LISNews: Librarian News

Be Very Afraid: The Cable-ization of Online Life Is Upon Us

Imagine what’s possible from Comcast’s perspective: If you can slice and dice traffic, play definitional chess (“that’s not the internet, that’s a specialized service!”), and be the only game in town, you’ll get to replicate the cable model by making sure that every successful online application owes its success in part to you and pays you tribute.

Are Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr Leading the Way in a Content Censorship Wave?

Do image oriented and visual curation sites have unique responsibilities since photos can be used as very specific maps for how to achieve certain negative activities, such as self-mutilation? Does the discussion expand to other social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where I can link to such a picture? What about the role of general content arbiter aka search engines? Should our ability to look for and connect with potentially objectionable content at all be controlled?

This week's episode of LISTen looks at Terms of Service in the social infrastructure operated by the private sector and contemplates consequences.

Direct Download Link: Ogg Vorbis Audio

Related link:
Paid Content: OWS protestor doesn’t own his tweets, judge rules
CBC News: Google Drive terms of service spark privacy concerns
Ars Technica: Google Drive files can end up in ads, even though you still own them
PC World: The Problem with Google Drive
VodkaPundit: Who Owns You? Google Owns You
FreedomBox Foundation
StatusNet
MediaGoblin

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #196 by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. -- Read More

The Internet will be a fad
He thought the Internet had no future. Merely a fad. A passing fancy.
We were reminded of scientist Clifford Stoll yesterday when we posted a photo from when the Internet first came to NPR. MPR News reporter Curtis Gilbert recently stumbled upon a gem from the MPR archives, a 1995 interview with Stoll by MPR host Paula Schroeder. Stoll was promoting his book Silicon Snake Oil (at the same time he also published a Newsweek article titled, "The Internet? Bah!")

"STOLL: I'd say it's not that important. I think it's grossly oversold and within two or three years people will shrug and say, '"Uh yep, it was a fad of the early 90's and now, oh yeah, it still exists but hey, I've got a life to lead and work to do. I don't have time to waste online." Or, "I'll collect my email, I'll read it, why should I bother prowling around the Worldwide Web or reading the Usenet" simply because there's so little of value there."