Totally agree that people like Morozov write off crowdsourcing without understanding it. One of the things that's fascinating to me is that crowdsourcing systems in general haven't learned from Slashdot's success with meta-moderation. Evaluating abuse reports seems like a great application.
Get FISA Right is collecting messages on FISA to give to President Obama. Our "asks" were just presented to Macon Phillips at a National Press Club event, and we're running a new video ad "Congratulations, President Obama, please get FISA right". If you'd like to add your opinion (or see the video), please check out Get FISA Right launches new pro-Constitution video on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and Comedy Channel on our blog.
The five scenarios were written right around the time Gates retired; TFA is a short six-month update...
One of the things that none of the scenarios discuss is the economic meltdown expected in 2009. Microsoft, with its multiple revenue streams and strong international business, may be better equipped to handle this than a lot of its competitors (e.g. Google is still almost completely dependent on advertising). It's also a great opportunity to refocus the business and turn costs. On the other hand responses like the rumored across-the-board 10% cut would further slow Microsoft's product delivery, and wouldn't do anything to improve the quality of the offerings. We shall see...
A lot of politicians have Facebook pages, and that's a good place to leave them a message as well. Here's a thread I started up on Nancy Pelosi's page. True, right now they probably aren't paying a lot of attention to their Facebook pages... but if they start getting 10, 20, 50, 100 messages a day that could change.
We've got a list-in-progress of politicians pages here on our wiki... other links (and formatting cleanup) greatly appreciated.
And it's a good point, we're looking at setting up a fund or perhaps partnering with some other group already focused on this. In Get FISA Right, the video! I wrote:
Some ad slots more expensive, of course: a single airing in the 4 pm-12am slot in 90036 (LA) on Fox News runs $1750. Something we'll need to figure out is how to aggregate smaller amounts of contributions to get these big ticket items; it might make sense for us to partner with Accountability Now or somebody else. Details TBD, but think about the possibilities:
A 25-second high-quality "Don't let our Constitution die" ad running on FOX News.
That'd raise some awareness.
In terms of getting things right, geez, I'd think on Slashdot of all places people would understand the idea of a prototype. Get FISA Right has only existed for a month, and we got the ad together in less than three weeks -- we wanted to get something up in time to help (at least a little) with Strange Bedfellows' August 8 money bomb. There's plenty of room for improvement, and we'll have plenty of chances to apply the learnings.
... and so a lot of what this ad is about is reminding people that it's not over. The lawsuits by the ACLU and others are likely to keep things alive into the next administration; we expect a FISA reform bill to be introduced in Congress in the first couple months of the new session.
Now is the time to start getting the word out -- and testing out which methods do or don't work. Check out Get FISA Right's strategy on our wiki for our thinking on how this fits into the bigger picture.
I put together an annotated bibliography on Dealing with hate speech, flaming, and trolls for this year's Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. It's got tips for dealing with this, experiences, and a bunch of other references. At the bottom, it's got links to a handful of example moderation policies -- including Slashdot's and Boing Boing's, natch, as well as others that aren't as well known.
The general principle: decide on the guidelines you want to have, discuss them, and enforce them.
I think the idea of building a collection of all the RIAA cases (and court documents) is a really interesting one, valuable both as a resource for defendants' and their lawyers and for highlighting the pattern. And great points in the comments too about building on the work that NewYorkCountryLawyer has done and partnering with Groklaw, EFF, etc.
One way of making progress is to start up a blog thread announcing this (potential) project and asking who's interested -- Recording Industry vs. People is would be a great spot for it. Circulating this through the blogosphere would gauge interest, and get various perspectives on the right technology base (a wiki, a CMS, etc.). Hey, maybe you could even get it on Slashdot:-)
Very interesting article (seems like a reprint of something from the Wall Street Journal), thanks for posting.
The international jurisidiction issues here are complex.
In April 2006, Mr. Drummond testified at a congressional hearing requested by Mr. Tavares. He said Google wished to assist authorities, but Orkut data were all stored on computer servers located in the U.S. Therefore, he said, the data were subject to U.S. laws, not Brazilian ones.
Those laws include strict protections on users' private data and typically don't allow Google to reveal private communications without a user's express consent, except under very limited conditions and when ordered by a U.S. judge. And some crimes being investigated by Brazilian authorities -- like racist speech -- aren't crimes in the U.S. If Google met Brazilian demands, what would it do if Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is a crime, began asking it to unmask gay users?
And the precendents on Orkut may will apply to gtalk, gmail, and perhaps even saved search results.
Then again I certainly see where the Brazilians are coming from: just because the data is stored elsewhere isn't an excuse for a multinational corporation to avoid local laws. Tricky.
... there appears to have been massive voter disenfranchisement in California.
Julia Rosen's Count Every Vote in Los Angeles on Crooks and Liars (also on Courage Campaign's site) and Double Bubble Trouble on Brad Friedman's voter rights blog are both following this.
Some people I know looked at this a couple of years ago, and at the time, Costa Rica and Peru were the top choices -- among other considerations, both had strong privacy protections in their constitution.
I haven't used it for a few years, but back when I had to learn about different large (100,000 to multi-million) code, SourceInsight was invaluable. Even for huge projects, its parsing is extremely fast; and I thought it's UI was quite decent.
And while it operates on the binary rather than source level, Zynamics' binnavi is a great reverse engineering tool.
It would be interesting to look at the various sites privacy policies and see which (if any) of them allow sending data to Facebook without an opt-out. So for example, the New York Times privacy policy says they will not share information with third-party sites, and while IANAL it's not at all clear to me that the indiscriminate sharing going on here falls within the exceptions they list.
According to TFA, "approximately 15 million Americans were victims of identity-theft related fraud in the 12 months ending in the middle of 2006. According to Gartner, that's a 50% increase since 2003, and the average loss per incident was $3,257, more than twice the level for the same period a year earlier, according to the survey."
So at least at first impression, the routine leaks of personal information correlate with increased identity theft. Of course it might just be coincidence...
In a nod to states' rights advocates, DHS declares that states are free not to participate in the Real ID system if they choose--but any identification card issued by a state that does not meet Real ID criteria is to be clearly labeled as such, to include "bold lettering" or a "unique design" similar to how many states design driver's licenses for those under 21 years of age.
In its own guidance document, the department has proposed branding citizens not possessing a Real ID card in a manner that lets all who see their official state-issued identification know that they're "different," and perhaps potentially dangerous, according to standards established by the federal government. They would become stigmatized, branded, marked, ostracized, segregated. All in the name of protecting the homeland; no wonder this provision appears at the very end of the document.
Americans are rational. And in a post-9/11 world, they are willing to trade some freedom and convenience for more security. But it's not at all clear that Real ID will make us safer. Deputizing motor vehicle office clerks, who would be entrusted with sensitive information and access to a national databank, also entails considerable privacy risk.
Fraud and security lapses at DMVs today are hardly uncommon. Just last month, a DMV official in North Carolina was arrested in connection with issuing fraudulent drivers licenses. And if the goal is to stop the next Mohammed Atta, it's worth noting that, even under Real ID, people would be permitted to fly with identification other than licenses.
In terms of the concept of National ID in general, Jim Harper describes it well in his excellent (long!) deconstruction of Real ID:
U.S. policymakers have long rejected a national ID as inconsistent with American freedom. Ordinary people, it has long been believed, should not have to carry a card as if they are criminal suspects and they should not be asked to account to authorities for their whereabouts or activities.
Slashdot Mirror
And best of luck in your future endeavors!
Totally agree that people like Morozov write off crowdsourcing without understanding it. One of the things that's fascinating to me is that crowdsourcing systems in general haven't learned from Slashdot's success with meta-moderation. Evaluating abuse reports seems like a great application.
Will MUSE release a followup called "Not So Supermassive - Black Hole"
Or perhaps melting in the light of day? Food for thought!
Get FISA Right is collecting messages on FISA to give to President Obama. Our "asks" were just presented to Macon Phillips at a National Press Club event, and we're running a new video ad "Congratulations, President Obama, please get FISA right". If you'd like to add your opinion (or see the video), please check out Get FISA Right launches new pro-Constitution video on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and Comedy Channel on our blog.
The five scenarios were written right around the time Gates retired; TFA is a short six-month update ...
One of the things that none of the scenarios discuss is the economic meltdown expected in 2009. Microsoft, with its multiple revenue streams and strong international business, may be better equipped to handle this than a lot of its competitors (e.g. Google is still almost completely dependent on advertising). It's also a great opportunity to refocus the business and turn costs. On the other hand responses like the rumored across-the-board 10% cut would further slow Microsoft's product delivery, and wouldn't do anything to improve the quality of the offerings. We shall see ...
We've got a list-in-progress of politicians pages here on our wiki ... other links (and formatting cleanup) greatly appreciated.
jon
In terms of getting things right, geez, I'd think on Slashdot of all places people would understand the idea of a prototype. Get FISA Right has only existed for a month, and we got the ad together in less than three weeks -- we wanted to get something up in time to help (at least a little) with Strange Bedfellows' August 8 money bomb. There's plenty of room for improvement, and we'll have plenty of chances to apply the learnings.
Now is the time to start getting the word out -- and testing out which methods do or don't work. Check out Get FISA Right's strategy on our wiki for our thinking on how this fits into the bigger picture.
jon
PS: Here's the YouTube video for the ad.
I put together an annotated bibliography on Dealing with hate speech, flaming, and trolls for this year's Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. It's got tips for dealing with this, experiences, and a bunch of other references. At the bottom, it's got links to a handful of example moderation policies -- including Slashdot's and Boing Boing's, natch, as well as others that aren't as well known. The general principle: decide on the guidelines you want to have, discuss them, and enforce them.
There's a lot more information about the Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right my.barackobama.com campaign on the Get FISA right wiki. Check it out, and please join the group! Mike Stark's Will Obama feel the sting of social networking? on OpenLeft gives some great context on the campaign. And there's a Facebook group too. Are we web 2.0 or what?
Check out Senator Obama - Please Vote Against FISA. on my.barackobama.com
are on the CFP wiki page
[I'm on the program committee for the conference.]
jon
One way of making progress is to start up a blog thread announcing this (potential) project and asking who's interested -- Recording Industry vs. People is would be a great spot for it. Circulating this through the blogosphere would gauge interest, and get various perspectives on the right technology base (a wiki, a CMS, etc.). Hey, maybe you could even get it on Slashdot :-)
By the way, for people interested in campaigns like this, there's an all-day workshop on education and activism on social networks on May 22 as part of this year's Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference.
The international jurisidiction issues here are complex.
And the precendents on Orkut may will apply to gtalk, gmail, and perhaps even saved search results.
Then again I certainly see where the Brazilians are coming from: just because the data is stored elsewhere isn't an excuse for a multinational corporation to avoid local laws. Tricky.
jon
Well said.
... there appears to have been massive voter disenfranchisement in California. Julia Rosen's Count Every Vote in Los Angeles on Crooks and Liars (also on Courage Campaign's site) and Double Bubble Trouble on Brad Friedman's voter rights blog are both following this.
Some people I know looked at this a couple of years ago, and at the time, Costa Rica and Peru were the top choices -- among other considerations, both had strong privacy protections in their constitution.
I haven't used it for a few years, but back when I had to learn about different large (100,000 to multi-million) code, SourceInsight was invaluable. Even for huge projects, its parsing is extremely fast; and I thought it's UI was quite decent. And while it operates on the binary rather than source level, Zynamics' binnavi is a great reverse engineering tool.
It would be interesting to look at the various sites privacy policies and see which (if any) of them allow sending data to Facebook without an opt-out. So for example, the New York Times privacy policy says they will not share information with third-party sites, and while IANAL it's not at all clear to me that the indiscriminate sharing going on here falls within the exceptions they list.
Well said, View from the Ground!
jon, wishing he had mod points.
According to TFA, "approximately 15 million Americans were victims of identity-theft related fraud in the 12 months ending in the middle of 2006. According to Gartner, that's a 50% increase since 2003, and the average loss per incident was $3,257, more than twice the level for the same period a year earlier, according to the survey."
...
So at least at first impression, the routine leaks of personal information correlate with increased identity theft. Of course it might just be coincidence
jon
> EFF won the Steve Jackson Games case and Reno versus ACLU. Both cases were won while I was staff counsel at EFF. Just saying.
Well said -- and congratulations, Mike!
Can you share anything with us about what you'll be primarily focusing on?
jon
Bruce Schneier and Richard Forno's National ID card a disaster in the making discusses some of the many problems with Real ID.
As does the Wall Street Journal's Real ID Revolt: In terms of the concept of National ID in general, Jim Harper describes it well in his excellent (long!) deconstruction of Real ID: jonPS: more on this on the Stop Real ID Now! blog.
The address is oscomments@dhs.gov -- emails must have "DHS-2006-0030" in the subject line
jon