- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

A wild week for the Net
by David Post Jan. 23, 2012

Jan. 23, 2012

http://volokh.com/2012/01/20/a-milestone-week-for-the-net/ ******************************* David G. Post Professor, Beasley School of Law, Temple University David.Post(a)temple.edu 215-204-4539 In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace http://www.tinyurl.com/jeffersonsmoose Work: http://www.davidpost.com Music: http://www.myspace.com/davidgpost *******************************

2 1

COMMUNIA policy paper on proposed amendments to PSI Directive
by Giuseppe Futia Jan. 22, 2012

Jan. 22, 2012

Today the COMMUNIA International Association presents its second policy paper<http://www.communia-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/120122commun…>. The paper is a reaction to the European Commission’s proposal to amend the Directive on re-use of public sector information<http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/docs/pdfs/opendata2012/r…>(2003/98/EC). COMMUNIA is supportive of the Commission’s suggested changes to the PSI Directive — most notably the decision to include cultural heritage institutions into the scope of the amended Directive. Access to and re-use of public sector information (PSI) has been one of the issues that has featured prominently in the work of COMMUNIA. The EC proposal to amend the PSI Directive is aligned with one of COMMUNIA’s January 2011 policy recommendations<http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/> (#13), which states, “The PSI Directive needs to be broadened, by increasing its scope to include publicly funded memory organisations – such as museums or galleries – and strengthened by mandating that Public Sector Information will be made freely available for all to use and re-use without restriction.” [...] Continua qui: http://www.communia-association.org/2012/01/22/communia-policy-paper-on-pro…

1 0

Licenze "capestro" per chi pubblica con iBooks Author di Apple
by Federico Guerrini Jan. 22, 2012

Jan. 22, 2012

Due interessanti articoli: Qui http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_apple_why_does_it_have_to_be_like_… E qui: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/apples-mind-bogglingly-greedy-and-evil-licen… Ciao, Fed. -- www.federicoguerrini.com Il mio ultimo libro: Vivere Social http://www.bol.it/libri/Vivere-social.-Manuale/Federico-Guerrini/ea97888971…

3 2

Bel profilo di Danah Boyd sul NY Times
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 22, 2012

Jan. 22, 2012

Un bel profilo di Danah Boyd, con anche un estratto dei principali risultati delle sue ricerche. juan carlos January 20, 2012 Cracking Teenagers' Online Codes By PAMELA PAUL WITH her coordinated zebra-striped scarf, tights and arm warmers (arm warmers?), spiky out-to-there hat and pierced tongue, 34-year-old Danah Boyd provides an electric Gen Y contrast to the staid gray lobby of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, Mass., which she enters in a flurry of animated conversation, Elmo-decorated iPhone <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/index…> in hand. In a juxtaposition that causes her no end of mischievous delight, her laptop bears a sticker of Snow White, whose outstretched arm gently cradled the Apple logo. But Dr. Boyd --- a senior researcher at Microsoft, an assistant professor at New York University and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard --- is a widely respected figure in social media research. With a number of influential scholarly papers under her name, she travels relentlessly, tweets under the handle Zephoria and has fans trailing her at TED conferences, at South by Southwest and elsewhere on the high-tech speaking circuit. She is also a kind of rock star emissary from the online and offline world of teenagers. The young subjects of her research become her friends on Facebook and subscribe to her Twitter feed. [...] Continua qui: www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/fashion/danah-boyd-cracking-teenagers-online-cod…

1 0

RWW: "International Reaction to Megaupload Indictment: This Means War"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 21, 2012

Jan. 21, 2012

International Reaction to Megaupload Indictment: This Means War <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/international_reaction_to_megaupload_i…> By Scott M. Fulton, III <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/author/scott-fulton.php> / January 20, 2012 4:30 PM A sizable chunk of Internet traffic went dark yesterday. No, I'm not talking about a SOPA protest. The #91 Web site on the entire Internet, Megaupload, was taken down <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/megaupload_shut_down_anonymous_retalia…> after U.S. authorities executed a warrant to seize its Virginia-based servers and arrest four of its proprietors in New Zealand. To give you some perspective: On Google AdPlanner's scale, Walmart.com is #97. Social document sharing service Scribd.com is #90. Huffington Post is #86. To pretend it's a revelation that Megaupload trafficked in illicit material is like Claude Rains being "shocked, /shocked/ to find that /gambling/ is going on in here!" That said, its "front parlor," if you will, had many legitimate customers who had posted non-infringing files. So the big question that Colombia's NTN24 news anchor Mónica Fonseca* asked me was essentially, "What has happened to everyone's files?" [...] Continua qui: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/international_reaction_to_megaupload_i…

1 0

Un celebre matematico e l'open access
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 21, 2012

Jan. 21, 2012

Il celebre matematico inglese Timothy Gowers, professore a Cambridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Gowers) sul suo blog spiega perchè da questo momento in avanti non collaborerà più con Elsevier (sostenitrice, tra l'altro, di SOPA/PIPA) . juan carlos Gowers's Weblog <http://gowers.wordpress.com/> Mathematics related discussions Elsevier --- my part in its downfall <http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-its-downfall/> January 21, 2012 The Dutch publisher Elsevier publishes many of the world's best known mathematics journals, including Advances in Mathematics, Comptes Rendus, Discrete Mathematics, The European Journal of Combinatorics, Historia Mathematica, Journal of Algebra, Journal of Approximation Theory, Journal of Combinatorics Series A, Journal of Functional Analysis, Journal of Geometry and Physics, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, Journal of Number Theory, Topology, and Topology and its Applications. For many years, it has also been heavily criticized for its business practices. Let me briefly summarize these criticisms. [...] Continua qui: http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-its-downfall/

1 0

Fwd: [ NNSquad ] The Megaupload Mega-Mess: When Innocents Are Crushed
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 21, 2012

Jan. 21, 2012

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ NNSquad ] The Megaupload Mega-Mess: When Innocents Are Crushed Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:17:11 -0800 From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren(a)vortex.com> To: nnsquad(a)nnsquad.org The Megaupload Mega-Mess: When Innocents Are Crushed http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000933.html By now you no doubt are aware of the massive (and probably unprecedented in terms of Internet scope) international seizure by the U.S. of the Megaupload file sharing service and many of its principal characters. Word is that famed attorney Robert Bennett will be representing the Megaupload defendants. The scale of the operation -- with agents swooping in like ninjas -- and the way the various governments involved are touting the results, seem more in line with the plot for the James Bond film "Goldfinger" than a copyright enforcement action. But as far as I know, there weren't nuclear bombs ticking away in the Megaupload data centers, set to explode and make everyone's data radioactive. But for innocent users of Megaupload, including vast numbers of paying users who have been using the site for completely legitimate file transfer purposes, their data might as well be radioactive now, or simply "blown to bits" in a mushroom cloud. Because despite the fact that Megaupload seems to now be in "Whac-A-Mole" mode, popping up and vanishing under various IP addresses, for most users their data has effectively been sucked into the Roach Motel, past the event horizon into a black hole of government evidence and assets forfeitures. Let's be clear -- there does appear to be plenty of evidence that the operators of Megaupload were indeed engaged in a criminal enterprise at some level, that made a lot of money based on copyright infringements. To the extent that this is true, they and any users who knowingly participated in their scheme deserve to be punished, but with all due process rigorously observed. But what of the innocent users of Megaupload? Where is their due process in this game of international data seizures? There is something extremely disquieting in this picture of governments (especially when reaching into other countries) preemptively shutting down Internet services on which law-abiding persons depend. The U.S. government in particular has become extremely enamored of seizing assets prior to trial, and in some cases not returning them intact to users in the case of their being found innocent. Auctioning off such seizures has become a tidy little profit center. This behavior can be viewed as problematic on its face when innocents are involved, but the extension of this sort of logic to the Internet world and cloud-based data storage services could be catastrophic. One analogy is the safe deposit boxes in a bank. There are certainly cases where the government seizes specific boxes, or states sell off the content of "abandoned" boxes (both controversial issues, I should add). But the Megaupload case is more akin to the government seizing every safe deposit box in a bank because the bank owners (and possibly some percentage of the safe deposit box users) were simply accused -- not yet convicted -- of engaging in a crime. What of the little old lady with her life savings in her box, or the person who needs to access important documents, all legitimate, all honest, no crimes of any sort involved. They are -- to use the vernacular -- screwed. Whether or not the legitimate users of Megaupload ever get their data back (possibly after it has all been rifled for goodies by various governments), it's clear that honest users who have depended on Megaupload are being seriously injured right now by this sort of government action, which seemingly equates impounding a stolen car with shutting off access to vast quantities of non-infringing users' data, without obvious recourse for those users. While acknowledging the government's legitimate interest in taking action against specific large-scale copyright violations, the requirements of due process and in particular the protection of innocent parties must have priority. You don't arrest everyone at a football game because a wanted criminal may be among the crowd. At least, not unless you're attempting to channel the old East German "Stasi" secret police sensibilities. Our ability to confidently use the ever expanding array of important and useful cloud-based data services of all kinds rests on the assumption that our data will be safe from government overreaching and intrusions into the affairs of law-abiding citizens and their property -- including their data stored on remote Internet servers. Otherwise, we may find ourselves figuratively in much the same position as 007, strapped to a table with a laser beam moving inexorably up between our legs, wondering if our next data transfer may be our last. "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect your data to DIE!" As Shakespeare wrote, "the most unkindest cut of all." We must do better than that. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren(a)vortex.com) http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad

2 1

seminario su Bilanci Partecipativi
by fiorella de cindio Jan. 21, 2012

Jan. 21, 2012

cari Amici, il prossimo 25 gennaio dalle 14 alle 18 nella Sala Conferenze di Palazzo Reale (Piazza Duomo, MIlano). si terra' un workshop su: "Bilanci partecipativi: uno strumento di democrazia deliberativa in tempi di crisi: le esperienze offline per progettare gli strumenti online" il seminario e' organizzato dal Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione (nell'ambito del corso di Cittadinanza Digitale e Tecnocivismo che tengo con il collega Andrea Trentini), ma la collocazione a Palazzo Reale e' dovuta all'interesse e all'impegno di Milly Moratti (Delegata del Sindaco Pisapia al Progetto della Rete degli Sportelli Territoriali di Partecipazione Civica) e di alcuni altri consiglieri comunali, che hanno accolto la proposta di partecipare e promuovere il seminario. Le realzioni saranno tenute da: - Leonardo Avritzer, docente al Dipartimento di Scienza politica dell Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais di Belo Horizonte (Brazil); - Stefano Stortone, dottorato in Scienze Politiche allUniversità Cattolica di Milano; - Ewa Krzatala-Jaworska, dottoranda in Scienze Politiche presso lUniversità Sorbona di Parigi. Profilo dei relatori allegato Programma ed elenco di chi ha confermato la presenza (tra cui tre assessore) all'URL www.partecipami.it/workshop25gennaio2012 un caro saluto -- fiorella

1 0

selezione collaboratore per Copyleft-Italia
by Simone Aliprandi Jan. 21, 2012

Jan. 21, 2012

Il Progetto Copyleft-Italia.it cerca un collaboratore per la gestione di progetti legati al web e all'editoria elettronica. Leggi l'annuncio: http://aliprandi.blogspot.com/2012/01/selezione-collaboratori-per-copyleft.… (vi sarei grato se riusciste a far circolare il più possibile quest'annuncio) -- Simone Aliprandi - http://www.aliprandi.org

1 0

Figshare: a new way to publish scientific research data
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 21, 2012

Jan. 21, 2012

Sembra un'iniziativa interessante, ma non ho analizzato i "terms and conditions", ovvero, pagine e pagine di legalese puro: http://figshare.com/terms Se qualcuno avesse voglia di leggerle, penso interessebbe a molti capire meglio (sottoscritto incluso). Grazie! juan carlos Figshare: a new way to publish scientific research data 18 Jan, 2012 tags: Figshare <http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/tag/figshare/>, Open Access <http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/tag/open-access/>, Science publishing <http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/tag/science-publishing/> by Wellcome Trust <http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/author/wellcomepublishing/> URL articolo: http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/figshare/ /Figshare logo <http://wellcometrust.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/image00.png>Mark Hahnel introduces a new free service aiming to push forward open access./ The Wellcome Trust has a strong view <http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Spotlight-issues/Open-access/Poli…> on open access and scientific data, expecting authors of research to "maximise the opportunities to make their results available for free". Other funders have statements along similar lines <http://prezi.com/_4flhln1mycv/can-i-share-my-research/> and the UK's science minister, David Willetts recently declared <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/08/publicly-funded-research-open…>a "commitment by the coalition [government] to transparency and open access to publicly funded data". Yet scientists are notoriously secretive, due in no small part to the current model of scientific publishing. Scientists carry out research to push the boundaries of knowledge. In the current model of dissemination, a small fraction of this knowledge is handed over to journals in the form of scientific articles, or 'papers', for them to sell at a profit (with profit margins increasing <http://www.arl.org/bm%7Edoc/arlstats06.pdf>). Is this how science should be disseminated? The current process is based on a 17th century model <http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/11/21/altmetrics-twitter/>, which was undoubtedly the best way to share this knowledge at the time. But today, the internet offers new ways <http://figshare.com> to publish scientific data that many argue to be better. Over the last decade, open access publishing has flourished, perhaps even begun to dominate, scientific publishing -- it was recently claimed <http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2011/01/plos-one-now-worlds-largest-jou…> that PLoS ONE may be the largest journal in the world in terms of article numbers. Yet one problem that remains is the amount of data that remains unpublished, unshared and essentially wasted. But why is this? As Professor Colin Blakemore <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Blakemore> suggested in a Radio 4 interview <http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b018xsmb>recently, "Memory is getting cheaper, access to information is getting much, much easier. So why shouldn't we just simply put the raw data for everything that scientists do up on the web, accessible to every other scientists, so that they can scrutinise it, use it, data-mine it, combine it with other information and gain more useful evidence?" This is where our venture comes in. Figshare <http://figshare.com> is a free service allowing researchers to publish all of their research outputs to the web in seconds in an easily citable, sharable and discoverable manner. We aim to show researchers that they can get the credit for all of their research, whilst at the same time moving research forward in a more efficient <http://intermolecular.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/raw-data-in-organic-chemistr…> manner. Researchers can publish figures, datasets, tables, videos, anything. All file formats can be published, including videos and datasets that are often demoted to the supplemental materials section in current journals. Up to 1GB of data can be stored privately for free, and users have unlimited space for publicly available research. Using this, researchers could easily publish null results, avoiding the file drawer effect <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication_bias> and helping to make scientific research more efficient by opening up <http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/06/27/social-media-is-in…> the peer review process. We also use Creative Commons <http://creativecommons.org/> licensing to allow frictionless sharing of research data, while allowing researchers to choose when and if they make data publicly available. Scientists are notoriously secretive -- as Professor Peter Murray-Rust of Cambridge points out <http://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2011/08/02/what%E2%80%99s-wrong-with-scholarl…>, "the primary purpose of publication for most academics is self-advancement". Yet the idea that secrecy in research will ultimately lead to individual success means that scientific research as a whole is suffering. We focus on giving users credit for all of their research. There's increasing evidence for open access increasing impact <http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html>. By using both traditional measures of impact (i.e. the number of citations) alongside new ones such as altmetrics <http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/>, Figshare gives researchers a greater level of information, and realtime measurements, of the true reach of their research, without having to wait for other researchers to cite it in another research paper. Research statistics <http://wellcometrust.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/image01.png> New and established methods of tracking impact are recorded on figshare. For the first time in over 300 years of academic publishing, we could access the sum of all scientific knowledge. By providing a way to store all research data in the cloud, and share it in a quick and simple manner, we hope to help make this possible. *Mark Hahnel* /Dr Mark Hahnel <http://www.digital-science.com/mark-hahnel/> is Product Manager of Figshare <http://figshare.com>./ /Figshare is supported by //Digital Science <http://www.digital-science.com>, a sister company of Nature./ /Figshare is not affiliated with the Wellcome Trust. Views expressed in this article are the author's own./

1 0