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Congress doesn't seem to get in a tizzy about the destruction of the Internet as an engine of innovation, but the latest moral panic about what those crazy young people are doing online has led to some potentially disastrous legislation, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) , which would require schools and libraries that receive federal aid “to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.” Henry Jenkins, co-director of the Comparative Media Stdies Program at MIT and author of the forthcoming (extremely important) book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, together with danah boyd, PhD student at the School of Information, University of California-Berkeley, were interviewed recently by Sarah Wright of the MIT News Office, which is providing a full transcript of the interview online "because we believe that it provides valuable information for parents, legislators and press who are concerned about the dangers of MySpace." Jenkins ...

Brian Dear launched Eventful.com at eTech last May. I was teaching, so I missed the event this year, or I would have blogged it three months ago. It's a perfectly smartmobby technology, enabling fans, in Dear's words, to collaborate and form grass-roots campaigns to "demand" an event to happen, by inviting their favorite performers to come to their town. It's a purely viral system that depends on the power and sheer will of the fans to work together and get the word out, as well as find a suitable venue, and put together a compelling enough case that a performer might just go for it. "Performers" might be lecturers, book authors and journalists, musicians, bands, filmmakers, politicians, entrepreneurs, astronauts, scientists, who knows... it could be anyone. The idea is, put the power of creating events in the hands of the people who want most to go to the event -- the fans! What's great is that we're also seeing performers start to embrace the technology, and participate wit...

This marketingvox.com article says "the number of online video watchers in the U.S. increased 18 percent in six months,from October 2005 and March 2006,according to comScore's first-ever study of video viewing habits,writes ClickZ.In March,viewers initiated 3.7 billion online video content streams and on average watched nearly 100 minutes of video content,compared with 85 minutes in October,according to comScore's new Video Metrix service.Men initiated 52 percent of those streams,women 48 percent,in March,and men spent on average two hours with the content,women, 1.3 hours.Males 18-34 spent the most time with online video,averaging 140 minutes,but all age groups are watching online video".Looking at one of the sites benefiting from those numbers this pbs article YouTube CEO Hails ‘Birth of a New Clip Culture’ says "Julie Supan,senior director of marketing for YouTube,said the site now serves up 35 million videos per day,and users upload 35,000 videos per day,with 100 million page v...

"Google on Wednesday said it had agreed to shut down some communities on its popular Orkut social networking site because the Brazilian government said they advocated violence and human rights violations",this AsiaMedia article says."Google agreed to shut down any sites that violated Orkut's terms of service,which forbid "any illegal or unauthorided purpose",after the company met a Brazilian human rights commission,which presented evidence that Brazilians had been using the invitation-only networking site to promote crimes and violence.Orkut is extremely popular in Brazil with about eight million users,representing a quarter of all Brazilians who have internet access". Brazil:Google agrees to shut Orkut sites promoting violence in Brazil ...

"MySpace,with more than 78 million registered accounts,is but one of numerous social networking web sites and chat rooms that would be affected by proposed federal legislation to restrict access to such sites",this MIT news office article says."The new bill,an amendment of the 1934 Communications Act,would require all schools and libraries that receive federal funds to restrict access to these digital tools and online communities.Henry Jenkins,co-director of the comparative media studies program,and danah boyd (S.M. 2002),a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Berkeley and a leading researcher on MySpace.com,recently discussed the role of social networking sites for youth,the forces fuelling the new restrictions and the effects of limiting participation in new media".The full transcript is here. Discussion:MySpace and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA).From the interview,"danah:Recent federal legislation,Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) would require schools and libra...

"Need a little help to quit smoking but don't have the time or money to visit a counsellor?Perhaps a virtual coach could help you kick the habit",this New Scientist article says."Betsy van Dijk and colleagues from the University of Twente in Enschede,the Netherlands, and the Dutch anti-smoking organisation Stivoro are developing a female chatbot to provide free,round-the-clock advice and exercises for people trying to give up.Van Dijk says anti-smoking chatbots are ideal for smokers who may be too embarrassed to see a counsellor or simply can't find the time or the money. Chatbots also have another advantage. "A virtual coach is always there, even at night," she says". Let a chatbot help you quit...

News reports "the delivery boy had better think twice before he dumps all those catalogues in the drain at the end of the street.Media and printing group PMP is to introduce a new GPS (global positioning system) track and trace technology that will be able to detect if the deliverer fails to insert them in the letter box.The same system will eventually be used to gather more information about households on the walker's beat so that marketing can be targeted to them.Delivery boys,known in the industry as "walkers",will feed into the GPS satellite tracking device information about households,whether they have dogs, their homes need a coat of paint or their roofs need repairing.This can then be fed into the system to be used by pet food, paint and roof retailers". Satellite solution delivers ...

Technology writer Garry Barker looks in The Age at the brave new world of next-generation mobile phones. The mobile phone will become your ticket on the train and tram, it will pay for your breakfast muffin and coffee and, according to Visa and MasterCard, it could even take over the functions of your credit card. You can already buy tickets over the phone, but we will see the phone becoming a payment method itself, according to Vodafone's Victorian general manager Edward Goff. The phone will hold the credit so the Visas and the MasterCards will be doing deals to make the payment method fully integrated with the phone. "Anything available on the internet will be available on phones, plus pure content - downloadable music, videos and so on". Further into the future the computer chip and memory built into the next generation of mobile phones will begin replacing the identity cards that give access to our workplaces and hold our personal information. The mobile phone could even repl...

Technorati has announced a new partnership with the Associated Press which they say will "connect bloggers to more than 440 newspapers nationwide" in America. [via Robin Hamman] "The new service will bring blogger commentary about AP news stories to communities large and small throughout the USA, giving bloggers a voice in trusted local papers throughout the nation." When readers visit an AP member Web site that uses AP Hosted Custom News, they will see a module featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP articles right next to the article text, dynamically powered by Technorati. Additionally, when readers click on an AP article, Technorati will deliver "Who’s Blogging About" that article. Now, if you have commentary about an AP story, you can get mentioned in that module simply by linking to that AP news URL, akin to what you can do with Washington Post articles, Newsweek articles, Der Spiegel articles, and a host of other media partners that currently work with Technorati. ...

This BBC article says "community websites MySpace and Bebo are fighting to see who is most popular among young people, reveals research.Analysis by Nielsen NetRatings shows the two companies have regularly swapped the top spot in sites that give people space to blog and post pictures".Further,"the analysis shows that Bebo users tend to be younger than those on its rival with 54% of Beboers aged under 18 compared to 31% on MySpace.The audience on Bebo tends to make more use of the site spending,on average, one hour and 52 minutes on the site every month. MySpace members rack up only one hour 28 minutes a month".This Netimperative article says,"despite its smaller overall audience there were more under 18’s on Bebo (1.17 million) than on MySpace (0.89 million) in April 2006.In addition,two-fifths (40%) of MySpace’s audience are over 35 compared to 28% of Bebo’s.Bebo is also more likely to be popular with women,their audience is 56% female compared to MySpace’s 46%.However,when it...

This article in Nature says "Chinese science risks being sliced up by a double-edged sword:rampant scientific misconduct on the one hand,and persecution based on false accusations on the other.The lack of confidence in official mechanisms for properly investigating fraud has led to increased reliance on websites that challenge the records and publications of Chinese scientists.But many are concerned about the damage such untested allegations can cause;more than 100 Chinese scientists based in the United States have sent an open letter to the Chinese government,asking it to set up mechanisms to ensure that claims of scientific misconduct are investigated fairly". Named and shamed ...

This AsiaMedia article from Korea says "a decision to require Web readers to use their real names when posting articles on the message boards of Internet news sites is touching off heated debates over privacy and freedom of expression.The arguments erupted earlier this month when the National Election Commission (NEC) ordered about 800 online news sites to require their users to reveal their real names when writing responses to politically related news articles during the May 19-30 campaign period.Local elections of mayors,governors and councilor take place on May 31.Under the guidelines,Internet news sites,such as Ohmynews (www.ohmynews.com) or Pressian (www.pressian.com),which attract millions of readers every day, are required to install name identification programs to message boards linked to their politics section and other articles about the local elections.To be identified by their real names,the Internet users will be required to reveal their resident registration numbers, a 13...

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web was knighted in the UK for his invention. The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, Tim Berners-Lee said. Sir Tim was speaking at the start of the WWW2006 conference on the future of the web at the International Conference Centre in Edinburgh. Recent attempts in the US to try to charge for different levels of online access web were not "part of the internet model," he said in Edinburgh. He warned that if the US decided to go ahead with a two-tier internet, the network would enter "a dark period". "What's very important from my point of view is that there is one web," he said. "Anyone that tries to chop it into two will find that their piece looks very boring." read more on BBC News www2006 Social Wiki...

A new lifestyle trend is springing up in South Korea, one of the world's most advanced digital hotbeds more and more folks are retreating to their homes instead of socializing with others. The Korea Times reports. Experts call the phenomenon "digital cocooning'' because such a fad is enabled and accelerated by the digital revolution, which is occurring here in a full-fledged manner. "The advent of Internet and wireless technology is generating two seemingly conflicting tendencies - some are enjoying a nomadic outdoor life thanks to wireless gadgets while others stay nested up at home with them,'' said Park Jung-hyun, a senior consultant at LG Economic Research Institute. "The former can be called digital nomads, the latter digital cocoons, or ones who retreat into the seclusion of their homes for privacy or escape,'' Park added. "If digital cocooning represents future trends, it is understandable that such digital alienation mushrooms in technologically-advanced Korea faster than o...

Geert Lovink pointed Smartmobs to a report in Global Voices on the response in the blogosphere since the outbreak of the prison riots one week ago . [Thank you Geert !] An overview of the various narratives generated from the multifold and multicolored currents flowing through the ever more popular and impassioned personal journaling of Brazilians. “Attention please, friends!! I am asking everybody following this blog to help stop what is going on right now. The civil and military police, wounded by the PCC killings, are generating a Nazi-like state in our periphery. There are already more than 100 murdered ’suspects’ and none of them are from PCC. I already have four dead colleagues, not to mention the ones in the hospital. None of them had any previous filings with the police and that’s why I beg you to spread the word. People are dying with bullets in the back while delivering pizza, while going back home from work. The cowardly police tremble in front of real thieve...

Reuters is carrying a story describing a new study that suggests people may soon select their surgeon for his/her gaming prowess: Surgeons who warmed up by playing video games like "Super Monkey Ball" for 20 minutes immediately prior to performing surgical drills were faster and made fewer errors than those who did not, said Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, lead investigator on the study slated for release on Wednesday. The research involved 303 surgeons participating in a medical training course that included video games and was focused on laparoscopic surgical procedures -- which use a tiny video camera and long, slender instruments inserted through small incisions. The study was conducted by Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City in conjunction with the National Institute on Media and the Family. Doctors were measured on their performance of the "cobra rope" drill, a standard laparoscopic training exercise used to teach how to sew up an internal wound. Researchers found that surg...

Great Podcast with the Businessweek Coverstory 'Medical Guesswork : When the effectiveness of most treatments cannot be demonstrated'. BW's John Byrne talks with writer Rob Hof about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of most U.S. health-care treatments and the rise of "evidence-based medicine". "From heart surgery to prostate care, the health industry knows little about which common treatments really work." Rob Hof refers to the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making (FIMDM) as a trusted resource. One of their premises concerning shared decision making is that 'Patients need to understand why it is in their interest to participate fully in decision making, rather than delegating decisions to their doctors.' The goal of the Foundation is to provide information that is as objective, complete and unbiased as possible. With proof about medical outcomes lacking, one possible solution is educating patients about the uncertainties. "The popular version of evidence-based m...

The Register reports "the world's most expensive phone number was auctioned for charity yesterday in Qatar.The number,666 6666,sold for 10m Qatari riyals or £1.5m.The previous record holder was Chinese number 8888 8888, which sold for £270,000.The Cantonese word for eight sounds very similar to the word for rich.It was bought by Sichuan Airlines".Further,"a brief dip into the weird world of numerology shows 666 is seen as holy in Judaism because it represents six directions,up,down,north,south,east and west.Others equate it with the Arabic word "ellah" meaning God". World's most expensive mobile number is 666 6666 ...

"Imagine Central London has been invaded by an army of robots which are now bunkered down somewhere on Oxford Street,"this BBC article says."Your mission,and that of your friends,is to find the shop on the capital's famous two-mile retail strip that harbours the enemy's lair.All you have at your disposal is your ingenuity,and one of those next-generation mobile phones fitted with satellite-navigation and loaded with a gaming database that maps a fantasy universe on to real-world locations.As you walk into specific shops, the gaming software is triggered to display audio and video items on the handsets,clues that take you to the next location.The clock is counting down and you will have to split up to cover the ground,using the mobiles to stay in contact and exchange snippets of information.Fantasy but not fanciful. Gaming applications like this could become a major growth area in the next few years as entertainment companies look to exploit the new possibilities offered by satellite na...