Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a
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EthanZ's musings on Africa, media and international development
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EthanZ's musings on Africa, media and international development
links for 2010-03-17
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 17/03/2010 - 11:04pm
Interview with a scammer – Part One | Scam Detectives Fascinating three-part interview where a UK-based scam detective interviews a Nigerian who has served time for his involvement with 419. Consistent with what I've heard talking to West African friends about the 419 game… and very interesting to watch the scam detective lose his temper when [...]
Interview with a scammer – Part One | Scam Detectives Fascinating three-part interview where a UK-based scam detective interviews a Nigerian who has served time for his involvement with 419. Consistent with what I've heard talking to West African friends about the 419 game… and very interesting to watch the scam detective lose his temper when [...]
links for 2010-03-12
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 12/03/2010 - 11:30pm
U.S. Seen as Less Important, China as More Powerful – Pew Research Center Study of attitudes about US's place in the world – interviews with general US public and with Council on Foreign Relations members – shows a growing isolationist trend, highest during the years Gallup or Pew have asked questions on the topic (tags: china foreignpolicy [...]
U.S. Seen as Less Important, China as More Powerful – Pew Research Center Study of attitudes about US's place in the world – interviews with general US public and with Council on Foreign Relations members – shows a growing isolationist trend, highest during the years Gallup or Pew have asked questions on the topic (tags: china foreignpolicy [...]
links for 2010-03-12
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 12/03/2010 - 11:04pm
BBC News – The top 100 sites on the internet A top 100 from Nielsen, sorted by nationality. Doesn't include China's popular sites. Would be interesting to see how this compares to Alexa, DoubleClick/Google data (tags: bbc internet research technology trends visualization attention)
BBC News – The top 100 sites on the internet A top 100 from Nielsen, sorted by nationality. Doesn't include China's popular sites. Would be interesting to see how this compares to Alexa, DoubleClick/Google data (tags: bbc internet research technology trends visualization attention)
links for 2010-03-10
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 10/03/2010 - 11:04pm
Internet Observatory Report Another piece on Arbor's 2009 research on the emergence of "hypergiants" in terms of internet traffic (tags: internet research architecture filtering freespeech arbor intermediary) Arbor Networks Reports on the Rise of the Internet "Hyper Giants" | Xconomy Arbor's survey of the internet, using data collected from 70-80% of US ISPs, suggests a massive centralization of traffic [...]
Internet Observatory Report Another piece on Arbor's 2009 research on the emergence of "hypergiants" in terms of internet traffic (tags: internet research architecture filtering freespeech arbor intermediary) Arbor Networks Reports on the Rise of the Internet "Hyper Giants" | Xconomy Arbor's survey of the internet, using data collected from 70-80% of US ISPs, suggests a massive centralization of traffic [...]
links for 2010-03-09
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 09/03/2010 - 11:03pm
Why We're Giving Away Our Reporting Recipe – ProPublica Pro Pubica decides we can't go it alone – offers the recipe for a particularly effective piece of journalism, asks other journalists to help them replicate the reporting elsewhere. Cool opensource idea. (tags: collaboration investigative media news opensource reporting propublica transparency nursing) Understanding the Participatory News Consumer | Project [...]
Why We're Giving Away Our Reporting Recipe – ProPublica Pro Pubica decides we can't go it alone – offers the recipe for a particularly effective piece of journalism, asks other journalists to help them replicate the reporting elsewhere. Cool opensource idea. (tags: collaboration investigative media news opensource reporting propublica transparency nursing) Understanding the Participatory News Consumer | Project [...]
John Wilbanks on Science Commons, and generativity in science
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 09/03/2010 - 6:58pm
John Wilbanks, the founder of Science Commons, is in the midst of a big move. His division of Creative Commons, focused on opening scientific research and innovation, is now five years old and is being “airlifted” to California to try to bring some of their ideas into the Creative Commons movement as a whole. One [...]
John Wilbanks, the founder of Science Commons, is in the midst of a big move. His division of Creative Commons, focused on opening scientific research and innovation, is now five years old and is being “airlifted” to California to try to bring some of their ideas into the Creative Commons movement as a whole. One [...]
links for 2010-03-08
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 08/03/2010 - 11:04pm
Why We're Giving Away Our Reporting Recipe – ProPublica Pro Pubica decides we can't go it alone – offers the recipe for a particularly effective piece of journalism, asks other journalists to help them replicate the reporting elsewhere. Cool opensource idea. (tags: collaboration investigative media news opensource reporting propublica transparency nursing) Understanding the Participatory News Consumer | Project [...]
Why We're Giving Away Our Reporting Recipe – ProPublica Pro Pubica decides we can't go it alone – offers the recipe for a particularly effective piece of journalism, asks other journalists to help them replicate the reporting elsewhere. Cool opensource idea. (tags: collaboration investigative media news opensource reporting propublica transparency nursing) Understanding the Participatory News Consumer | Project [...]
links for 2010-03-04
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/03/2010 - 11:05pm
Raph's Website " Are virtual worlds over? Fascinating article from a 3d virtual worlds pioneer arguing that much lighter-weight games have stolen some of the momentum for virtual worlds by appearing to be standalone places with an ongoing existence… even when they're not. A very interesting analysis of the ways psuedonymity, tie formation and the notion [...]
Raph's Website " Are virtual worlds over? Fascinating article from a 3d virtual worlds pioneer arguing that much lighter-weight games have stolen some of the momentum for virtual worlds by appearing to be standalone places with an ongoing existence… even when they're not. A very interesting analysis of the ways psuedonymity, tie formation and the notion [...]
Jonathan Stray on original reporting: imaginary abundance
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/03/2010 - 4:49am
This evening, Google News tells me that I have my choice of 5,053 articles on conflicts between Congressional Republicans and Democrats over healthcare reform. (Oh goody.) How many of those stories contain original reporting? In a world with thousands of professional media outlets at our fingertips – as well as hundreds of thousands of amateurs [...]
This evening, Google News tells me that I have my choice of 5,053 articles on conflicts between Congressional Republicans and Democrats over healthcare reform. (Oh goody.) How many of those stories contain original reporting? In a world with thousands of professional media outlets at our fingertips – as well as hundreds of thousands of amateurs [...]
links for 2010-03-03
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 03/03/2010 - 11:03pm
Foursquare in SF: The Quest for Mayorship | 7×7 nice riff on the competitive dynamics behind foursquare, and the ways in which the game mechanics – tacked on to a social search tool – ate the main product (tags: foursquare GPS location geolocation mobile sanfrancisco social game competition) Introducing News Dots – By Chris Wilson – Slate Magazine Clever [...]
Foursquare in SF: The Quest for Mayorship | 7×7 nice riff on the competitive dynamics behind foursquare, and the ways in which the game mechanics – tacked on to a social search tool – ate the main product (tags: foursquare GPS location geolocation mobile sanfrancisco social game competition) Introducing News Dots – By Chris Wilson – Slate Magazine Clever [...]
Karrie Karahalios – Text and Tie Strength
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 03/03/2010 - 5:19am
Professor Karrie Karahalios is a current Berkman fellow, joining us from UIUC where she teaches computer science. Her talk at Berkman today is titled “Text and Tie Strength”, and begins with a reminder that “What attracts people most is other people”, a quote from sociologist William Whyte. Whyte pointed out that people flock to spaces [...]
Professor Karrie Karahalios is a current Berkman fellow, joining us from UIUC where she teaches computer science. Her talk at Berkman today is titled “Text and Tie Strength”, and begins with a reminder that “What attracts people most is other people”, a quote from sociologist William Whyte. Whyte pointed out that people flock to spaces [...]
ChatRoulette survey (long bookmark)
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 01/03/2010 - 7:46pm
ChatRoulette: An Initial Survey The fine folks at the Web Ecology Project pride themselves on researching web trends that are just starting to catch the attention of the media and other researchers. As such, we can count on them not only to offer insights into online, randomized chat site ChatRoulette, but into derivative works like CatRoulette. [...]
ChatRoulette: An Initial Survey The fine folks at the Web Ecology Project pride themselves on researching web trends that are just starting to catch the attention of the media and other researchers. As such, we can count on them not only to offer insights into online, randomized chat site ChatRoulette, but into derivative works like CatRoulette. [...]
Snowy journey, with journalism
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 27/02/2010 - 12:05am
I got stuck on a train between New York and Albany last night as a storm pounded the Hudson Valley. Fortunately, Amtrak’s warnings about service on the Empire Line were sufficiently dire that I used my layover in Penn Station to cache supplies: pretzels, diet pepsi, and enough reading material to keep me entertained until [...]
I got stuck on a train between New York and Albany last night as a storm pounded the Hudson Valley. Fortunately, Amtrak’s warnings about service on the Empire Line were sufficiently dire that I used my layover in Penn Station to cache supplies: pretzels, diet pepsi, and enough reading material to keep me entertained until [...]
Internet Freedom: Beyond Circumvention
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 22/02/2010 - 11:27pm
Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signaled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet to promote political reforms in closed societies. It makes sense that the State Department would look to support existing projects to circumvent internet censorship. The New York Times reports that a [...]
Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signaled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet to promote political reforms in closed societies. It makes sense that the State Department would look to support existing projects to circumvent internet censorship. The New York Times reports that a [...]
links for 2010-02-18
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 18/02/2010 - 11:10pm
Booking a Flight the Frugal Way – Frugal Traveler Blog – NYTimes.com What I'll send to friends and family the next time they ask me for advice on how to book a cheap airline ticket online (tags: internet travel airlines tips tickets nytimes) The Web Application Security Consortium / Distributed Open Proxy Honeypots Project page for distributed open proxy [...]
Booking a Flight the Frugal Way – Frugal Traveler Blog – NYTimes.com What I'll send to friends and family the next time they ask me for advice on how to book a cheap airline ticket online (tags: internet travel airlines tips tickets nytimes) The Web Application Security Consortium / Distributed Open Proxy Honeypots Project page for distributed open proxy [...]
Asashoryu resigns. Will sumo ever globalize?
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 17/02/2010 - 7:07pm
Here’s a story I missed while I was out with eye surgery: Asashoryu, one of the greatest sumo wrestlers in history, has retired. And needless to say, for anyone who follows sumo: it’s not quite that simple as that. Indeed, this retirement might lead to an international falling out between Mongolia and Japan. And it [...]
Here’s a story I missed while I was out with eye surgery: Asashoryu, one of the greatest sumo wrestlers in history, has retired. And needless to say, for anyone who follows sumo: it’s not quite that simple as that. Indeed, this retirement might lead to an international falling out between Mongolia and Japan. And it [...]
Jure Leskovec on Memetracker, quantitative media analysis
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 17/02/2010 - 3:33am
Jure Leskovec, professor of computer science at Stanford, is interested in what sorts of novel questions we can ask about media now that (much of our) news is on the web. His work on tracking memes by tracking short phrases led to MemeTracker.org, a tool celebrated for allowing a new way of examining media through [...]
Jure Leskovec, professor of computer science at Stanford, is interested in what sorts of novel questions we can ask about media now that (much of our) news is on the web. His work on tracking memes by tracking short phrases led to MemeTracker.org, a tool celebrated for allowing a new way of examining media through [...]
links for 2010-02-16
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 16/02/2010 - 11:04pm
Portland Benefit for Haiti – Clowns Without Borders – USA Don't send yoga mats to Haiti – send clowns! (tags: haiti aid empathy goodintentions) There will always be a San Francisco – James Fallows Donate your old yoga mat to Haiti. Almost poetic in being an example of misplaced empathy (tags: humor funny picture sanfrancisco haiti empathy bridging)
Portland Benefit for Haiti – Clowns Without Borders – USA Don't send yoga mats to Haiti – send clowns! (tags: haiti aid empathy goodintentions) There will always be a San Francisco – James Fallows Donate your old yoga mat to Haiti. Almost poetic in being an example of misplaced empathy (tags: humor funny picture sanfrancisco haiti empathy bridging)
Watching Nigeria (even when my eyes hurt)
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 13/02/2010 - 4:30am
I’m mostly offline this week, as I’m still healing from surgery and finding that reading and emailing are very painful… but one of the stories I haven’t been able to tear myself away from is the tale of Nigeria’s missing president. Since late November, Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia, receiving medical [...]
I’m mostly offline this week, as I’m still healing from surgery and finding that reading and emailing are very painful… but one of the stories I haven’t been able to tear myself away from is the tale of Nigeria’s missing president. Since late November, Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia, receiving medical [...]
links for 2010-02-12
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 12/02/2010 - 11:04pm
iafrica.com | technology | news | technology SMS role in slaughter the use of social media, including SMS and Facebook, to inflame interreligious tensions in Jos, Nigeria (tags: africa technology nigeria sms violence socialmedia telephony facebook) Much Ado About Baidu – Renesys Blog Useful analysis on the DNS attack on Baidu by the "Iranian Cyber Army", which helps distinguish [...]
iafrica.com | technology | news | technology SMS role in slaughter the use of social media, including SMS and Facebook, to inflame interreligious tensions in Jos, Nigeria (tags: africa technology nigeria sms violence socialmedia telephony facebook) Much Ado About Baidu – Renesys Blog Useful analysis on the DNS attack on Baidu by the "Iranian Cyber Army", which helps distinguish [...]
links for 2010-02-11
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 11/02/2010 - 11:04pm
Earthquakes and Journalism: Think Tank : The New Yorker Steve Coll on the inevitable cycle of reporting that follows natural disaster (tags: media journalism disasters earthquake newspapers haiti) Global Voices Online Morocco: Where Independent Media is No More Le Journal Hebdomadaire eulogized by Global Voices bloggers. A major development in the closing of independent media in Morocco. (tags: morocco [...]
Earthquakes and Journalism: Think Tank : The New Yorker Steve Coll on the inevitable cycle of reporting that follows natural disaster (tags: media journalism disasters earthquake newspapers haiti) Global Voices Online Morocco: Where Independent Media is No More Le Journal Hebdomadaire eulogized by Global Voices bloggers. A major development in the closing of independent media in Morocco. (tags: morocco [...]
links for 2010-02-08
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 08/02/2010 - 11:03pm
Still Counting? 27 More Websites Opened in Xinjiang | Xinjiang: Far West China The internet in Xinjiang opens up a little bit… but as a constrained, whitelisted network. Is this the shape of things to come? Or specific to one of the more restive corners of China? (tags: internet censorship xinjiang china whitelist freespeech) Born Poor? | Santa [...]
Still Counting? 27 More Websites Opened in Xinjiang | Xinjiang: Far West China The internet in Xinjiang opens up a little bit… but as a constrained, whitelisted network. Is this the shape of things to come? Or specific to one of the more restive corners of China? (tags: internet censorship xinjiang china whitelist freespeech) Born Poor? | Santa [...]
Geocaching: Augmenting Reality for Enhanced Serendipity
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 02/02/2010 - 4:13am
We turned off the snowmobile tracks half a mile back, as they bent to the west and GPS pointed north to our destination. The trackless snow is knee-deep and I’m sweating as we push forward, one heavy footstep after another. 250 feet from destination. We scramble up a ridge, heading towards an outcropping of rocks [...]
We turned off the snowmobile tracks half a mile back, as they bent to the west and GPS pointed north to our destination. The trackless snow is knee-deep and I’m sweating as we push forward, one heavy footstep after another. 250 feet from destination. We scramble up a ridge, heading towards an outcropping of rocks [...]
Offline… yet again…
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 01/02/2010 - 8:24pm
Hi everyone. I’m going offline for about a month to recover from retinal surgery, which will take place tomorrow morning. I’ve had this surgery twice before – once in April 2008, and again in August 2009. This surgery is a repeat of August’s surgery, which was – unfortunately – not entirely successful, and I’ve continued [...]
Hi everyone. I’m going offline for about a month to recover from retinal surgery, which will take place tomorrow morning. I’ve had this surgery twice before – once in April 2008, and again in August 2009. This surgery is a repeat of August’s surgery, which was – unfortunately – not entirely successful, and I’ve continued [...]
Yahoo!, Moniker: why is Mowjcamp.com still offline 6 weeks after hack attack?
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 01/02/2010 - 2:19pm
Twitter users may remember recent downtime for the microblogging site that didn’t involve the familiar fail whale. For a couple of hours on December 17th, 2009, Twitter’s home page was replaced with a picture of a green flag and the message “This site has been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army”. Twitter’s administrators explained that [...]
Twitter users may remember recent downtime for the microblogging site that didn’t involve the familiar fail whale. For a couple of hours on December 17th, 2009, Twitter’s home page was replaced with a picture of a green flag and the message “This site has been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army”. Twitter’s administrators explained that [...]