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AP photo
With the help of a satellite navigation system, a dove of peace was carved
into a cornfield in Grafenhausen, Germany. Bearing the message "Peace
For All," the labyrinth measures 234 yards on the diagonal.
By Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
June 28, 2002 • Last
week's weblog
What's your name? At OJR, J.D.
Lasica takes a long look at the growing trend toward registration
at newspaper sites, including this one.
Registration swears at the very nature of weblogs, with their reciprocal
links. But even as I argued the case for keeping our weblogs on the open
Web, I was braced to assume the title "Rapunzel of the Blogosphere."
Yes! I learned this week that this weblog and NetRunner
will not require registration
Lasica ends his piece with an interesting challenge:
"Registration inevitably has consequences for weblogs, collaborative
news sites and newsletters that point to news articles. Says my peeved
friend: "If I have to register at every site just follow a stinking
link, it slows down the exchange of information. Imagine a network where
every news and information site has its own registration process."
"(Tribune Interactive's Mike) Silver sees the day when weblogs
become quasi-emissaries for favored news sites -- designated facilitators
that would grant users safe passage by channeling them through a shortened
registration process, or perhaps even getting them a free pass into
the site.
"Good idea. Who's ready to step up to the plate?"
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Melting
pot news: A
Voyage to Arcturus, among others, juxtaposes President Bush's statement
about the judges who ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional ("...we
need common-sense judges who understand that our rights were derived from
God. And those are the kind of judges I intend to put on the bench) with
the Constitution itself: "... no religious test shall ever be required
as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
Correction: The first paragraph of Tuesday's "Letter from
Larry" was inadvertently dropped from his report. Here it is:
"Our
temporary residence is the home of Cesaria
Evora, a lifelong friend of Victoria and someone I have known for
more than 30 years. She is currently on tour, bringing her unique interpretation
of the music of Cape Verde to audiences throughout the world."
More...
R.I.P. John
Entwistle: Portage
blogs a righteous obit -- with an mp3.
"The Ox has left the building - we've lost another great friend.
Thanks for your support and love. Pete and Roger"
"We are going on. First show Hollywood Bowl. Pray for us John, wherever
you are."
-- Pete's
Diaries
June 27, 2002
How
to Disappear: Intrusions on your privacy got you down? You can
drop off the grid. Wired
warns, though, that taking it all the way "is more Ted Kaczynski
than Howard Hughes. "
Here's a sample, another supermarket-card warning:
Pay full price: You may relish saving 10 percent on Prell, but
deep-six your buyers' club cards. Supermarkets and pharmacies haven't
yet perfected the art of data mining, but it won't be long. "If
you're having a child custody fight, they could subpoena your frequent-shopper
cards and say, 'Look, he's buying too many potato chips, he's hurting
the kids,' says Robert Gellman, a Washington-based privacy consultant.
Already there: Steve
Outing at poynter.org, a site for journalists, wants everyone in the
newsroom to have a weblog. He has to have been talking to Dave
Winer, who proposed this a coupla weeks ago. I
replied.
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Doctors
vs. Geeks: Speaking of Dave
Winer, he had heart bypass surgery last week, and points to this thoughtful
essay about doctors from onetime hospital programmer Chuck Shotton:
"I had the opportunity to watch an entering class of first year
med students for their entire time at the University of Texas Medical
School in Houston, through their third year and then their internships.
It was an amazing transformation from wide-eyed idealist to detached,
white-coated professional. I, personally, think the kids lost something
important on the way to becoming doctors. The process involves replacing
curiosity and the ability to ask questions with absolute certainty and
the ability to make instantaneous decisions. After all, lives are at
stake and hesitation or indecision can be fatal, or at least that's
what they're taught. Add to that the fact that there are generally only
one or two 'accepted' ways to accomplish a particular medical outcome
and it starts to become clear where the two cultures diverge. "
Yahoo!
cleaners! demand! fair! wage! Janitors who clean Yahoo!'s offices
in Silicon Valley earn around $16,000 a year and do not receive health
insurance, reports The Register (U.K.). Cleaners have tried to join the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) but SEIU claims that supervisors
at subcontractor Team Services have threatened to sack workers who attempt
this, the Register says.
The janitors have set up a Web site to publicize their campaign at boohooyahoo.com.
Its slogan: "Not everybody can Yahoo!" Thanks to Tim
Barmann for the pointer.
Money can't buy you love: The
Holmes Report asked its readers, many of whom are PR professionals,
"What's
your worst experience with a reporter?"
My eyes were opened. Check this out:
"The writer and his editor agreed to the story I pitched and we
delivered everything we promised - the directors of information technology
from three casinos, an analyst to be quoted, and the CEO of our client
company. We obtained a detailed schedule of availability from the writer
and, upon his request, set up all of these interviews quickly around
his schedule."
Wow. We beat the bushes for sources, ask in the official, decades-old
proto-blog on the Atex mainframe publishing system, ask everyone we run
into, hoping to turn up somebody with no vested interest who's also willing
to be interviewed.
The punch line: The author, identified only as Rebecca, is livid and
feels used because, after all that work, the author only gave their software
one line in a story that turned out to be about the hardware it runs on.
Sounds like he just wanted to meet her cool friends.
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June 26, 2002
Cianci will not seek re-election as
mayor: PROVIDENCE / Updated 3:35 p.m. -- Two days after his conviction
on a federal racketeering conspiracy charge, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.
announced today that he will not seek re-election to the post he has held
longer than any other active mayor in the country.
Privacy
crumbles over "terrorist eating habits": Popular Science
follows a hypothetical person through his day, noting, "Mark knows
his boss can read his e-mail, insurers can access his medical data. but
he's blind to the bigger truth: personal data is collected, and sometimes
shared, at a fantastic rate."
The weirdest data-sharing happens at the supermarket, where your purchases
are linked to your name via the scan card that saves you money: "...
Larry Ponemon, the CEO of Privacy Council, says that since Sept. 11 he's
been hired by at least one major supermarket chain to oversee the handing
over to law enforcement agencies of the buying records of customers with
specific ethnic backgrounds. The authorities requested the data, Ponemon
says, because they were trying to compile a profile of 'terrorist eating
habits.' " Via Ye Olde
Phart
Clues for the wireless: Hobo signs (chart)
were chalk marks left for the next guy indicating where one might sleep
in the barn or who'd fall for a sob story. Folks looking for wireless
access points in strange towns -- dubbed wibos
-- could use similar helpful hints, thinks Warchalking.org,
which is collaboratively working out the signs.
June 25, 2002
Riders
on the Storm by John Densmore: "Dread ripples through me
as I listen to a phone message from our manager saying that we (The Doors)
have another offer of huge amounts of money if we would just allow one
of our songs to be used as the background for a commercial. They don't
give up! I guess it's hard to imagine that everybody doesn't have a price.
Maybe 'cause, as the cement heads try to pave the entire world, they're
paving their inner world as well."
Well-placed son aids British privacy effort: BBC reported Monday
on The
fax machine uprising:
"Last week, the UK online community scored a dramatic victory
over government plans to give all sorts of public bodies access to records
of everyone's e-mail and phone records.
"And it all happened astonishingly fast. Within days of the alarm
being raised, Home Secretary David Blunkett publicly apologised for
'getting it wrong'..."
The reversal was fueled in large part by a fax campaign made possible
by STAND ("...
a site for those who want to play a part defining digital freedoms in
the UK and beyond.") and faxyourmp.com,
which permits sending free faxes to Members of Parliament. But the BBC
had reported another factor in Mr. Blunkett's turnaround on June 18 (Blunkett
abandons Big Brother):
"Mr Blunkett's climbdown - which he has tried to temper with his
apology - may be a sign that ministers are finally beginning to understand
how they are perceived in the wider world. The fact that it was Mr Blunkett's
own son, Hugh, who helped him come to this understanding may be seen
as further proof of just how out of touch the government has become."
Is there any equivalent "fax your Congresspeople" site here?
Google turnes them up for specific lobbying efforts, often with a standard
form letter to send, but I can't find a generic one. Please email me if
you know of one.
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Catch-up:
-- Remember that the Alexis
de Tocqueville* Institution, funded in part by Microsoft, was to release
a "white paper" claiming that government use of open-source
software represents a threat to national security? It's finally out.
Here's a pdf link. Open-source proponent Roaring
Penguin deconstructs. Tech Dirt
yawns ("Ideally,
Open And Closed Source Programs Are Equally As Secure").
*Alexis de Tocqueville traveled from New York to New Orleans in 1831-32
and recorded his observations. Although he came to study prison reform,
he became fascinated by American ways. Here's a link to his "Democracy
in America" and background
at the University of Virginia.
-- Letter from Larry#2: Onetime New Bedford Standard Times reporter
Larry Novick of Providence retired to his wife Victoria's native Cape
Verde last month. Here's his second report on adjusting to life as
an expatriate:
"Fast forward to dinner, back in town in a neighborhood where
the wind blows constantly and the restaurant is simply called "HERE."
Tanya is the single-parent owner, operator, cook and bartender who opens
at 10 a.m. and closes when the last person leaves, which can be two
the next morning. There are six tables and a small bar.
Tanya calls us in the morning and asks what we want for dinner. Our
choice becomes the "plate of the day." Tonight our selection
is grouper, baked in the oven with small potatoes, onions and peppers,
with a salad of lettuce and the smallest, reddest, sweetest tomatoes
imaginable. The wine is a Portuguese vintage red from the Alentejo,
a perfect accompaniment. Two guitar players show up, then a cavaquinho
(photo)
specialist and a singer." More...
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June 24, 2002
1:01 p.m. A jury in Providence convicts Mayor Buddy Cianci and two
others on a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. Details
Mark Cuban says Yahoo intended to kill net radio -- RAIN: In the
wake of the Copyright
Office ruling that may silence many Internet radio stations, RAIN
(Radio and Internet Newsletter) is reporting, "The voluntary
royalty deal between Yahoo! and the RIAA that the Librarian of Congress
announced as his template for the entire industry last week was a deal
crafted by Yahoo! to shut out small webcasters and decrease competition,
Broadcast.com founder and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (said in a
reader feedback form) to RAIN on Friday." See
Cuban's entry.
Doc Searls (who's
on a grand roll right now in umpteen directions) suggests, "Let's
keep our stations on the air, collect voluntary listener payments through
Amazon, PayPal or whatever, and contribute a percentage of that revenue
to a new distribution authority, created and administered by an honest
and friendly organization that isn't the RIAA. Chances are that .org already
exists?
(These royalties do not apply to traditional broadcasters of AM and FM
radio, who are presumed to be promoting sales. Net radio offers alternatives
to commercial radio playlists, which would seem to broaden the range of
music "promoted.")
Rolling Stone a mere "men's magazine"? From the Media
Guardian U.K., headlined, "Lose the words:"
"For decades, it was the sole occupier of its territory, untarnished
by the grubby need to compete while Wenner nurtured his talent: Hunter
S Thompson, Annie Leibovitz, PJ O'Rourke. In the past five years, however,
the US male-oriented magazine market has changed dramatically. Titles
such as Maxim, Esquire and Men's Health are engaged in a fierce battle
for the fat budgets of advertisers keen to chase young male readers."
No wonder RS is in trouble. I used to be a subscriber, as were most of
the women I knew. Rolling Stone was smart. Cool. Sometimes brilliant.
We never knew it was a "men's magazine."
Rolling Stone brimmed with Annie Leibovitz (herself
& her work, more
photos), whose grainy style spawned a movement, and Ralph
Steadman's illustrations of Hunter S. Thompson's outrageous writing.
(Audio from the Paris
Review at Salon
audio: Thompson talks about urging RS to cover politics, and when
nobody but Jann Wenner was even half-interested, he decided to do it himself.)
On HST's site
are Rolling Stone covers that document both counterculture and shlock
culture: '70s,
'72
campaign, more
'70s covers; more
here .
Who's going to care enough to remember, 30 years later, new Rolling Stone
editor Ed Needham's "busier design, a lot of entry points on every
page"?
Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com
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