It looks like I am on announcement spry.  So, here is another one.  If you happen to be in the Boston area on March 16, you may want to check out this event (via Center for Future Civic Media):

We Report, We Decide: Civic Media’s Impact on Mainstream News

In recent years, civic media projects have increased in numbers around the world. Ordinary people armed with inexpensive production equipment are using the web to share news and information with others in their communities and beyond. What can mainstream media learn from these experiments in community news-gathering?

NeighborMedia, a civic media project at Cambridge Community Television, invites you to attend this special discussion. Veterans in the fields of print, television and Internet journalism will share their views and take questions from a live studio audience, of which we hope you can be a part.

The even will take place on Monday, March 16, 7pm, Cambridge Community Television, 675 Massachusetts Ave. If you want to go, you need to RSVP by Thursday, March 12, by emailing colin@cctvcambridge.org.

More information is available here.

Reposting a call for papers I first saw on eKarine. Hope some of you will find it relevant/useful:

Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-43)
January 5-8, 2010 Kauai

Digital Divide/s and Inclusion/s Mini-track

The mini-track calls for papers that study digital divide/s, inequalities and inclusions in different levels, methods and perspectives. Possible focus may be on international, national, local, sector, communal, and individual level. Both empirical and theoretical papers are invited. Potential contributions may be in the subjects, but are not limited to the following:

• Conceptualization and theory of digital divide/s, digital spectrum and eInclusion
• Indigenous communities and technologySocio-demographic factors– gender, age, education, income, ethnic diversity, race diversity, language diversity, religiosity
• Social and governmental support – for example the use of supportive initiatives, policy and applications to bridge the gap, or how society and community impact eInclusion
• Access and technology – infrastructure factors
• Affordability
• Use – skills, frequency and time, locus, autonomy of use, what do users do online and for what purpose
• Accessibility focusing mainly in populations with special needs
• Measurements indices
• Comparative analysis of policy
• Comparative cross-country or cross-region research
• Country or region specific case studies

Contact Information for Mini-Track Chairs:

Karine Barzilai-Nahon [Primary Contact]
University of Washington
The Information School
Suite 370B Mary Gates Hall, Box 352840
Seattle, WA 98195-2840
Phone: (206) 685-6668
Fax: (206) 616-3152
Email: karineb@u.washington.edu

Narcyz Roztocki
State University of New York at New Paltz
School of Business
75 S. Manheim Blvd.
New Paltz, NY 12561-2443
Phone: (845) 257-2935
Fax: (845) 257-2947
Email: roztockn@newpaltz.edu

Important Deadlines:

• Abstracts -Authors may contact Minitrack Chairs for guidance and indication of appropriate content at anytime.
• June 15, 2009 - Authors submit full papers to the Peer Review System, following Author Instructions found on the HICSS web site. All papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references. Papers undergo a double-blind review.
• August 15, 2009 - Acceptance/Rejection notices are sent to Authors via the Peer Review System.
• September 19, 2009 - Authors submit Final Version of papers following submission instructions on the Peer Review System web site. At least one author of each paper must register by this date with specific plans to attend the conference to present the paper.

Instructions for Paper Submission:

• HICSS papers must contain original material not previously published, or currently submitted elsewhere.
• Do not submit the manuscript to more than one mini-track. If unsure which mini-track is appropriate, submit the abstract to the Track Chair for guidance.
• Submit your full paper according to the detailed formatting and submission instructions found on the HICSS website. Note: All papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references. HICSS will conduct double-blind reviews of each submitted paper.

HICSS conferences are devoted to advances in the information, computer, and system sciences, and encompass developments in both theory and practice. Invited papers may be theoretical, conceptual, tutorial or descriptive in nature. Submissions undergo a double-blind peer referee process and those selected for presentation will be published in the Conference Proceedings. Submissions must not have been previously published.

For the latest information visit the HICSS web site at: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/

So, this week we had some Facebook in the news, mobile banking as another aspect of the “digital divide”, new website from Obama administration and a number of other interesting things. Hope you will find this interesting and will also share your thoughts.

Please read on and share your thoughts!

Recent news related

When i first took note of the Facebook changing their terms of service, I posted it under “New Media”.  However, during the week, the item became widely debated around the web and new developments took place.  So, I decided to move it to the “news” section.

I first read that it looks like you “belong” to Facebook even if you choose to abandon them on Michael Zimmer’s blog - “Facebook’s New Content License Extends Beyond Closure of Account” (also here).  Tech.Blorge posted a similar sentiment - “Facebook owns you… forever“.  VentureBeat, on the other hand were less alarmed - “Is Facebook really using its new terms of service to own your data?“.

Reacting to the buzz, Facebookresponded - “Zuckerberg on Privacy: This is Just the Beginning” (you can also read the original - “On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information” - from Mark Zuckerberg).  However, later in the week it decided to step back and withdraw the proposed changes - “Facebook Recants (Again)” - “Facebook faced down: new TOS tossed” - “Facebook U-turn on privacy changes” - “Recapping the Three-Day Facebook Firestorm“.  In Mark Zuckerberg’s post on Facebook, he announces a new group on the website that is dedicated to drafting “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” - “Update on terms“.  Later on, I saw on one of the blogs - “Facebook to Users: We Are Sorry, Please Don’t Delete Your Account”

Somehow I fell this is not the last time we hear about Facebook, privacy, and experiments in governance online.

What do you think about this story?

Interesting reports, numbers, and visualizations

“The Global Agenda 2009″ (PDF via MIT Center for Future Civic Media) - A 325 page report summing up the World Economic Forum in Davos.  I find it particularly interesting, as similar to the discussions I intend to study, these outcomes have no binding implications, but they are important factors in defining how we talk about issues and what those issues are.  I have not read the entire document, but found comments from Florence Gallez of MIT interesting as well as the portion about the Internet.  For example, if you wondered why Internet Governance debates would be an important question for stufy, here is how Davos participants viewed it:

“Comparing Search Data Retention Policies of Major Search Engines” - Michael Zimmer reproduces a comparison chart from MS and Siva Vaidhyanathan is posting - “A slice of the introduction draft” - for his book about Google.

“Guide to Online Advocacy” - I think the title says it all; according to the post, this guide covers four areas: “informing and communicating; documenting and visualising; mobilising and coordinating; and bypassing and accessing”.  Could be great to know if anyone found it useful.

“Keep it official” (via LIRNEasia) - The Economist is taking a critical stand on a pending law in Kazakhstan, that is aimed to limit the freedom of online expression; this is despite the fact that the Prime Minister himself, happens to be a blogger (and his blog is bi-lingual in Kazakh and in Russian - it turns out the Russian is the second official language in the country, something I did not know).

Some regional information:

• Caribbean - Review of the telecom market
• France - Mobile subscribers
• Iceland - Review of the telecom industry
• India - GSM subscribers
• Japan - Review of the telecom sector
• Morocco - Telecom industry stats
• Spain - Mobile subscribers
• UK - Text messaging
• USA - Review of the telecom market

For those who still wonder what this whole financial crisis is about, here is a rather well done visual explanation (via Digital Inspiration):

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Interesting thoughts, ideas, opinions, and discussions

There was a seminar in Washington DC this week that I wish I could attend.  It was organized by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and now I understand also by Georgetown University.  The seminar focused on the portion of the stimulus plan dedicated to the broadband and its potential to contribute to economy rehabilitation.  Unfortunately, I don’t have much account of the event. There is this article which states that the primary focus was on the contribution of all this spending to job creation (here is the paper it is referring to). The App-Rising blog discussed the need for national broadband strategy and expressed general enthusiasm about investment in the broadband, while pointing at some still unanswered questions about the implementation of the stimulus.  Hope there will be more material soon, particularly the papers that were discussed there or maybe even transcripts of the sessions or even their video footage.

The alternative energy discussion keeps on coming on my radar and some of the ideas seem interesting.  This week I read about deep water wind turbines and even a combination of utilizing wave power with the offshore turbines.  I agree with author of the second post that the next step seems to add solar to these constructions.

“The Computer as a Road Map to Unknowable Territory” (via Thoughts about k4d) - A Washington post article about computer simulations of social phenomena.  I find it pretty intriguing, regardless of the obvious limitations.

John Markoff of NY Times is concerned with security of the web and is raising a question - “Do We Need a New Internet?” Andrew LaVAlle of WSJ Bits is following with - “Do You Want a New Internet?” - And what do you think?

“Tough times require different approach to innovation” (via CommunicationsDirect) - A call to rethink ways to innovate in the technology-driven industry in times of economic recession.

Digital Divide

“Was the Sugar User Interface a Mistake?” - Actually I would like to leave it as a question and ask those who have used the system: what do you think?

“I.B.M. Delivers Rural Broadband Over Power Lines” - I’ve been hearing about similar technologies for many years now, but this is the closest I see it coming to actual deployment.

“German Government Introduces National Broadband Strategy, Pledges to Auction Digital Dividend” - They want to have 100% of the households connected by 2010 and 75% of the households have 50 MBpS by 2014.

“Bill Gates helping to bring mobile banking to the poor” - In fact, the idea is to bring banking to “the 1.7 billion people globally that have a mobile phone, but no bank account” (more here); perhaps this is another face of the digital divide.

It was probably not random that I also saw this piece of news - “Telcel partners with Banamex to launch SMS-Mobile Banking (Mexico)” - and this commentary - “E-mail, Mobile Phones– and Microfinance?” - it looks like the mobile banking emerged as a hot topic last week.

MICT regulation

“Field Guide to the ICANN Reforms (Part 2)” - Milton Mueller continues explaining the politics of ICANN on the Internet Governance Project blog.

“Changes on the way for US telco environment” - Another analysis of the broadband stimulus in the US and its potential repercussions.

MICT business

This week passed under a sign of positive news about the venture capital market.  For example, Bits have published that in 2008 - “Venture Investment Climbs in India, China and Israel” - and VentureBeat reported that another initiative that aims at doing well while doing good managed to raise some money - “World of Good raises $1.1M for socially conscious shopping“.

“Is the mobile phone industry really turning itself green?” - Review of some green-oriented innovations in the mobile industry.

“New” media

“Medpedia: A Collaborative Encyclopedia for Health Care” - I think we are facing a new trend of wiki-based encyclopedias that are more focused and are concerned with professional credentials of the contributes.

MICT and politics

Recovery.gov - Another communication innovation from Obama team. This time it is aimed at increasing transparency regarding spending of the stimulus package (which also includes limiting employment of H-1B visa holders).  In the meantime, there is not much information on the website, but it is naturally generating some buzz - “Visit Recovery.gov to learn how the government spends $787B” - “Obama Launches Recovery.gov - Your $787 billion at Work“.  At the same time it is also attracting criticism - “Can Obama’s Online Hotline Deliver?” - which is new to the coverage of Obama’s “new media” initiatives.

If you are interested to hear more about the online strategies of Obama’s campaign, you may want to read this interview with Thomas Gensemer - the man who is credited with its success.

Simply Interesting, Fun, and Coll Stuff

“Top 10 best open source games” - Although I used to enjoy computer games, I was never fanatic about it.  This is probably why I found this list and the concept itself as rather interesting and amusing.  I should try some of those… After the A-exams of course :)

“Single Google Query uses 1000 Machines in 0.2 seconds” - A short post and a video about how Google works.  And if we are on Google - “Google Earth finds Atlantis off coast of Africa” - which may be cool, but I wonder though, why it happened only now if it was that easy?  After all, these images are not new to the world.

“Download, install and drive - the future of automotive software” - An aspect of the automobile industry that I usually don’t think about.

“The Universe in ‘09” (via FlowingData) - SEED Magazine’s mosaic of interesting and provoking ideas.

“The Trilogy Meter” (via FlowingData) - Levels of enjoyment from some famous trilogies - just for fun!

A really cool video about how amazing the nature is - a group of scientists capture the structure of an ant colony (thank you, Julia!):

The phrase “economic peace” may not be the most popular phrase in the Middle East, since it was utilized for the election campaign of Likud.  However, economics seems to be a powerful element and things happen in spite of politics.

I am writing this because I just learned from the Good Neighbors blog about a new initiative by Wharton (I assume MBA) students, called LendforPeace.org. The initiatives seems to be a close replica of the Kiva, which I think one of the most innovative projects combining micro-finance with possibilities opened up by technological progress.  The main difference between Kiva and LendforPeace is the geographical focus.  In their own words:

LendforPeace.org is a not-for-profit Internet platform that allows individuals like you to make small loans to specific micro-entrepreneurs in the Palestinian Territories.

Our mission is to use micro-lending to promote economic opportunity and political stability in the Middle East.

The website was officially launced at the beginning of this month with a grant from Clinton Foundation after a pilot set of loans ($5000) was successfully returned in about half a year (you can learn more about it on their blog).

One of the “selling points” of the project is that it is established by two Jewish and two Palestinian students.  I presonally think that it would be even cooler if it these were two Israelis and two Palestinians in the team. Nevertheless I find these kinds of joint ventures encouraging.

The Policy Studies Organization (PSO), the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), and Berkeley Electronic Press have established a new peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to issues of Internet and Public Policy.  The new journal is called simply “Policy and Internet” and it has a number of big names on its editorial board, including one of my committee memebers, Prof. Milton Muller.

Here is their first call for papers (PDF version here):

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII), the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), and Berkeley Electronic Press are proud to announce Policy and Internet, the first major peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary journal investigating the implications of the Internet and associated technologies for public policy.

The Internet is now embedded in social, economic and political life, bringing with it new practices, norms and structures. The societal shift enabled by the Internet enables new kinds of policy innovation and creativity: and raises new challenges and risks for policy-making and analysis. It requires rigorous empirical investigation, theoretical development and methodological innovation across academic disciplines. Policy and Internet will become the premier arena for advancing policy research and shaping the policy agenda in the digital era.

Policy and Internet invites papers reporting world class research and scholarship on any aspect of the relationship between the Internet and public policy. The journal is fully multi-disciplinary in scope. Topics will range across policy sectors and regions of the world, including generalised, sectoral or country-specific policy effects.

Find further details and make submissions at:
http://www.bepress.com/pso_internet/

I thought some of  you may be interested.