We're positively e-bookish in this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 241). First, we discuss the merits, and demerits, of Google's Book Search project, which wants nothing more of less than to digitize every book on the planet (Google's not good at thinking small, we've noticed). Needless to say, Google's little scheme has its critics, and also its competitors. UNESCO has recently launched a little digitization project of its own, called The World Digital Library. We'll give you a little peek, and a listen, to some of what the United Nations is offering up, and not just in English. All of this talk about digitization got us to thinking: do traditional paper books have a future? Or, will more and more of us migrate to e-readers like Amazon's Kindle, Sony's e-reader, or...Apple's iPhone? It's a question worthy of discussion, and so we've got an in-depth report on what lies ahead for e-publishing. You'll be shocked to learn that some people think paper will vanish as a medium for publishing in the next 50 years, which others scoff and say that our attachment to the printed page is too strong for that to happen. One question sent in by podcast listener John Kapitzky struck me as pertinent here: "Will the e-book reader I have in 30 years be capable of reading the e-book I buy today, or will I have to keep buying new e-editions of books that I like?" It's a good question for a future podcast, methinks.
Moving on, we also take a look at some very cool software designed to help folks get around Internet filtering technologies. It's called Psiphon, and its brought to you by the same people who track online censorship around the world, the OpenNet Initiative, which WTP has covered before, most recently here and here. We have an interview with one of Psiphon's engineers, Nart Villeneuve.
And we end with Yahoo's Purple Pedals project. Take a look at what happens when you outfit some purple bikes with a webcam and geo-location software, and then let them loose in the world:
OK, I love a good taco, especially one served up by a mobile taco truck in SoCal. I also love Korean BBQ. And while I have not yet consumed the Twitter Kool-Aid, I can definitely see the micro-blogging service's appeal. So, just imagine my surprise and delight when a story pitch that combines all three of these marvelous things crossed my desk a couple of weeks ago. There's no question that the Kogi Korean Taco Truck is the undisputed champion segment of this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 233). But kimchi quesadillas can't just be heard...and so here's a nifty audio slideshow for you:
Right, well you're probably too hungry now to read about the rest of the podcast, but here goes anyway. We start this week's show with a very interesting interview about how the technologies used to capture and distribute photographic images of the war dead have changed over the decades. The idea for this segment was sparked by last week's announcement that the Pentagon is reversing a ban on news media publishing pictures of the flag-draped coffins of soldiers. It will now be left to the families to decide whether the pictures can be published. We speak with documentary photographer David Perlmutter.
We also take an in-depth look at some potentially big news from Iran. The Iranian government allowed reporters inside Bushehr, the country's nuclear facility. The reporters were given a guided tour designed to showcase the beginning of some critical testing of the facility. Iran says its for energy purposes only, while many in the West aren't so sure. We hear from a reporter allowed inside the facility, and hear analysis from Ben Rhode of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
And it's been kind of a roller-coaster week and a half for the social networking site Facebook. It all started when the massively popular service announced a few "tweaks," to its terms of service. Some felt the tweaks amounted to something quite sinister, claiming that the changes meant that anything anyone posted to Facebook would be owned, well, by Facebook. In perpetuity. Even if you deleted your account. Whew. The Electronic Privacy Information Center was only one of many organizations that threw a fit. Fittingly, Facebook groups against the new terms of service formed, and quickly. Facebook then countered by revoking the new terms of service, and has opted for a more community based approach to how the site is managed and governed. We get a much-needed reality check on the Facebook about-face.
Oh, and by the way, one of the UK's leading neuroscientists, Susan Greenfield, takes a swipe at Facbook and other social networking sites, claiming that they may in fact be bad for kid's brains. Is this just the old "video games are bad for you" argument, only for the Web 2.0 set? You can decide for yourself. I offer you Greenfield's argument in the podcast, but you can get more analysis here and here.
Fittingly, you can find WTP on Facebook and Twitter. Fry your brain along with us. You can hear all of WTP 233 by just clicking below!
What's a technology correspondent to do when he's left off the Election Day broadcast? Why, do a special Election Day podcast, of course. Here's WTP 217, which focuses on how technology has shaped, and been shaped by, the seemingly endless campaign for the US presidency.
We begin with a report that examines how both the McCain and Obama campaigns have tried to harness the power of on-line tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The report includes a couple of great clips from Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post.
From there, we try to get a handle on which camp better harnessed technology in pursuit of victory. We speak first with Phil Noble, founder of a website called Politics Online. Phil told me that he's been amazed at what the Obama campaign has managed to do on-line, both from a fundraising point of view, and an organizational point of view. He looks back to 2004, and Howard Dean's failed campaign for the Democratic nomination. Noble quoted veteran 'net campaigner Joe Trippi: "The Dean Campaign was the Wright Brothers. The Obama Campaign is the Apollo moon shot."
Then, we broaden it out by turning to Andrew Rasiej at the non-partisan group blog techPresident. Andrew also has praise for the Obama campaign when it comes to using not just the web, but also cell phone text messages. The interesting question for Andrew is what happens to the online communities Obama has created after the election. He told me:
"Win or lose, it's very clear that politics is going to be completely changed, not so much as battles between two parties, but between generations over the future of the country in relation to how much information is available, when decisions get made, who makes them. This is a new vanguard of citizen activists that this technology has enabled, and every administration going forward is looking at a new 21st century democracy."
Next, we hear from a San Francisco based mobile phone company called Credo. It's a full-service company that's doing some very interesting free projects around social causes in general, and around this election in particular. They're offering a web and text message service that allows you to send friends and family an SMS reminder to go and vote. You can also send a text message to 69866, with your street address and zip code, and you will receive back, in short order, your polling location and a Google map to help you find it. And finally, Credo's implemented a Mobile Action project. Some 12,000 poll watchers worldwide will be monitoring polling locations, and using texts and calls to alert folks to potential problems at polling stations.
I find this use of mobiles and texts fascinating, and familiar. Familiar because I've reported on it before, and fascinating because it's usually in the context, not of developed democracies, but in emerging democracies. Phil Noble cites The Orange Revolution in Ukraine. See also great blog posts on this by Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Center at Harvard, and Erik Hersman, blogging at White African.
Happy Voting!
Oh, almost forgot. The Onion has already called the election. The winner? The voting machines.
Thank you, Onion, for some much needed, semi-comic relief.
As you ready yourself for tonight's final debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, I'd like to draw your attention to...wait for it...the Presidential election in Azerbaijan. Azeris went to the polls today to, well, give the incumbent Ilham Aliyev (son of the previous leader) yet another term in office. Expect a landslide; all of the major opposition groups boycotted the election. But one candidate didn't. Take a gander at Shiraslan Qurbanov, straight out of the Azeri heartland, according to his bio. My Azeri is a bit rusty, but I'm assured that the slogan reads, "The People's Candidate." Uncle Shiraslan, as he's known, just happens to be 70 years old today...on election day of all days. Again, according to his official bio.
But don't let Shiraslan's age fool you. The man seems to be an online whizkid. He's got lots of Azeris on his email list, not to mention his own slick website, his own Facebook page, and his own channel on YouTube. No wonder the younger generation is excited about Shiraslan's candidacy, no?
Bakhtiyar Hajiyev is the "political director" of Shiraslan's campaign. He told me in an interview today that "young Azeris are looking for new faces, new actors in Azerbaijani politics. Shiraslan is a very positive politician." Hajiyev pointed out as plusses not only his candidate's rejection of negative campaigning, but also his strong foreign policy.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
"It sounds like a paradox, but the only real opposition candidate in this election...is a virtual candidate," says Hajiyev.
Yep. Shiraslan only exists online. Hajiyev, who is a student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, worked with some other Azeri expats to create their own opposition candidate. At first, real opposition groups in Azerbaijan laughed Shiraslan off as a joke. But when they saw the success the virtual candidate was acheiving, they quickly started web sites and YouTube channels for their own, real candidates.
"We want to send a message that if there is no platform to discuss and reach people offline, you can at least try online. You can reach some voters, and create momentum," Hajiyev told me.
As for Shiraslan, no, he's not actually on the ballot. A cell phone text message campaign today urged those disinclined to vote to head to the polls, and scrawl Shiraslan's name across the ballot. Sure, that negates the ballot under Azeri law, but at least, the thinking goes, you might actually feel like voting.
And if all else fails, you can enjoy the Shiraslan rap. I'm pretty sure you can learn some useful Azeri swear words in here...but don't quote me on that.
Right. So, in what would have been a shameless and vain attempt to drive readers to this site by putting the word "porn" in the title of this post, I almost wrote about this little item today. But as interesting as the idea might be that web searchers are more interested in finding social networking sites than pornography, I believe I've found a slightly geekier, but much worthier story to send your way.
The OpenNet Initiative does some incredibly interesting work in the area of internet censorship. In short, ONI is trying to find out what kind of web content countries around the world are blocking, and how they're blocking it. Whenever I have a story dealing with net censorship, ONI is the first place I go for in-depth analysis, and a reality check.
From ONI's website today (Props to Afromusing for forwarding this to me) comes news that a Tunisian blogger and journalist named Ziad El Heni has filed a lawsuit against the country's Internet Agency. Why? Because the Agency blocked Facebook recently, without giving any reason. The Tunisian President even intervened in the case, asking access to Facebook to be restored.
But El Heni's got a beef, and he's asking for $5,000 in damages.
What's the big deal, you might ask? Well, first of all, blogging in Tunisia can be a dicey business. And speaking out against government censorship can earn you jail time, harrassment, or worse. So, El Heni's move to sue Tunisia's Internet Agency is no small matter.
But it's the reasoning behind the lawsuit that's got the geek in me so interested in this story. Simply put, El Heni's suing the agency for lying to him about the technical reason given for the block. When he tried to access Facebook, he got a 404 (Not Found) error message. El Heni argues that he should have gotten a 403 (Forbidden) message instead. The ONI website explains:
In an interesting technical argument he said that the the agency
mislead him by serving the message 404 (Not Found) error message
instead of the 403 message (Access Forbidden), which the agency serves
to users who attempt to access banned sites. This action of misleading
(Not Found vs. Forbidden) caused him material as well as punitive
damages, he said.
The 404 message or Not Found error message is a standard response
code which means that the user connected to the site, Facebook in this
case, but the site, Facebook, could not find what was requested. The
403 (Forbidden) message, however means that the user was able to
communicate with the site, Facebook, but the server forbids him/her
from accessing the site.
It may seem like a meaningless distinction to a blogger in a country with relatively free Internet access, but to someone like El Heni, in a country like Tunisia, this is a distinction worth fighting for.
As he told the Magharebia website: "To the government, the closing or blocking of a website may be a
simple technical operation based on its legitimate authority, but in
this case it is a crime...More importantly, it is proof
that the government doesn't respect me as a citizen. When the
government doesn't respect its citizens, it raises doubts and questions
over its legitimacy."
The popular social networking site Facebook dealt a blow today to fans of the popular application Scrabulous, a deliciously addictive take-off (some would say rip-off, but more on that in a minute) of the popular board game Scrabble. Scrabulous was created by a couple of brothers from Kolkata (used to be Calcutta), India named Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla. The brothers launched the game on the in 2006, after "not finding a decent online environment to enjoy word games." But it was when the Agarwalla's ported it over to Facebook that it really took off. And by took off, I mean instantly became on of the best ways for a word-lovin' smartypants to waste a whole lot of time online.
Well, this will not come as a huge shock. Turns out that Hasbro, which owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, didn't like Scrabulous so much. And, in good American fashion, they recently sued the Agarwallas in a New York court. This was apparently after extended discussions between all the rights-holders and the Argawallas to try to reach an agreement and keep the game alive.
Hasbro called for the game to be removed from Facebook immediately, due to copyright infringements. You see, Hasbro had been working with game-maker Electronic Arts on a homegrown Scrabble for Facebook.
Fans immediately set up a Save Scrabulous page on Facebook, which turned in true social networking fashion into numerous Save Scrabulous pages.
But today, Facebook bowed to pressure from Hasbro, and took the game offline, at least for North American users. The company doesn't want to get involved in copyright and trademark disputes. "We're trying to maintain just being a neutral platform," a spokesman said.
For die-hard fans overseas, it would appear that for now the Scrabulous application is still working in Facebook. This might have something to do with the fact that the rights to Scrabble outside of North America are owned by Mattel. Also, you can still play via the Scrabulous website.
Even as one great way to waste time on a social networking site closes, another opens. Bebo, a social networking service popular in the UK, has teamed up with a television company and Dr. Alexander Zaitsev, an expert in interstellar communications, to launch A Message from Earth. The idea is to create a kind of digital time capsule (digital pictures, messages, etc.) and beam it into space for the aliens to pick up on their transmitters. Messages will commence transmission in October. As of August 4th, you can send in your submission.
Yes, I too weep for any aliens who happen to be tuned into this particular frequency. Then again, they're probably sick of Leave it to Beaver reruns by now.
UPDATE on Scrabulous story: Well, here's one way to get your game back up on Facebook.
(Screen grabs taken from Scrabulous website, and Bebo website)
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