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ActivismJune 5, 200620:02
"Nature is undertaking a trial of a particular type of open peer review.In this trial,authors whose submissions to Nature are sent for peer review will also be offered the opportunity to participate in an open peer review process (see below for explanation).The trial is optional for authors;it will continue in parallel with Nature's usual procedures,and does not affect the likelihood of eventual publication of the submitted work.At the same time as the trial,Nature is running a web debate on peer review,to which we welcome comments from readers".
Nature Peer Review Trial and Debate
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Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
19:24
This information aesthetics post has "a light that 'blushes' in response to the emotional pitch of a mobile phone. the lamp is activated by the Electromagnetic field (EMF) emitted from a mobile phone & continues blushing for 5 minutes after the call has ended,hereby prolonging the memory of the otherwise transient conversation". Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
19:02
The BBC reports "the row between supporters of a Swedish website accused of piracy and the nation's authorities is escalating.A raid on The Pirate Bay site by Swedish police is thought to have been the catalyst for hack attacks on official websites.The attacks are being investigated by the Swedish security service,its domestic intelligence agency.Protestors took to the streets of Stockholm on Saturday to show their support for the BitTorrent search site".The Pirate Bay was "was raided by police amid claims that it was giving people access to copyrighted material.Some 200 servers were seized and three men arrested in the action.The day after the raids,the website of Sweden's police force was knocked offline".
Swedish piracy row gathers pace ...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
18:39
(Via MobileActive.org)
WorldWideHelp is the blog for a "General newsgroup and rallying point for power bloggers, wiki experts, database adepts, etc., for calls to action and volunteers to provide information post-disasters."
This blog was started by several founders and members of the SEA EAT (South East Asian Earthquake And Tsunami) blog, wiki and database, which gained worldwide attention at the time of the earthquake and tsunami on 26th December, 2004. The group, now The World Wide Help Group, has since remobilised to aid in other relief efforts....
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
18:39
A report in boingboing has this news of very progressive recommendations under consideration in the UK Parliament: UK Parliament report damns DRM, calls for reins on crippleware
The UK All Party Parliamentary Internet Group has published a paper on DRM today that makes a number of very progressive recommendations on DRM in British law. The APPIG solicited public comments, and the UK Open Rights Group submitted a long, detailed set of recommendations on how to make Britain safe from copy-restriction technology. Many of the best recommendations in the APPIG mirror the ORG proposals, which suggests that Parliament is really listening to tech activists on DRM questions. . . ....
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
15:35
BYOMS ("Build Your Own Mobile Search") has launched a service that enables users to create chat bots that can be queried in natural language. For example, I've created a bot named "byomssmartmobs" that appears on my AIM buddy list. I can direct questions at it: "What is GNU radio?" or "Who is Yochai Benkler," and the bot will search the archives of smartmobs.com and send me back an answer right away. Or you can send a query to byomsWikipedia. Searchbots can consist of entire groups of sites. Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
14:50
(Via Ross Mayfield's Weblog)
Micropersuasion has uncovered evidence that eBay is about to launch blogs, wikis, and search tags for its users:
Auction giant eBay is preparing to integrate blog and wiki publishing tools into its selling platform, according to a report on Auctionbytes. eBay Blogs will enable sellers to more efficiently market their products. eBay Wikis meanwhile collect fact-based articles written and maintained by eBay Community members. Both tools will be launched at the eBay Live conference in Las Vegas June 13 - 15.
Working off the Auctionbytes story, I dug a little deeper and found more details including a tag/search platform. The eBay Blog help pages here and the wiki information pages here. In addition, as you can see from the screenshot below and the links on the help pages, Skype integration is coming soon too....
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
12:32
BoingBoing reports on GNU Radio: Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
11:32
The first employee who was fired because of her blogging activities was Heather Armstrong in 2002. She was -- and still is -- blogging under the pseudonym of Dooce. Four years later, NewsFactor Network reports that many people are still ignoring the rules of the Internet age and can be 'dooced.' Link: Blogs for Companies Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
00:49
Freshmen Zack Anderson and R.J. Ryan,residents of East Campus,have turned an ordinary,standard-issue dorm room into something extraordinary:a fully automated pad,"MIT news office reports."Gone are the light switches and glaring fluorescent lights of a typical dorm room.Anderson and Ryan's room has several lighting schemes,remote web access,voice activation,a security system,electric blinds and more".They call "their system a "Multifunction In-Dorm Automation System" (MIDAS).Everything in the room can be controlled with just the touch of a button or a couple of voice commands,from the window shade to the closet light and stereo".
Freshmen automate dorm room
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Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
00:35
The age reports the Falls Creek ski "resort is about to launch an interactive trail map that skiers will be able to call up on their touch-screen PDA,or internet-linked mobile phone.They'll be able to find out the latest conditions on each run,which lifts are operating,and information such as the steepness of a run,its width,and its top and bottom elevation.Grappling with a paper map soon may be a thing of the past.The interactive trail map,thought to be one of the most advanced in the world,will be launched during next weekend's official opening of the Victorian snow season".
Mobile ski-field guides set for launch...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
June 4, 200613:24
Here is my weekly selection of articles that were not mentioned here -- except if I missed them.
Software taps experts among your friends
For anyone who has hesitated before making a purchase on a Web site, uncertain which brand is preferable, Tacit Software is preparing to introduce an online service that will make it simple to pick the brains of friends and colleagues for opinions and expertise.
Source: John Markoff, The New York Times, via CNET News.com, May 28, 2006
The next big bang: Man meets machine
Researchers are now looking to biological materials such as bacteria, viruses, proteins and DNA to replace mechanical parts in computers. And as the age of genetic engineering matures, scientists are already borrowing techniques from software developers to build libraries of genetic information.
All of these overlapping strands of scientific inquiry are known colloquially as "BANG," which stands for bits, atoms, neurons and genes.
Source: TheDeal.com, via CNET News.com, May 29, 2006...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
01:05
"Internet affairs have replaced the office romance as a main cause of marriage break-ups,"the age reports."Throughout Australia,a growing number of cyber cheats are abandoning their spouses to pursue romances forged online.Marriage counsellors say they are seeing more relationships shattered by secret cyber love trysts than ever, while lawyers report a rise in internet-related divorces.New research shows that half of the people who find romance on the internet are already in a relationship at the time,with some making multiple connections".
Marriages fall prey to cyber romance...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
00:59
The Bangkok Post says "the number of broadband internet subscribers in Vietnam has quadrupled in the past year,a government official and local news media said Saturday."There's a huge demand for internet services in Vietnam,"said Nguyen Thanh Hai,chief inspector at the Ministry of Posts and Telematics.The growth of ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber lines) is largely due to dramatically falling costs.As a result there has been a proliferation of computer cafes,making the Internet available in even the smallest villages.It is estimated that Vietnam has 12.5 million internet users out of a population of 85 million.The figures were tabulated by Global Internet Policy Initiative Vietnam,a research group.It estimates that as of April, Vietnam had 227,000 broadband subscribers - 300 percent more than the previous year".
Internet grows 300 per cent in Vietnam...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
June 3, 200606:21
Psychologists from Princeton University have shown that initial public offerings (IPOs) for companies with easily pronounced names are doing better than for the ones with awkward names. Don't you think this can be an inspiration for some Web 2.0 companies which tend to use weird names? Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
05:54
In general Smart Mobs does not report about commercial offerings of the industry. This Free iPod Book 2.0 as announced on iLounge you don't want to miss. It gives a broad overview of how the world of gadgets is shaping around a brand.
It’s here: The Free iPod Book 2.0, by iLounge.com! Weighing in at 194 pages, this revised and expanded second edition of our popular Book is your one-stop answer to every major iPod and iTunes question… plus much, much more. Inside, you’ll find 20 exclusive sneak peeks at new iPod accessories from Atlantic, Belkin, Griffin, Monitor Audio, Oakley, Sonic Impact, Targus, v-moda, and others, ratings of over 900 accessories and iPods, plus extraordinary guides to All Things iPod, All Things iTunes, and Beyond. Click the link below for the details and the download links. Two versions - printable and widescreen - are available; please download only one. We hope you enjoy!
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Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
June 2, 200615:54
I'm not going to get into a critique of Jaron Lanier's Digital Maoism -- indeed, I agree that new notions about collective intelligence and peer production should be viewed critically and not embraced in a spirit of magical thinking -- but I find it strange that someone as educated as Jaron should fall into the same simple fallacy the Cato Institute fell for: collective action is not the same as collectivism. Commons-based peer production in Wikipedia, open source software, open source biology, prediction markets is collective action, not collectivism. Collective action involves freely chosen self-election (which is almost always coincident with self-interest) and distributed coordination; collectivism involves coercion and centralized control; treating the Internet as a commons doesn't mean it is communist (tell that to Bezos, Yang, Filo, Brin or Page, to name just a few billionaires who managed to scrape together private property from the Internet commons). Hello? Can anybody spot ...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
15:13
Anthony Townsend points out on IFTF's Future Now that Wireless Networking in the Developing World, a new book by Seattle Wireless pioneer Rob Fleckenger is "a veritable cookbook for communities and activists in developing countries to roll their own telcos using Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless networking technologies, and best of all its available free as a Creative Commons-licensed PDF download."
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Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
12:25
This week, the Carnival of the Mobilists pitches its tent at Darla Mack. Pay a visit for the best writing and podcasting about mobile this week. And it's heavy on pink too, quelle surprise. Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
10:21
On June 10th, the DefectiveByDesign.org Campaign to Eliminate DRM is targeting Apple for action in 6 cities. An invitation to participate is here. DBD explains the purpose of the campaign: We Oppose DRM!
DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based, anti-DRM campaign that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. It aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled products to market. The campaign aims to identify “defective†products. Users are being asked to stand up in defense of their existing freedoms.
What is DRM?
Technology that restricts users’ traditional rights in copyrighted works, often known as Digital Restrictions Management or Digital Rights Management (DRM), is threat to freedom. As a way to limit users’ rights, the adoption of DRM is fundamentally at odds with the spirit of the free software movement. Unfree software implementing DRM technology is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the right...
Source: Smart Mobs
Categories: Activism
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