Media Sphere

Update: An account of Wednesday's protest has been posted to mediasphere.

In some parts of the world, such as the United States, the Internet is a relatively safe means to communicate and discuss controversial or unpopular subjects. Unfortunately this isn't the case in all countries, and journalists, activists, and other outspoken individuals continue to be threatened and imprisoned at an alarming rate.

According to Reporters sans frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), there are 63 people around the world who are currently in prison for using the Internet to exercise their freedom of expression. Forty-nine of the imprisoned cyber-dissidents are from China; seven are from Vietnam, and two are from Syria. Libya, Jordan, Egypt, and Burma are each holding one person for online speech activities.

In an effort to "denounce government censorship of the Internet and to demand more online freedom," Reporters Without Borders is organizing a 24-hour online demonstration on Wednesday and officially recognizing the date as Online Free Expression day.... Read more

His name is Timothy Goeglein, and, as Paul Kiel at Talking Points Memo points out, it is quite ironic that Google should be the cause of his professional demise.

Goeglein is a White House aide and, until today, wrote as a columnist for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. He was outed for plagiarism this morning when Nancy Nall, a former employee at the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, posted a blog entry detailing an innocent Google search she conducted on one of Goeglein's subjects. The search revealed that his latest column was almost completely lifted from another source (Jeffrey Hart, in this case, in an article for the Dartmouth review).

Since Nall's original posting, her readers and other bloggers have identified multiple instances of plagiarism. Timothy Goeglein has also fessed up. He told the Journal Gazette, "It is true. I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses." The News-Sentinel has announced that Goeglein will no longer be writing for the paper and will look into just how many of his columns may have been cribbed.

It's unclear what the fate of his other job will be. Goeglein serves as a Special Assistant to the President and works in the White House's Office of Public Liason. In 2004, the New York Times published a profile on Goeglein's role in the White House. David D. Kirkpatrick suggested Goeglein is an extension of Karl Rove, "even Mr. Rove has his limits -- calls he cannot make, hands he cannot shake and meetings he cannot attend. For those, he has Timothy Goeglein." ... Read more

During protests outside the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968, activists took up a rallying cry shouting The whole world is watching as news cameras captured the police violently overtaking the crowd. Indeed the whole world was watching, but only because the news media happened to be their with their cameras and live feed.

As Salvatore Rivieri of the Baltimore Police department knows first hand, things have changed. In July of last year, Officer Rivieri was patrolling the Inner Harbor when he came across 14 year-old Eric Bush and some of his friends riding their skateboards. A heated exchange occurred and at one point, Rivieri places Eric in a headlock and takes his skateboard from him. Toward the end of the episode, the officer notices that Eric's friend Tony Santo is holding a camera.

"You got that camera on?" Rivieri asks. "If I find myself on you.." The video goes dead.

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Steve Jobs' keynote at this year's MacWorld included the announcement of four new products: the new MacBook Air, Time Capsule, an update to the iPhone and iPod Touch, and a revised Apple TV with movie rentals through both the Apple TV and the iTunes store. It's clear that Jobs is excited about the new offering and the studios are also quite pleased with the terms of the new service, but what about John and Jane Consumer?

At the new iTunes rental store, visitors can check out movies from all of the major Hollywood studios. For new releases, users are charged $3.99 and catalog rentals are $2.99. HD rentals were also introduced this week at $4.99, but are only available through Apple TV. Once downloaded the movies will remain accessible for 30 days, but will only stay active for a 24 hour period after pressing play.

In 1987, the Dead Kennedy's released an album titled "Give Me Convenience, or Give Me Death," and for those who live by that credo, the new iTunes service delivers hands down.... Read more

Mac fans across the world are eagerly awaiting Steve Jobs keynote at Mac World with bingo cards in hand, but despite all the rumors of the "MacBook Air" and the iTunes video rental store, there is one feature that I wish Steve would announce but that I know will not materialize anytime soon. What I'd like to see from Apple in 2008 is an iTunes marketplace, a place where independent media creators can set their own price for their work and share the profits with Apple.

Yes, some independent artists have been able to sell their music in the iTunes store, but there is no means to sell video podcasts or other similar materials through Apple.

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Even though they don't have the visibility of MySpace or Facebook, the New York-based Community Connect has developed a series of niche social-networking sites that have managed to generate a significant following within the communities they represent.

AsianAve, the company's first project, launched in June of 1997. The site provides a service aimed at an Asian audience and somewhat resembles MySpace in look and feel. Since then, Community Connect has gone on to release BlackPlanet, MiGente, and Glee. Its most recent initiative, Faithbase, is a hub for Christians to meet and socialize with other Christians.

While Ning allows anyone to create their own social network, Community Connect has chosen to develop its own proprietary software and market five successive networks that each focus on a specific identity. I spoke to Kay Madati, vice president of marketing for the company, about what differentiates their networks from those created on Ning; while he wasn't familiar with Ning he pointed out that Community Connect's sites have more members than any off-the-shelf social networks he is aware of.

Faithbase officially launched in June 2007 but its "overt marketing push began about a month ago." The site currently has 51,000 members and experienced most of its growth over the past few weeks.

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While San Francisco's plan for municipal wifi may have stalled after Earthlink decided to abandon the project amidst corporate restructuring, the city's desire for free city-wide wifi was affirmed on November 6 when 62% of voters voiced their support for the original proposal. It's unclear whether the city will ever get their free wifi, but the city has voiced their desire to be able to log in anytime, anywhere and there do seem to be a few ways for this to still happen even without Earthlink on board.

It sounds silly, but San Francisco is Apple country. With a combined area of just 7x7 miles, there are three Apple Retail Stores (one of which just opened this past Friday) that are almost always crowded, Macbooks seem to outnumber PCs at every coffee shop, and the iPhones was already ubiquitous the moment it launched. With the iPod Touch being dependent on accessible wifi and the iPhone stiffled by AT&T's slow network speeds, San Francisco seems like the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how powerful these gadgets can be in a city with universal wireless access.

The benefits for Apple would be significant. Those living in San Francisco would have another incentive to upgrade to an iPod Touch or the iPhone, and the PR opportunities would be enormous. Apple's market share in the bay area would continue to climb, and the company would be able to push their airport technology and continue to build their global brand in association with San Francisco.

Of course, Apple would probably be disinclined to jump into this endeavor alone. There are a number of companies that are obvious choices to partner with Apple in connecting the entire city, but none of them have the same caliber of support amongst bay area residents.

Google could easily come on as a partner: they have the ad network that could make the initiative sustainable, but the privacy concerns that plagued the first iteration would obviously continue. AT&T is another possibility, but their track record is far spottier than Google's; many people in San Francisco wouldn't feel comfortable surfing on an AT&T network, but the telco is probably the most natural partner for such a project.

With Comcast and AT&T battling over the high-speed internet consumers, AT&T could offer a full-speed universal wifi connection to all of its DSL and mobile customers while providing a throttled connection to everyone for free. Doing so would provide a competitive advantage over Comcast, and would also help make up for the slower speed of DSL when compared to cable. Although the Google-Earthlink wifi deal generated significant criticism, most of the people who opposed the partnership were still largely in favor of bringing high-speed wireless internet to all San Franciscans. Some were concerned about Google's obsession with tracking users, many vocalized their opposition to the crippled speed that would come with the free service and still others simply felt that the best way to bring high-speed internet to everyone would be through an expansion of the City's existing fiber optic network. Yes, there were a few that opposed the plan because it would increase the amount of radio waves in the air, but these detractors seemed to make up a very small minority.

I still contend that the best solution is for the City to expand its fiber optic cabling and build a wireless network on the fiber network that is owned and maintained by the City. Doing so will cost a significant amount of tax-payer's money up front, but in the long run, the City would likely be able to recoup this investment by selling bandwidth to various companies.

While I don't feel that a network backed by Apple is the ideal solution for universal wifi, it's a deal that I could probably feel good about and one that would likely be quite popular with most people in San Francisco.

Edward Burns' latest film, Purple Violets, won't be coming to a theater near you, but you won't have to go far to see it. The movie is available to anyone with $13 and an account at iTunes. It is the first time a feature film has premiered at the Apple media store.

Burns first landed on the scene in Hollywood with his highly successful 1995 film The Brothers McMullen. He wrote, directed, produced and starred while managing to spend less than $30,000 putting together the vehicle that would pave the way for his role acting in Saving Private Ryan.

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Though almost everything Google touches seems to turn to gold, there is one project that never quite became ubiquitous (at least here in the U.S.). Orkut may have found a following in Brazil and Asia, but I don't know anyone who uses the service. As Erick Schonfeld reports in TechCrunch, that may be about to change.

Known internally as Maka-Maka, the project will provide a means for all of Google's existing applications to work together within a social-networking landscape. Google is also building a series of APIs that will allow developers to integrate their own applications into the Google universe.

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