Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

Twitter's downfall

Another very funny adaptation of this Hitler video.  The problem this time?  Twitter is down:

(Hat tip: Mark Pesce.)

Google Street View and privacy

I have a piece in today's Courier Mail that wonders what the privacy issue is with Google Street View.  You can read it here.

A few interesting links

A few interesting links from the last few days:

• At LawFont Kim Weatherall analyses today's High Court decision in  Copyright Agency Limited vs The State of NSW [2008] HCA 35.  Read her summary here.
• The Economist looks at e-hatred, arguing that "social networks and video-sharing sites don’t always bring people closer together".  Read it here.
• The EFF quite correctly argues that the MySpace suicide charges a threat to free speech.  Read it here.
• CNN explains the obvious with "Improper Web links can shock viewers".  Read it here.
• The IOC has now approved YouTube as an official global partner for any region not covered by a local exclusive deal.  Read it here (in Lost Remote).
• ReadWriteWeb looks at the future of blogging.  Read it here.
• The Guardian looks at privacy and politics in the UK in                      "When the personal becomes political: Double standards abound in the debate on privacy - and politicians should stop exploiting rivals' personal lives when it suits them".  Read it here.
• Somebody Think of the Children has an excellent collection of the Australian blogosphere's response to mandatory internet filtering.  Read it here.

Dr Horrible, TV and participatory culture

Tama Leaver has posted an interesting presentation he recently gave, titled What Dr Horrible Can Teach TV About Participatory Culture:

... one of my ongoing interests is the way that traditional media forms, especially television, engage with participatory culture and their immediate fan networks.  In my past writing on the Tyranny of Digital Distance I’ve looked at the way shows like Battlestar Galactica have harnessed a global fan network only to have that network turn sour as national media distributors insist on broadcasting shows at different times (implicitly encouraging fans to participate in peer-to-peer downloading of TV).  While Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible had a few similar teething issues, it looks like a very promising model for web-based media that can actually be a fan favourite and make a decent profit in the process. My thinking on this very much in process (as, indeed, is the ongoing story of Dr Horrible’s success), but my first stab at drawing a few ideas together was in this paper.  I didn’t get a chance to record my talk, but I’ve uploaded the presentation onto Slideshare if you’re interested.  There’s a fair bit not on the slides, but they should give you at least an outline of the argument:

What Dr Horrible Can Teach TV About Participatory Culture

view presentation (tags: drhorrible josswhedon tv digitalculture)

And if you haven't yet seen Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, here it is via Hulu:

We really are only six degrees from Kevin Bacon after all

The Washington Post reports on an interesting study from Microsoft on human connectivity:

Turns out, it is a small world.

The "small world theory," embodied in the old saw that there are just "six degrees of separation" between any two strangers on Earth, has been largely corroborated by a massive study of electronic communication.

With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.

The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said.

"To me, it was pretty shocking. What we're seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity," said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who conducted the study with colleague Jure Leskovec. "People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore."

Read more here.  I'd always thought the whole six degrees of separation concept was a fun movie game to play and that was about it.  However it seems that with advances in technology we are becoming connected to more and more people - they may not be as meaningful as real world connections, but they are connections nonetheless.  And that figure, which currently sits at 6.6 is only going to decrease over time. 

The end of the Patry Copyright Blog

William Patry has decided to end his blog, The Patry Copyright Blog.  This is a loss to the IP blogosphere and the blogosphere in general, but after reading his final post you will understand why.  For him, it came down to two things.  First, the refusal or inability of many people to accept that it was a personal blog where he expressed his opinions and his opinions alone (rather than those of his employer Google).  And second, because he finds the current state of copyright law too depressing.  What also disappointing for anyone who loves copyright law is that he also seems to have removed his rich archive of posts from the last four years.  Anyway, while I fully understand his position, it is still sad all the same.

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