With all the beauty of the Internet and the fact that it helps us dealing with distance and phisical presence, there is something really valuable about “being there.”  The Berkman Center places tons of material online and theoretically, nothing stops me from spending hours on their website listening to the talks and reading the reports.  However, for me this rarely happens, unless I have a concrete task in hand and am looking for a specific piece of information.

Now, spending the summer at Berkman, makes me more conscious of the online materials the center is releasing.  For example, about a week ago Jonathan Zittrain (JZ) gave a really interesting talk about the history of the internet through the lens of domain name regulation.  Unfortunately, that one was not documented, but then, when I came across the video below, I did sit down to watch (most of) it.  I don’t think I would do it unless I had the opportunity to listen to JZ “live” just a couple of days before, but now I know that there is a good explanation of the basics of the Internet out there that I can use.

Same goes for other items, such as the luncheon talks.  For example, this week, Eszter Hargittai presented her new data about disparities in Internet-related skills among college students.  Although I am following Eszter’s blog and try to read what she publishes, I doubt I would have a chance to spare an hour watching her recorder talk.  Now, after actually being there, I would encourage you to watch both, her talk from this week and another one she gave about a year ago (below).

Of course I am the first one to think about the importance of being there.  The idea has been around for a while, especially in the business world.  However, it is always fascinating to reach a similar conclusion based on your own observations.  It seems that the ability to attach a “face” to the content has an aura effect, beyond the immediate enhancement of communication between the people involved.  It shifts one’s attention towards other information produced in the same space, and most interestingly, it extends to the online environment.  I think that so far I was paying attention only to the reverse dynamics (when online communication enhances the following offline interaction).  It is interesting to now how it works in the opposite direction as well.  Being there focuses you on the materials produced by the people and institutions invovled, while probably taking away from your attention to informatin produced elswhere, even if that is a place where you have previously spent a lot of time at.  Some food for thought…

As I wrote before, I am looking to redesign the site and I started playing with it a little bit.  So, if you are experiencing problems with the website, please pardon the inconvenience.

The idea of CommFree has recently come up in our weekly discussions with Berkterns.  By a nice coincidence, XKCD published the following comic, which I wanted to share:

Enjoy :)

I have been away from blogging for a while and kind of got “out of shape” (I even think my blog was removed from Technorati as inactive).  I was really busy working on my A-exam papers, but now, after over 120 pages of single-spaced text, I am getting back on track.  It is a particularly good timing as I am spending this summer in a place where blogging is actually considered work :)

So, what I’ve been up to?  Here is a short update.

I am spending this summer at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society working in the Internet and Democracy project.  Berkman is a really interesting place where seemingly unlimited (primarily intellectual) resources are combined with a really comfortable environment for people to let their inner geek/nerd out.  I am an “intern” and there are about 30 of us working all over the yellow house on Everette street (and thanks to Cathrine White, we now go by Berkterns - Berkman interns).  The summer is only at the beginning, but it looks promising.  So, if you are in the Boston area, please feel free to touch base.  I will be here until early August.

Please note that I’ve started reworking this site a little bit in terms of content, structure, and infrastructure (I really need to upgrade the platform).  I am using Wordpress and I am now also looking for a new theme.  The theme should be widget ready and also to have tabs.  If you have any ideas, please let me know.

As to actual cooking, please check out a new initiative Veronica and I have started.  It is called “Cooking Travels” and the basic idea is to explore various cultures through their food.  We are looking for people who would be interested to contribute to it on a casual basis.  So please let me know if you would like to take part.

In the next few days, I plan to release some of the post drafts that have been sitting there for a while.  Hope at least some of the are still relevant :)

This digest also spent a month or two in the draft, but hopefully the stories are still interesting. It also got some fresher items as well. Hope you will find it useful.

Interesting reports, numbers, and visualizations

“The state of the news media” - The PEW report is out (as well as a renewed website) and it seems that the basic thrust of it is that the traditional media are trying to catch up with technological, social, and financial developments, but only with partial success.

“Enemies of the Internet” - The report from “Reporters without borders” is out (link to the PDF). Aside from the “usual suspects” there is also a list of “countries under under surveillance”, which includes two democracies Australia and South Korea.

Some country stats:

• India - GSM subscribers
• Moldova - Broadban
• Moldova - Mobile
• Nigeria - Telecom market
• Pakistan - Mobile subscribers
• Uruguay - Telecom market
• USA - Mobile internet
• Worldwide - Mobile broadband

“Three-Quarters of All Electronic Messages are Sent Via Mobile Phones” (via ICT stats) - Interestingly, email is still more popular in the developed countries, but that is not the case in the emerging economies.

“How many top-level domains are there?” - A little visualization from the recent ICANN meeting showing the number of top-level domains out there.

Interesting thoughts, ideas, opinions, and discussions

“We Need A National Broadband Standard” - What do you think a national broadband standard should look like in the US?  Geoff Daily asks some good questions on the topic.

Tim Berners-Lee at TED. He is now talking about “linked data, or a web of data, meaning a network of not just content, but what this content is about. Does it make sense? Take a look:

I can relate to his call for “raw data now” as it is often frustrating to find raw data out there. So, here is a link to the dbpedia he mentioned in his talk.

Digital Divide

The NY Times Bits had a series of interesting articles comparing broadband deployment worldwide. Here are the links to the articles, which I hope you will find interesting:

• “The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Faster?“
• “The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Cheaper?“
• “The Broadband Gap: Why Do They Have More Fiber?“
• “The Broadband Gap: Your Take on the Issue” - A collection of reader’s reactions to the series.

“Landscape Analysis of Low-cost Computing Devices” (via OLPC news) - An interesting overview of the recent netbooks phenomena questioning whether or not they are suitable for developing countries.

“The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009” - A report produced by the World Economic Forum in cooperation with INSEAD that focuses on the link between technology and development.  I have not read it all, so I am not sure if it goes into the details of the mechanism or just provides the rankings.

MICT regulation

“Europe looks to wrest control of the web away from the US” - By now this is old news, but I think it is important to note at least for archival purposes. Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for Information Society, urged the Obama administration to let go of the US control of ICANN.

“Economic realities push German broadband providers to infrastructure sharing” and “EC approves plans to open broadband access (Denmark)” - I would not call it a trend, but these are interesting examples of how information infrastructure starts being shared.

“British government considering Digital Rights Agency” - This is a really interesting example of how various issues of internet governance (in this case copyright and network neutrality) are intrinsically intertwined.

MICT business

“Social-Networking Sites to See Slower Ad Growth” - In itself I find it interesting that the volumes of advertising are growing in social networking websites. Unfortunately though, FB for example started also embedding adds in a more disguised manner in the news feeds.  I wonder if change in practices will not chase people away from social networks.

“New” media

“An automatic talkback” (HE) - An Israeli startup Qerta came up with technology that can automatically leave comments (talkbacks) on various content websites.  In the last Israeli election paid commenting on news websites became a widely spread phenomenon.  According to the article, this product can do the same job automatically using some fancy AI algorithm.  Food for thought…

“Social not-working: Facebook snitches cost jobs” (via AoIR mailing list) - A collection of stories from people in Australia, who lost their jobs over Facebook comments that their employers did not really appreciate. I think all of those whose age is mentioned, are in their 20’s and it is really interesting to read their comments about how they view FB and online privacy.

“Liberia’s Blackboard Blogger” - Well, this is not really “new” media, but a story of an “analog blogger”, a man in Liberia, who is supplying information in a blog-like fashion on a regular blackboard.  It is interesting how we start interpreting things in a technology-related way.

“What’s Killing the Newspaper and Who Will Save It?” (video) - A 50 minute long conversation held by journalists and entrepreneurs in the field of “new” media about the current state and direction of journalism and the newspaper industry.  I currently don’t have the time to watch it all, but from sampling, it seems like an interesting piece.

“Why it’s dangerous to compare print figures to website stats” - Some interesting thoughts on comparing the “old” and the “new” media.

“Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” - A really well written (though long) post from Clay Shirky analyzing the last couple decades when newspapers were coping with the Internet.  I like it when he said: “That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place.”  Haven’t thought about it in those terms before.

“News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch” - And here is a slightly different take on the things.  I think the title communicates the gist of it clearly.

Simply Interesting, Fun, and Coll Stuff

“Sixth sense” - Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry of MIT demonstrate an interested, yet potentially controversial, technology at TED (check out some of the comments on the original TED post).