Darknet

A visualization of 'Darknet'

Visualization tool: ManyEyes from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

At the Future of Civic Media conference at the MIT Media Lab in June, one of the best presentations came from the co-creator of ManyEyes. Here's a 7-minute video interview I did with Fernanda B. Viegas, research staff member of IBM's Visual Communication Lab in Cambridge, following her talk.

Fernanda describes some of uses of this visualization tool. For example, during the Congressional testimony of then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a visualization Word Map graphically showed how often he used the phrases "I don't know" and "I don't recall."

Watch or download video in high-quality (H.264) on Ourmedia (480 pixels)
Watch video in Flash on Vimeo

Here's a dataset I just uploaded to ManyEyes: the text of "Darknet." You can see it as a tag cloud, as a word tree, or in other ways.

An imminent victory for ‘Net Neutrality’ advocates

NY Times: An Imminent Victory for ‘Net Neutrality’ Advocates.

When Comcast admitted last fall that it was blocking — or slowing down, as the company preferred to call it — certain file transfers by customers, a lot of people complained that the company was unfairly discriminating against heavy Internet users.

Now it seems that the Federal Communications Commission is poised to agree.

The Associated Press reported late Thursday that the F.C.C.’s chairman, Kevin J. Martin, has concluded that Comcast improperly blocked some file transfers. Mr. Martin told the A.P. he would recommend that the commission punish Comcast, and order it to stop the blocking, tell the commission how and how often it blocked file transfers and disclose to consumers its future plans for managing its network.

Such an action would be the first time that regulators have slapped an Internet provider for violating F.C.C. open-access rules. Those rules are designed to prevent providers from favoring some services over others — for example, by accelerating the transfer of video from their own movie service or slowing down transfers from competitors.

That will surely please “net neutrality” advocates like Free Press, which brought the original complaint. The group issued a statement Thursday night saying: “The F.C.C. now appears ready to take action on behalf of consumers. This is an historic test for whether the law will protect the open Internet. If the commission decisively rules against Comcast, it will be a remarkable victory for organized people over organized money.” ...

Got a portable TV? Trash it in February

San Jose Mercury News: Got a portable TV? Trash it in February.

Where did 'Ally' go?

Newsweek's July 7-14 issue: Where did 'Ally' go? (can't find the link online)

The Fox TV series is available on DVD in Brain, Hong Kong, Belgium and beyond, but not in the United States. The reason: The rights to many songs featured in the show ("What Becomes of the Broken Hearted," etc.) are too expensive to DVD release here. The same problem applies to the '60s infused "The Wonder Years."

Susan Crawford on threats to the Internet

At Supernova, Nick Douglas interviews IP big thinker Susan Crawford about global threats to the Internet. She points out that Sept. 22 is the third annual One Web Day.

The e-Book test: Do electronic versions deter piracy?

David Pogue in the NY Times: The e-Book Test: Do Electronic Versions Deter Piracy?

Related: John Caddell at FutureLab: Must We Give away Digital Creative Works?