flow

Federal shield law clears committee in House

Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee approved an amended version of the Free Flow of Information Act. If passed, the act would shield reporters from having to testify about information they obtained through their journalistic activities. This significant step toward passing a shield law comes one year from the day I was escorted out of a Federal court room and held in civil contempt for asserting a journalist privilege.

As CNET reports, In response to concerns raised by the Bush administration and other politicians, the revised bill attempts to exclude the "casual blogger" from reaping those benefits by stipulating the protections apply only to those who derive "financial gain or livelihood" from the journalistic activity, Boucher said Wednesday. That broad rule could, however, include part-time writers who receive even a trickle of revenue from Google Ads or Blogads.com.

While the revised form of the law is not perfect, it does appear to offer a level of protection against Justice Department inquiries that doesn't currently exist. Although 33 states have some form of shield law, these protections do not apply in a federal context and several U.S. journalists have found themselves imprisoned in recent years as a result.… Read more

iPhone Tip: Adding art to Cover Flow

It breaks my heart to see an iPhone that's missing album cover artwork. There you are with the most beautiful iPod ever created, but your music collection looks like an endless series of generic boxes. Prove yourself worthy of owning such an advanced piece of technology by using my step-by-step guide for adding cover art to your iPhone's music collection. It's the least you can do. Respect your iPhone, people.

You can even use the guide to find out how to replace your album art with custom photos. You haven't truly lived until you've seen … Read more

Under the Radar: gaming in your browser

About a decade ago playing visually rich and enthralling games on your computer required an installation, a reboot, and some considerable horsepower. These days, between lean browsers and speedy broadband connections, people are now able to play something for a few minutes without installing anything. The latest movement in online games is playing them with others, and building platforms and content delivery systems that let fledgling developers share their work with others.

Bunchball is a social gaming service. They integrate multiplayer games into Web sites, as well as branding them to match the look and feel. Bunchball was one of … Read more

Without a Shield: A Free Press in Peril

I headed to Washington DC last month to meet with members of Congress and their staff about the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 which had just been introduced days before my visit. For those that don't know, the bill would extend the same protections journalists are afforded in most state courts to the Federal level. These laws are generally known as shield laws and offer legal protections against forcing journalists to testify about their work, and there is some level of shield afforded to journalists in almost every state.

So why are these shield laws important, and why should journalists be afforded this protection in the first place?

One of the basic defining principles of a democracy is a free press. If information is being stymied by the government, or the political conditions make it impossible for people to engage with the press then the public is robbed of all the facts they need to make an informed decision. Much of the work that journalists due relies on a trust relationship between their contacts, and the material uncovered through the investigative process is not dissimilar from that of detectives. Unless there are protections established than journalists can easily be subpoenaed and forced to do the work of law enforcement thus muddying their position as the Fourth Estate and the trust they have worked so hard to establish.

What to expect from the PS3's new firmware upgrade

Sony will be releasing a software upgrade (1.60) to its PlayStation 3 console on Thursday, and it essentially consists of some convenience tweaks as well as a cool tie-in with a medical research project at Stanford University. Basically, Sony's taking a few more steps toward its vision of the PS3 as a living room media center rather than a gaming console. Unfortunately, it still has to deal with the Wii.

With regard to the convenience upgrades, you'll be able to connect Bluetooth peripherals, like keyboards and mice, to your PS3. You'll also be able to queue … Read more

Wrike harnesses e-mail for collaboration

The collaboration service Wrike is rolling out today. It's an online task database for groups, with a special power: You can enter shared tasks just by e-mailing people and copying to wrike@wrike.com.

That is about the easiest way I can imagine to create and assign tasks. It's even easier than using Outlook's own Tasks list, which actually is not a bad task manager for small work groups (it's awful, though, if you're trying to work with somebody who's not on your Exchange server).

I also like the way Wrike signs up new … Read more

SmartSheet makes project tracking easy, and now it's free.

We've covered the Web 2.0 startup SmartSheet a bit over the past two months [see stories on News.com], but we haven't had a hands-on review. In light of two important changes with the product that roll out on Thursday, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at it.

SmartSheet is a tool for tracking group jobs and tasks. It apes the user interface that many people use to track projects--the spreadsheet--but it's got features more like a work flow application. For example, you can highlight a row (usually, a row … Read more