to be available only to specialists and experts (e.g., faculty), what role do those specialists and experts (and by extension, the institutions that sponsor them) play in learning?” [Serious Instructional Technology]

——-

this is a great find. its a good analysis of the way this learning ecosystem works and some of its implications, worth the read. i particularly like the role of the academy in knowledge ecologies section, because to some extent it is the academy that does the norm-setting in this arena.

You want hijacking? You want piracy?.

I give you VeriSign. Elliot Noss explains, in terms of stewardship, which VeriSign has, and is violating. He should know. He's the president & CEO of Tucows, and knows more about all this stuff than just about anyone else on Earth.

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

ICANN: Verisign has Created Internet 'Instability'. ICANN: Message from Security and Stability Advisory Committee to ICANN Board. VeriSign's change appears to have considerably weakened the stability… [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

——-

moreon the icann-verisign debacle, i imagine the debate as two four year old boys arguing over who owns a rock, mine, mine mine, etc. etc. until finally, smack

i am not really a member of the ietf intellectual property rights working group anymore, i sort of swore off of it when i did a rough count of the overwhelming corporate interest seemingly voting as a block. in any case, it looks like they are beginning the process of silencing a few critics on that list. you can read their account at the link. interesting stuff really, i can see both sides.

for those that don't know what the ietf is:
http://www.ietf.org