Archive for May, 2006
Yesterday was a good day for Net Neutrality! We still need to make some Republicans listen and understand but I am sure it is going to be hard to get past the wads of cash they have stuffed in their ears by AT&T and others. This is a good first step but we can not ignore this issue we must stay on our elected officials and make sure that no amendments get tacked on or it gets killed in the full vote. Support net neutrality or get used to Big Brother Telco telling you what you can and can not see on the WEB! I can not stress this enough this is criminal and wrong if they get away with it. Tiered Internet service = BLACKMAIL, Extortion and is a Mobster practice that will kill some of the best parts of the web.
I received this e-mail from Tim Karr from the save the Internet coalition it has some great information an good links so I wanted to share it with you.
“The fight for Internet Freedom took a major step in the right direction yesterday.
A bipartisan majority on the House Judiciary Committee passed the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act” — a good bill that would protect Network Neutrality and prohibit large phone and cable companies from turning the Internet into their private domain.
Yesterday’s vote is a milestone in our campaign. It would have been unthinkable just four weeks ago — when we lost a vote on Net Neutrality in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In the weeks since that first vote, we have ignited a prairie fire across America. And Washington is beginning to feel the heat:
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More than 700 groups from all 50 states are now a part of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition - a diverse list that includes MoveOn.org, the Christian Coalition, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Consumers Union and the American Library Association
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A-list musicians such as REM, Moby, The Roots and the Dixie Chicks have joined the coalition with many more to be announced soon.
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Major U.S. newspapers — including the San Jose Mercury News, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and Houston Chronicle — have written editorials supporting our position.
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More than 5,000 bloggers have linked to the SavetheInternet.com Web site and blog — urging their readers to take action on this issue.
- And yesterday, the Coalition’s petition drive surpassed 750,000 signatures.
With little money and through the efforts of many, we have turned momentum against a handful of phone and cable giants that are spending untold millions of dollars to squash Internet freedom. Through their high-priced lobbyists, slick ad campaigns and fake grassroots groups, companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are trying to drown out genuine grassroots and consumer advocacy. Yesterday’s vote proves, however, that our voices are being heard. But we’re still far from saving Net Neutrality.
The full House will take up the bipartisan Judiciary bill in June. The Senate is also considering legislation that currently fails to protect Net Neutrality, though a bipartisan group of Senators are lining up behind an excellent bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota).
We need to continue to mobilize our resources, engage the public and put Congress on notice. I’ve added some links below to new information about the campaign. I’ll be soon sharing some new ideas as we proceed. I welcome your feedback.
But for now, take a moment to savor this win.
Thank you,
Timothy Karr
Free Press Campaign Director
SavetheInternet.com Coalition”
Also here is a good article in CNET on this topic
House panel votes for Net neutrality | CNET News.com
By a 20-13 vote Thursday that partially followed party lines, the House Judiciary
Committee approved a bill that would require broadband providers to abide by
strict Net neutrality principles, meaning that their networks must be
operated in a “nondiscriminatory” manner.
Tags: Net Neutrality, News, Save the Internet, Telco, The Web, Watch This
Blackmail should not be a part of doing business on the web and if certain entities get their way then that is exactly what will happen. If you want to play on the web then you PAY! Unless you want to be part of the sub-web then you must pay that blackmail. Which means that if you are not a big corporation or have huge VC money as a start up then good luck getting seen. The web haves and the web nots is the wrong road to go down and those that think this is a good idea for a short term profit need to understand long term brand loyalty. If you screw people for a short term gain then you screw your self in the long run.
Companies like Less Schwab here in my neck of the woods ave this figured out. I will buy tires from them until I am old and gray, they treat me
and my family right. I caught a flat with my in-laws in town a while back out on the road with a mini spare on and miles to go. I called and found a close Less Schwab. I told them I had purchased my tires from them, no receipt mind you, they patched the tire and put it back on in about 20 min for free. They now have a customer for life by not charging me the 50 bucks or whatever for the labor and being so good to us.
On the other hand if my ISP starts screwing with what I have access to as well as charging me premium rate then as soon as an alternative comes along I am gone. In fact I am the type of person who would switch to a slower service with full access just not to be screwed with. Look at the future and see that with WIMAX, broadband over power lines, EDO, ADSL, Cable and God knows what is yet to be developed that I will have lots of choices soon. You imposing your short term greed will hurt you in the end. If I am an up and coming or hell even established business ***cough, cough*** Google, my first advertising campaign for my new service is all about how we don’t restrict our customers we are all about freedom and Net Neutrality. You choose the site we provide the service no interference.
It is good to see the father of the web speaking out for net neutrality.
“Net neutrality is the concept that all Internet content should be treated equally by broadband providers without any kind of discrimination.”
Berners-Lee calls for Net neutrality - ZDNet UK News
Tags: blogging, Net Neutrality, News, Save the Internet, The Web
We have released the beta cross browser version of the Digital Universe! I have been involved with this project since October of 2004. I have been so excited about the evolution in the last six months the movement to a truly universal interface to the Digital Universe (DU).
I am so happy to have the beta released to the world. This herculean effort involved not only a face lift on the front end, making it cross browser, but also a huge back end infrastructure change. I would like to give a special thanks to the DUX team and all the great work they have done. We now have the framework and foundation to construct the DU.
This major project has far reaching and earth changing mission and I encourage you all to participate and help us to archive such lofty goals.
Here is the press release that we just sent out.
Digital Universe Launches Experts Recruitment Program
New Global Program Attracting Top Experts in Science, Arts, Humanities and Culture to Build Portals
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — May 17, 2006 — The Digital Universe Foundation today announced the official launch of its Steward Recruitment Program, which is already attracting leading experts from around the globe to oversee content development and editing for their areas of knowledge in the Web-based Digital Universe (http://DigitalUniverse.net).
The Digital Universe is a new network of portals designed to provide high-quality information and services to the public. Stewards (i.e., subject matter experts) will be responsible for vetting content associated with their disciplines provided by a diverse group of contributors, including researchers, scholars, educators and the public. Unlike other sites that allow anonymous contributors to alter content at will, the publicly-viewable Digital Universe content will only be changed after review by designated stewards.
“We are inviting subject matter experts to join an historic project, to begin work on what can become the most authoritative source of human knowledge,” said Dr. Robert Corell, chairman of the non-profit Digital Universe Foundation and chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.
Given the vast scope of the Digital Universe, content experts in fields ranging from biology to astronomy, from history to literature, from music to medicine are encouraged to participate. Content developed by these experts will be available for no cost and the site will be 100% free of advertising revenue and influence from advertisers.
According to Dr. Bernard Haisch, president of the Foundation: “This was inspired by the Encyclopedia Galactica envisioned by Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan and we now have the tools to begin such an ambitious project.”
One of the leaders of the project is Dr. Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia.
Incoming experts will join over 170 colleagues at more than 90 universities, government agencies and non-profit institutions already working together on the Encyclopedia of Earth, one of the first Digital Universe initiatives led by Prof. Cutler Cleveland of Boston University.
To learn more about the Digital Universe Steward Recruitment Program or to join the program, visit www.dufoundation.org.
About Digital Universe
The mission of the Digital Universe (http://DigitalUniverse.net) is to create the most reliable, comprehensive and accessible information resource on the Internet. The Digital Universe is a participatory global project, involving researchers, scholars, educators and the public. The Digital Universe is 100% free of advertising revenue and influence from advertisers. Digital Universe activities are coordinated by the non-profit Digital Universe Foundation. For more information, visit www.digitaluniverse.net.
Press Contact:
Gary Byrd
FortyThree, Inc.
DigitalUniverse@fortythreepr.com
831.621.3773
Tags: Digital Universe, ManyOne, News, The Web
Larry Sanger brought this to my attention awhile ago and I have been looking at this in some detail. I can not get into too much detail but the advisory counsel for this project is amazing. I am so blessed and honored to work with the people that I do and this has been an amazing journey.
Tomorrow is a BIG DAY and I am so happy to be able to finally let some cats out of bags .. come back tomorrow for more. IN the mean time go check out this project it is amazing what Larry is proposing and it could revolutionize the way we get an overview of information. In some of the walk troughs we have done and things we have talked about surrounding this project it is a real brain stretcher and could very well change how we disseminate information on a topic. I love the collaborative nature and think Larry has really hit upon something here.
“Textop will be a set of projects, managed by a strong collaboration among a global group of scholars, with the aim of organizing the information contained in books, dictionaries, opinionated essays, and news articles–and perhaps other sources–into a single outline of human knowledge. Built by volunteers, the result will be free and noncommercial, with any financial support of staff managed by non-profits. ” Text Outline
Tags: Digital Universe, Open Source, Watch This
Plug-ins for Google well Dave asked for it and got it. As a part of Co-op they have a developer guide for Google Subscribed Links API. This is a very smart move have “a community of organizations, businesses, and individuals working together to help improve Google search.” So companies are all ready in and listed. Right now as I write this I see six companies hat you can subscribe to, I expect that number will fly up. Keep your eyes on this and if you have not already started developing this code you should. Here is a good break down of what is going on
The Hack by Ryan Tate: Google plug ins have arrived.
Google is looking good with the dominance in search and an already large community working to extend Google Local and Google Earth. It will be interesting to see what plays out when we move to a more geocoded world and our devices become more portable and broadband access extends even further. It looks as though they might be a big winner in web 3.0 when the geobrowser wars kick in, but you can bet that MapQuest, Microsoft, Yahoo and a string of others will be in that fight.
Tags: Geobrowser, Geocode, Mapping, search
I just wanted to send a pray out to Robert Scoble and his entire family in this time of sorrow. To me these words sing true at times like this.
Love Lives On
“Those we love are never really lost to us–
we feel them in so many special ways–
through friends they always cared about
and dreams they left behind,
in beauty that they added to our days…
in words of wisdom we still carry with us
and memories that never will be gone…
Those we love
are never really lost to us–
for everywhere their special love lives on.”
~ Amanda Bradley ~
Theses are the times that try a mans soul and we must find the strength and fortitude to overcome our grief. It is hard and we try and be stoic but flesh needs to melt into tears to vent the anguish. On my seventeenth birthday we buried my grandfather. As people fell apart around me I felt that I needed to be strong so I held it all in. On my eighteenth birthday I lost it, all the grief I had suppressed came rushing out. It was out of context and those around me were at a loss but that day I let go of that pain and sorrow and finally laid my grandfather to rest in my mind.
My son’s middle name is my grandfather’s, Dale and I swear that every now and again I will look into my babies face and catch just a glimpse of my grandfather. The ones we love live on in us and our children.
Tags: Personal, sad
WOW! What an afternoon I am still trying to soak it all in. Yesterday not only did I meet Ted Kulongoski Erik Sten and Jon Perr but I was interviewed by CNN International. Eric spoke about the plans of the City Council and what our group and the open source community could do in conjunction with those plans. He asked about a redevelopment project in relation to an industrialized zone and what we thought might be some possibilities for use of that zoned area. Then Jon spoke about research that has been done on open source solutions and broke down how they are being implemented. This presentation was based off research and interviews with many of the top open source companies.
Towards the end of Jon’s presentation CNN showed up. They are in town doing interviews for a special they are doing on Open Source software. They did quite a few interviews here in Portland, of course they tracked down Linus and folks from the OSDL as well as other local open source folks including Posse. Since I am a Posse member I was asked as well as others at the meeting to answer a few questions. I think the reporter asked a total of five questions. I can remember a few off the top of my head. All these are paraphrased remembrances.
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Who are you and what do you do? My answer: John Anthony Hartman Technical Evangelist for the Digital Universe Foundation — I then spoke about what the DU is and what we are doing.
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What is the history of open source? (it was not that exactly but that was the gist of the ?) - My answer: derived from middle ware and networking Perl scripts etc. that were shared by admins and other geeks that evolved into OSS
- Do you think the geek moniker needs to be removed from open source? My answer: There are two sides to this answer - one that the term geek has become much more sheik than it was 20 years ago and that more “users” know what open source software is and it has moved beyond just geeks.
This was a grand afternoon and I was really pleased with how everything turned out. I am looking forward to seeing the final product but do not know where other than the web I will be able to view this CNN International story. Brian, the president of Posse exchanged cards with the CNN guys so I hope they trade e-mails or something when this is put on the air.
CNN also took footage of the interactive conversations of the whole group when Jon asked for questions during his presentation. I of course being the wall flower that I am piped in on a number of conversation. It was a very good discussion and I look forward to working with Posse to spread the word to the city on what they can gain by leveraging open source.
Tags: News, Open Source, Politics, Posse
CNN Money is reporting “Software giant considering major purchase of Yahoo! stock in effort to keep up with steamrolling industry leader Google, newspaper reports.”
So what could this mean?
- Stregthen search component of MSN by creating MSAHOO vs. Google
- Combine Microsofts Ad and Yahoo Ad network vs. Google
- Media mergers - creating a much bigger pool of video content and releationships vs. Apple
- Join mapping soultions Yahoo! Maps Web Services and Virtual Earth vs. Google
- Portal solutions joing to create a Yahoo Live! vs. Web x.0 companies
- Hotmail and Yahoo Mail vs. Gmail
- Messenger Merger (IM-ification) vs. Skype, Google, AOL
- LAUNCHcast and MusicMSN vs. iTunes
- Toolbars anti-spam and other tools to create a better protection of our PC’s vs. McAfee and Symantec
- Blogging mash up of Yahoo! 360 and MSN Spaces vs. Blogger, Word Press, Six Apart etc.
Can you see the possibilities of this merger or even what a partial merger might do.
|
Top sites in March 2006
|
| Site |
Audience, 000 |
Time spent |
| Yahoo! |
105,027 |
3:28:39 |
| Microsoft |
99,368 |
0:50:16 |
| MSN |
95,124 |
1:52:10 |
That is 299,519,000 unique visitors thats more than Google, AOL and eBay combined. That is a lot of eyes and with the combined Ad networks well look out Ad Sense. This is from a very reputable source and is the kind of thing that has been expected for some time. What possibilities do you see?
I wonder how many bilions this deal is worth? If you can’t beat them buy the other guys trying and gang up to crush them. Beware companies on the other side of the vs. is that a little red dot on your chest I see? ?
Tags: blogging, Microsoft, search, Software, Watch This, Yahoo
Here is a nice site with a collection of next generation web services and apps. I am not going to say web x.0 I refuse. Want to know why ask Eric.
Protolize | Essential web tools in one place
Tools
Tags: blogging
Bellow the graphic is what I wrote in the petition to stop the madness. David Sifry was talking about this at Northern Voice and how we as bloggers had to stand up and do something. We must all stand up with a loud VOICE and protest this insanity. I am challenging every single person who reads this to make noise with your politicians and join these bloggers in writing about this issue. I am posting this across all blogs that I write for because it is so important! To arms to arms we must stand up now before it is too late SAVE THE INTERNET!
The Internet must remain a free and open market place. Preferential routing of my or anyone else’s traffic based on sweetheart deals with telecoms is tantamount to paying bribes. If the Telco’s and unwise politicians insist on this lunacy then you are only paving the way for a revolution of consumers in the know! You may fool grandma who uses AOL but anyone with any net sophistication will either switch to a provider who is not Mafioso in their practices or find a way to obfuscate this heinous practice.
It is plane and simple, you can not force a land based business to pay protection money to keep the doors open. So why should you make it legal on the Internet for telecoms to collect protection money from companies to keep the doors to their website open.
A warning to all politicians, did Abramoff not teach you anything, voting based on bribes or influence from a giant lobby like the telecoms can lead to no good.
DO NOT PASS ANY LAWS that would remove Network Neutrality!
Angry that it has even gotten this far,
John Anthony Hartman
_______________________________________________________________________________________
From Save the Internet web site:
“ What’s happening in Congress?
The telephone and cable companies are filling up congressional campaign coffers and hiring high-priced lobbyists. They’ve set up “Astroturf” groups like “Hands Off the Internet” to confuse the issue and give the appearance of grassroots support.
Congress is now considering a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act. The primary bill in the House is called the “Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006″ and is sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Rep. Charles Pickering (R-Miss.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.).
The current version of the COPE Act includes watered-down Net Neutrality provisions that are essentially meaningless. An amendment offered by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which would have instituted real Net Neutrality requirements, was defeated in committee after intense industry lobbying against it.
The COPE Act is expected to be voted on by the full House in the second week of May. Congressman Markey is preparing to introduce his amendment on the floor so that every member is on the record. No member of Congress can in good conscience vote against Internet freedom and with the telecom cartel.
The Senate is moving more deliberately on the issue. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, which would ensure Net Neutrality. And Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) are expected to introduce a bipartisan amendment supporting Net Neutrality when the Senate takes up its own rewrite of the Telecommunications Act later this year.” Full PDF of bill http://www.freepress.net/congress/bills/s2360.pdf
SO NO ON COPE!
YES ON NET NEUTRALITY!
Tags: blogging, evil, Politics, Save the Internet, The Web, Watch This
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