South African lessons: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)
Lawrence Lessig notes on his blog the experience
of the HSRC changing their publishing model. They started “to give away all their research books for free online, and offer a high quality print-on-demand service for anyone who wants the paper version. The result: ‘the sales turnover of the publishing department has risen by 300%.’”
White House Urges Newsweek to Repair Damage Caused by Report - New York Times (registration may be required. If so, go to BugMeNot)
Does anyone else see a problem here? Newsweek has retracted its story about Gitmo interogators flushing of the Quran. They did this not because it was a false statement but because the Bush administration forced them to out of concern for US image abroad — which is already where the Gitmo copy of the Quran may or may not be. Is there more proof needed that our government is manipulating our media?
Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine decided to publish the short item after hearing from an unnamed U.S. official that a government probe had found evidence a Quran had been flushed down a toilet by interrogators.
But on Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told the magazine that a review of the military’s investigation concluded ”it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration.” The spokesman also said the Pentagon had looked into other charges by detainees that the Quran had been desecrated and found them to be ”not credible.”
Whitaker said the magazine’s original source later said he could not be sure he had read about the alleged Quran incident in the report Newsweek cited and that it might have been in another document.
Part 1: Principal Findings: Beyond Red vs. Blue
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has recently released its study about American politics and the 2004 election. It is the fourth such typology created by the Pew Research Center since 1987. The study found that “Overall, there are many more shades to the American political landscape than just the red and blue dividing the Electoral College maps last Nov. 2.”
Republicans have neither gained nor lost in party identification in 2005. Moreover, divisions within the Republican coalition over economic and domestic issues may loom larger in the future, given the increasing salience of these matters. The Democratic party faces its own formidable challenges, despite the fact that the public sides with them on many key values and policy questions. Their constituencies are more diverse and, while united in opposition to President Bush, the Democrats are fractured by differences over social and personal values.
Free Press : 2005 National Conference for Media Reform
It’s happening this weekend in St Louis. You don’t have to be there to get in on the action. According to Amy Goodman at Democracy Now (in an interview with Urbana IMC’s Sasha Meinrath!), Bill Moyers will make his first public statement on the growing controversy over PBS at the plenary session on sunday.
There’s a live video stream starting at 6pm PST today and audio files of panels and sessions. There are also bloggers galore including media geek.
Check out the list of speakers:
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange, Code Pink
David Brock, Media Matters for America
Laura Flanders, Author, radio host
Bill Fletcher, TransAfrica Forum
Al Franken, Air America Radio
Kim Gandy, Nat’l Organization for Women
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Juan Gonzalez, NY Daily News
Robert Greenwald, Director, Outfoxed
Jim Hightower, Author, Commentator
Janine Jackson, FAIR
Naomi Klein, Author, Columnist
George Lakoff, Author, Professor
Robert McChesney, Founder, Free Press
Victor Navasky, The Nation
John Nichols, Founder, Free Press
Diane Watson, U.S. House
hamletworks
“Hamlet Works is based on the materials of the New Variorum Hamlet Project. It contains sets of entries (not yet complete) detailing the textual and critical history of every line of the play. ”
An article in the CHE describes the project as
“every piece of scholarship and criticism about the play” linked “line by line, to the text in an online database.”
(Online Database Will Hold the Mirror Up to ‘Hamlet,’ Gathering Every Commentary on the Play
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG.
Chronicle of Higher Education, Tuesday, May 10, 2005.)
Public Knowledge - Broadcast Flag Court Challenge
Well, it’s more than TIVO fans, it’s anyone who uses electronics. The FCC’s broadcast flag has been shot down by the US Court of Appeals! This is a major victory for libraries as it strengthens the fair use doctrine of the copyright law — ALA, AALL, Medical Library Assn, Special Library Assn etc filed the lawsuit along with Public Knowledge and others. The broadcast flag would’ve required future digital television (DTV) tuners to include DRM technologies.
From the opinion (PDF):
The insurmountable hurdle facing the FCC in this case is that the agency’s general jurisdictional grant does not encompass the regulation of consumer electronics products that can be used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission.
Here’s some background on the broadcast flag from wikipedia. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also has some in-depth information.
Greg Schwartz promotes information access and literacy for all. Check out his podcasts regarding all areas of interest to libraries. He even mentions Free Government Information in Podcast #10. Check it out.