A blog on social software

Corante launches yet another weblog: Many-to-Many: social software, by Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Clay Shirky, Ross Mayfield, SÈbastien Paquet and Jessica Hammer. Impressive lineup. Excerpt:

... What will we be talking about? The term "social software" has been getting a lot of attention in technology circles these days. From the Social Software track at O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference to the newly-formed Social Software Alliance, people involved with developing and deploying new technologies are increasingly interested in this topic. (Stay tuned for a post--or a few posts--on definitional issues.)

The growing popularity of blogging as a tool for ad-hoc journalism, academic discourse, and just plain thinking-out-loud has been one of the drivers of this trend. So has the development of new P2P and group-forming technologies--IM clients like Jabber, group-forming web sites like Friendster and Ryze, collaborative document editing tools like Wikis, multiplayer games, and old stand-bys like mailing lists and usenet groups.

The emphasis on communication and collaboration inherent in social software led us to the idea of a group-authored weblog on the topic. Each of us brings a long history of participation in social software environments, and an interest in both the development of tools and the understanding of their uses. Liz, Ross, and Seb are all active bloggers, and while sans blog (until now!), Clay is a well-known thinker and writer in the field.

We plan to use this blog to highlight new developments in the social software field, and also to provide commentary and conversation on the uses of social software in varying contexts. We welcome your participation in these conversations, through the use of comments--a first on a Corante blog.

Esther Dyson joins the blogosphere

Esther Dyson has a blog.

Come join the blogosphere

Malaysian blogger/business columnist Jeff Ooi in Screenshots:

Writer and content strategist Joseph D. Lasica, a Senior Editor of the Online Journalism Review, was thrilled to learn that blogging has taken root in Malaysia and made and mentioned my blog and a related news feature in Star In-Tech that he picked up online. That pushed me onto the blogosphereís radar screen.

US news portal MSNBC soon picked up my blog entry on SARS and related it to how Asians resort to new technologies, blogs and SMS, to access information about the epidemic. This was later picked up by The Agonist, a high-traffic blog in the US. Within 24 hours, it was linked and referred to by Berkeley, California-based blogger Tim Bishop who maintains SARSWatch.org, Hong Kong-based Phil Ingram who maintains Flyingchair.net blog, and Singapore-based legal practitioner Vernon Lee who maintains SARS Info Centre website. ...

Suddenly, I found myself networked to a community that I would not be able to reach out formerly.

Come join blogosphere. You could do even better.

The TypePad Personal Publishing Service

The makers of MovableType are launching an enhanced posting/publishing tool. Here's their press release. Thanks to Dan for the pointer.

Conn. paper tells staffer to kill blog

We knew this day would come. A daily newspaper editor has ordered one of its journalists to suspend his personal weblog.

Editor & Publisher has the details: Hartford Paper Tells Employee to Kill Blog. Travel editor Denis Horgan's weblog "created a parallel journalistic universe where he'll do commentary on institutions that the paper has to cover," says Hartford Courant editor Brian Toolan. (Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.) Excerpt from the E&P article:

Horgan is a former columnist for the paper who was transferred to the travel writing position earlier this year.

After losing his column, Horgan decided to set up his own Web page, where he has commented on everything from baseball to the Iraqi information minister to same-sex unions. "It kept me happy and gave me a chance to keep doing things that I wanted to do," Horgan told E&P Online. "I do it on my own time, from my own house. I'm not competing with the Courant. I'm not looking for advertisers." ...

But Toolan sees it differently. "Denis Horgan's entire professional profile is a result of his attachment to The Hartford Courant, yet he has unilaterally created for himself a parallel journalistic universe where he'll do commentary on the institutions that the paper has to cover without any editing oversight by the Courant," Toolan said. "That makes the paper vulnerable."

The editor added that allowing an employee to set up his own opinion blog was a bad precedent. "There are 325 other people here who could create similar [Web sites] for themselves," Toolan said.

Denis Horgan writes on his weblog:

It is with the most profound regret that I am compelled to announce that the editor of The Hartford Courant, a proud and wonderful newspaper of which I am honored to count myself a staff member, has ruled that I am no longer allowed to operate a column on this web page. Despite the fact that this page is operated on my own time and at my own expense, that it does not compete with the newspaper or draw upon any of its resources, the editor has ruled that its operation is a conflict of interest. It is not my role to explain this decision, one with which I disagree deeply, but I have no option but to suspend the column or commentary activities here. The page will remain open as I explore my rights and options. The "Feedback" exchange function will continue should anyone wish to continue to discuss matters of interest. The links to other columnists, services and the Bill of Rights will also remain open for those wishing to explore them.

I am very sorry that things have reached this stage and that the promise with which this effort was launched has been extinguished. To me, it seemed like such a good idea.

Thank you for your support
Denis Horgan

I'm often asked at new media conferences why more journalists don't have personal weblogs. Why? Here's a perfect example: the thuggish mindset of the Courant's editor. The notion that newspapers can exercise ownership rights over employees who choose to write and publish personal commentary on their own time, at their homes, without relying on company resources. I don't know Denis Horgan, but I suspect he didn't emerge as a journalist merely by virtue of his ties to the Hartford Courant (which belongs to the otherwise reasonably enlightened Tribune Co. chain). The Courant enjoys its journalistic prestige from employees like Horgan, not the other way around.

If you read Denis' postings, you'll see a heartfelt and insightful series of entries on dozens of topics that have nothing to do with the travel section of the Hartford Courant. But they do have to do with subjects of interest to the blogosphere -- the Red Sox, conspiracy buffs, the hum of everyday life.

I'm incensed by the Courant's hamfisted attempt at censorship here. I hope Denis exercises his rights (I believe the Courant is a Guild shop) under the law. It's likely that he would win his case in court, if he chooses to go that route. This isn't even a close call, given that he's not freelancing for a competing publication, he's blogging. I'm sure the Courant will come back with some nonsense about how employees abandon their rights when they become employees at a major media organization. That's utter nonsense, of course.

I've sent emails off to Letters@courant.com and associate editor Karen Hunter, the paper's reader representative (phone (800) 524-4242, ext. 3902). I urge you to do the same.

Later: Here's the take on this from Cosmo Macero Jr. of the Boston Herald.

And from Dan Gillmor. And Derek Willis in The Scoop.

Verizon must reveal song swapper names

Breaking news from Reuters via Yahoo: A U.S. court said on Thursday that Verizon Communications must reveal the names of customers suspected of downloading copyrighted songs from the Internet without permission.

Here's the EFF's take: Court Gives Hollywood Broad Powers to Violate Your Privacy.

High Court considers speech by Nike

Fascinating issue taken up by the US Supreme Court in oral arguments yesterday. At issue: whether statements by Nike about its business practices amount to advertising or protected commercial speech. The Washington Post has the lowdown.

SF Chron reporter fired

Henry Norr, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter suspended after being arrested at a rally opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, was fired Wednesday.

Blindsided by bandwidth fees

Glenn writes in the New York Times today about his experience in dodging a $15,000 bandwidth bullet. Interesting, and a good warning.

Burn, mix, back up

NY Times: Burn, Mix, Copy, Back Up: A short article on a software suite that does it all.

The era of the shiny silver disc is flourishing now that compact discs and DVD's have become standard mediums for listening to music, watching movies and storing more data than that drawer of old diskettes. For those who have the power to burn but are not yet sure what they want to do with that CD or DVD recorder, a software suite from Pinnacle Systems can handle just about any audio, video or system backup project that might come to mind.

An electronic tag for Fido

NY Times: An electronic tag for your pet.

Rheingold on the 'end of innovation'

Wired News reports from the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies conference, with a spotlight on author Howard Rheingold, who warns that technologists' freedom to innovate is under attack from governments and corporate interests. He tells programmers and developers to protect their interests in the political process.