- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

"The Next Web and its Impact on Government Communication", Bruxelles, 16 febbraio 2012
by Daria Santucci Feb. 15, 2012

Feb. 15, 2012

Gentilissime/i, qualora possa interessarvi, vi segnalo il convegno "The Next Web and its Impact on Government Communication", domani a Bruxelles. Porterò un contributo nel panel del primo pomeriggio. Previsto live coverage (http://consilium.europa.eu/web4gov) e live tweeting (#web4gov). Buona giornata, Daria -- Daria Santucci, Ph.D. Professor of Web Communication Semiotics Communications Professional Journalist +39 347 2512926 www.vitaminapubblica.org www.progetto-rena.it/author/daria_santucci

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Fwd: [A2k] Facebook France helping Sarkozy... ? O_o
by J.C. DE MARTIN Feb. 15, 2012

Feb. 15, 2012

(in mobilità) Begin forwarded message: > From: soufron <soufron(a)gmail.com> > Date: 14 febbraio 2012 14:09:41 GMT-05:00 > To: a2k(a)lists.keionline.org > Subject: [A2k] Facebook France helping Sarkozy... ? O_o > Reply-To: soufron(a)gmail.com > > Dear Guys, > > some of our French newspapers are reporting from France that Facebook > France has been informally assisting Nicolas Sarkozy's web campaign team so > as to give him some developer time, allow him to access advanced functions, > and create a Timeline on his Fan Page - a world premiere bringing tons of > good press to his campaign. > > Journalists and inside sources named a Facebook executive named Julien > Codorniou. For this purpose, he has been working directly with Nicolas > Princen, Sarkozy's official web advisor and Loic Le Meur, who is also very > close to the President. > > Their aim was to achieve a good media coverage for Nicolas Sarkozy, and > have him depicted as an advanced user of Internet communication - which you > and Marc Zuckerberg must know is far from the truth. > > This implication of Facebook within the French presidential campaign is > unacceptable. If they have really been working on such a feature for weeks > or months, they should have offered it equally to all the candidates, and > planned its release at the same time. > > I am aware that Facebook is no traditional media. However, I am surprised > that they would take sides in a presidential campaign by providing > technical and intellectual support which may give a competitive advantage > to one of the candidates. As a result, the staff of François Hollande - a > democrat and the current favorite - already decided to cancel a meeting > they had planned with the French representatives of Facebook. > > Who to forward it to at Facebook US...? > > I am sure they would be very surprised to learn that some of their people > are using their company's resources to support a republican candidate in a > local election... > > ... or maybe a story for you? Or any help you could think of? > > Here is an article about it in "L'Express": > http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/facebook-roule-t-il-pour-sarkozy… > > And it will be in "Le Canard Enchainé" tomorrow morning. > > Best regards, > > Jean-Baptiste Soufron > > blog : http://www.soufron.com > chroniques france culture : http://www.youtube.com/soufron > > phone: +33 (0) 970 466 928 > mobile: +33 (0) 648 741 510 > fax: +33 (0) 950 140 164 > skype: soufron > twitter: soufron > gtalk : soufron(a)gmail.com > _______________________________________________ > A2k mailing list > A2k(a)lists.keionline.org > http://lists.keionline.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k_lists.keionline.org

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Fwd: BOAI Ten Years On
by J.C. DE MARTIN Feb. 15, 2012

Feb. 15, 2012

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: BOAI Ten Years On Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:27:06 -0500 From: LIBLICENSE <liblicense(a)GMAIL.COM> Reply-To: LibLicense-L Discussion Forum <LIBLICENSE-L(a)LISTSERV.CRL.EDU> To: <LIBLICENSE-L(a)LISTSERV.CRL.EDU> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:30:25 +0200 From: Iryna Kuchma<iryna.kuchma(a)eifl.net> To mark the 10th anniversary of the BOAI -http://blog.soros.org/2012/02/ten-years-on-researchers-embrace-open-access/ Ten Years On, Researchers Embrace Open Access February 14, 2012 | by Melissa Hagemann How long does it take for an idea to turn into a movement for change? And how long before that movement achieves its goals? Today, the tenth anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, seems like a good time to ask these questions. The term “Open Access” (OA), the free online availability of research literature, was first coined at an Open Society sponsored meeting in Budapest in December 2001. The Information Program had supported the distribution of hard copies of scientific journals to universities in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and was interested in harnessing the power of the internet to more easily put academic research in the hands of those who could benefit. So we brought together leaders who were exploring alternative publishing models. The group hammered out a declaration that would provide the public with unrestricted, free access to scholarly research—much of which is publicly funded. The declaration, the Budapest Open Access Initiative, urged academics to place their research in institutional archives and it encouraged the creation of new open access journals. The result? Ten years on, troves of scholarly research and information—which had largely been the domain of elite universities and wealthy countries who could afford it—are freely available to the public. Today, Open Access is at the forefront of discussions about scholarly communications in the digital age. Open Access is taught in universities, debated in Parliaments, embraced and opposed by publishers, and most importantly, mandated by over 300 research funders and institutions, including the largest funder of research in the world, the U.S. National Institutes of Health. This rise to prominence is all the more remarkable when considering how ambitious the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) was, as it sought to change an $8 billion industry. Few beyond the initial BOAI participants shared the vision that change was possible. The release of the BOAI declaration, urging publishers and academics to make research freely available, was followed by two similar initiatives that strengthened the base of support for Open Access: the Bethesda Statement from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Berlin Declaration which originated from the Max Planck Society. While HHMI, Max Planck, and OSF provided the framework, it has been the library and research communities who have organized their members and driven the Open Access agenda. Today, scholarly content and research is freely available online to doctors, patients, professors, and students around the world. Nearly 7,500 academic journals are readily accessible in the Directory of Open Access Journals and more than 2,000 archives are included in the Directory of Open Access Repositories. While much has been achieved to make research freely available, it’s fair to say the BOAI was initially greeted with immense scepticism – even ridicule – by the traditional scholarly publishing sector. Many of my favorite milestones for the movement have to do with the gradual softening of that initial stance, as some traditional publishers have begun to see the value of Open Access to their business. The launch in 2006 of PLoS One, the Open Access “mega-journal,” has been much copied by traditional publishers, and has put its OA publisher, the Public Library of Science, firmly in the black. The purchase of the OA publisher BioMed Central in 2008 by one of the two market leaders in scholarly journal publishing, Springer, further vindicated the OA model. We are also encouraged by support from major donors for medical research and from academic institutions. The Wellcome Trust in the UK was the first funder in the world to mandate Open Access to the research it funds. Many of the schools of Harvard University have also adopted OA mandates. But the single most exciting development in this field has been the National Institutes of Health mandate, launched in 2008, that requires research they fund using taxpayer money be made publicly available. This mandate alone places $30 billion of research in the hands of the public every year. However the fight for open access to research has not been won. The U.S. Congress is considering reversing the NIH mandate in a bill – the Research Works Act – backed by traditional publishers. Discussions of Open Access policies will be just one item on the agenda of a gathering of OA leaders, taking place today and tomorrow in Budapest. We plan to develop a set of recommendations which will help guide the movement over the next ten years. We will be exploring issues of sustainability, what we can do to further support OA in developing and transition countries, and what implications OA has for measuring the impact of research, and encouraging its reuse. But just like the first meeting in Budapest, we will be keeping the agenda as open as possible. We want to encourage the creative thinking that led to the conception of Open Access in the first place, thinking that has inspired a global movement which cannot now be claimed by any single institution, but is a testament to the power of a good idea to spread across institutional boundaries and disciplines. ****

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Roma, 22 Febbraio, Giornata di studio sul tema: Banda Larga e Societa'
by Norberto Patrignani Feb. 14, 2012

Feb. 14, 2012

Carissim*, per vs info vi allego il link dell'evento in oggetto http://www.associazioneaict.it/gds_item.asp?item=277&nt=p saluto cordialmente Norberto Patrignani

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Impronte elettroniche: l’identità tra pubblico e privato
by Arturo Filastò Feb. 14, 2012

Feb. 14, 2012

Nel 2008 scrissi questo saggio sulla privacy e l'identità senza mai pubblicarlo. Nonostante sia un po' datato secondo me contiene ancora degli spunti interessanti. http://hellais.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/impronte-elettroniche-lidentita-tra… (se siete iscritti anche in m-list e-privacy scusate per il crosspost) - Art.

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Funzionalità di ricerca introdotta negli archivi delle liste del Centro NEXA
by Giuseppe Futia Feb. 14, 2012

Feb. 14, 2012

Siamo lieti di informarvi che negli archivi delle mailing-list pubbliche del Centro NEXA su Internet & Società è stata introdotta la funzionalità di ricerca. Gli archivi delle liste che dispongono di tale funzionalità sono accessibili agli indirizzi seguenti: - lista nexa (http://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/nexa/) - lista nexa-announce (http://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/nexa/) - lista communia (http://lists.communia-project.eu/pipermail/communia/) - lista communia-associates ( http://lists.communia-association.org/pipermail/communia-associates/) - lista lapsi (http://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/lapsi/) -- Giuseppe Futia Communications Manager NEXA Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino web: http://nexa.polito.it mail: giuseppe.futia(a)polito.it tel. +39 011 090 7219

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L'Espresso: Ma il copyright è un diritto naturale?
by a.dicorinto＠uniroma1.it Feb. 14, 2012

Feb. 14, 2012

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ESN-IAMCR CfP Deadline Extension: *February 28th, 2012*
by Francesca Musiani Feb. 14, 2012

Feb. 14, 2012

Dear colleagues, please note that the deadline for presenting your abstract to the ESN section of the 2012 IAMCR conference has been extended to *February 28th*. Apologies for cross-posting. Regards, Francesca ---- Announcement of Deadline Extension for IAMCR Durban 2012 The deadline for submissions of abstracts of papers and panel proposals for the IAMCR Durban 2012 Conference has been extended to February 28, 2012. This will permit applicants from all continents who could not make the earlier deadline to now submit their abstracts or panels for consideration for Durban. The conference is to be held from July 15-19, 2012 at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa. The 2012 IAMCR conference will be held under the general theme, 'South-North Conversations'. The theme calls for balanced and empowering narratives between communications thinkers in developing countries, sometimes referred to as the 'global south' and those of the developed countries in the 'north'. It seeks to expose the interactive linkage of ideas and research initiatives within and across development and cultural regions. Participants in the conference will interrogate the compatibilities and disjunctures in media and communication concepts originating respectively from the ‘Global South’ and the 'Global North'. In choosing the theme ‘South-North Conversations’, the conference organisers acknowledge that the ‘South’ has something important to say to the ‘North’, and vice versa, and further that the ‘North’ has something to gain from its relationships with the ‘South’. The concept of 'conversations', indicates peer-to-peer dialogue, and a more interdependent vision of global conceptual engagements. The conference will also seek to explore the varied modalities and technologies of communication, new methods of media flows and of associated identity creation, image-making and perceptions globally. It will examine the diverse forms of technology transfers and literacies from differently-situated regions of the globe, and differently- situated communities within regions, countries or organisations. Contributions from both established researchers as well as from young and emerging scholars are equally encouraged. Selected Issues Some of the sub-themes that lend themselves to exploration across many of the IAMCR Sections and Working groups include: • Revisiting 20th century media and communication constructs • Critically evaluating communications research in the global south • Uneven access to technological, political and social capital • Varied access to information technologies • Alternative media literacies • Issues of the so-called ‘digital divide’ post WSIS • Asymmetrical news and information flows • Trend lines and origins of innovations, apps and new media • The spectre or reality of cultural imperialism: regional, global • Fighting back: empowerment of the local and regional • Local languages – a growth area or reversals in current global media eco-systems • Media development, democracy and ethics • Social media, challenge and advocacy • Users and service providers: north and south • Communication as a tool of empowerment of the marginalised and the stigmatized • Global media hegemony, regional hegemony and counter hegemony • Whose story?: competing historical narratives of communication from the north and south • Any other topic related to the general conference theme Submission of Abstracts Each Section and Working Group of the IAMCR has issued its own Call for Papers, based on the general thematic outline above. The list of Sections and Working Groups and links to their respective Calls may be found at the Conference website below. The deadline extension to February 28 applies to ALL IAMCR Section and Working Groups, and supersedes any prior deadline notations which may appear on some earlier announcements. Abstracts should be submitted only via the central Open Conference System (OCS) at http://iamcr-ocs.org/. Deadlines In light of the new abstracts deadline of February 28, 2012. The OCS system at http://iamcr-ocs.org/ will also close on February 28, 2012. Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to individual applicants by their Section or Working Group Heads no later than March 19, 2012. Conference registration will open as originally scheduled on March 12, 2012 for bookings by participants. For those whose abstracts are accepted, full conference papers are to be submitted via the IAMCR OCS by June 10, 2012. Guidelines for Abstracts Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words in length. http://www.iamcr-ocs.org/ www.iamcr-ocs.org On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Francesca Musiani <francesca.musiani(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > just a reminder that the deadline for presenting your abstract > proposals for the Emerging Scholars Network section of the 2012 IAMCR > conference is two weeks away, *February 14th*. Apologies for > cross-posting. > > Best regards, > Francesca > > ---------------- > > International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) > > DURBAN 2012 > > EMERGING SCHOLARS NETWORK SECTION CALL FOR PAPERS > > > > The Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) invites you to participate in the > 2012 International Congress of the IAMCR to be held on July 15-19, > 2012 at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu Natal > (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa. This year’s theme is South North > Conversations. We call for general academic papers in Communication > and Media Studies as well as papers addressing the concrete conference > theme. > > Diverging from traditional world systems implications, this theme > reflects the asymmetry of global communication flows, without > suggesting the negatives that usually accompany discussions of the > 'digital divide' within the context of the “global south.” The term > ‘global south’ refers to countries, territories and communities that > have been excluded from the mainstream of economic, social and > communication development. In much of the discourse around global > geo-politics, these countries and communities are still regarded as > the recipients of economic and technical largesse from more developed > sources. It is the theme of this conference to interrogate this > assumption, and to emphasize the communicative empowerment and the > positive potential of media and communication in and from the ‘Global > South’. For more information on this year’s conference theme please > see the general call for papers. > > The ESN is a section dedicated to the work and careers of emerging > scholars in the field of media and communication. Hence, we especially > look for works in progress from graduate students and new university > instructors/professors who are interested in substantial feedback and > comments intended to advance their projects. > > > > The ESN organizes emerging scholar panels and joint panels with other > sections. Our emerging scholar panels provide a comfortable > environment for the presentation of theses and works in progress, > where emerging scholars can receive feedback from colleagues also at > the beginning of their careers and from senior scholars who act as > respondents to individual papers. The joint panels with other sections > allow for the exchange of ideas with senior scholars in the field and > networking. Should there be enough submissions we are planning to > co-sponsor panels together with the following IAMCR Sections and > Working Groups: Law Section; Gender and Communication Section; Media > Education Section; Political Communication Section; Health, > Communication and Change Working Group; and the Task Force on Media > Policies. > > > > In line with the purpose of our section, the ESN also organizes panels > about issues affecting emerging scholars, such as: > > > > - Publishing research results; > > - Mentoring and the Student-mentor relationship; > > - Academic work and academic jobs; > > - Neoliberalism in the academy; > > - Language barriers in academia. > > > > Scholars who wish to organize or contribute to an issue-related panel > are welcome to contact Sara Bannerman at Sara.Bannerman [at] gmail.com > and Stefania Milan at stefania.milan [at] eui.eu. > > SUBMISSIONS > The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 14, 2012. Please > note that this deadline will not be extended. > The OCS system at http://iamcr-ocs.org will open on December 1, 2012, > and will close on February 14, 2012. > Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to > individual applicants by their Section or Working Group Head no later > than March 12, 2012. > On the same day, March 12, 2012, conference registration will open for > bookings by participants. > > For those whose abstracts are accepted, full conference papers are to > be submitted via the IAMCR OCS by June 10, 2012. > > - Questions may be addressed to the section co-chairs, > Stefania Milan stefania.milan(a)eui.eu and Sara Bannerman at > Sara.Bannerman(a)gmail.com. > > - Submissions must include author name(s), affiliation, > address, e-mail address, and paper title. > > - If you are submitting a work in progress, we welcome your > submission! Please state that it is a work in progress in your > abstract. > > - Abstracts should be 250-300 words. > > > > Please also take a look at our suggestions on how to write an > abstract: http://iamcr.org/component/docman/doc_download/315-2010-esn-how-to-write-an… > > > > New ! Special Call ESN in Spanish / ESN Hispanohablante > > > > El grupo de estudios ESN Hispanohablante y Comunicación > Latinoamericana abre una convocatoria para presentar trabajos en > idioma español en la Conferencia IAMCR 2012. Para el grupo ESN > Hispanohablante y Comunicación Latinoamericana es especialmente > pertinente el tema de la conferencia en Durban, “Conversaciones > Norte-Sur”, que vincula los problemas sociales, las propuestas de > desarrollo sostenible, y los contextos interculturales de América > Latina con varias perspectivas de comunicación ciudadana, estudios de > recepción, comunicación para el desarrollo y metodologías > participativas de la comunicación. > > > > Invitamos investigadores emergentes a presentar propuestas de ponencia > en idioma español y con un enfoque latinoamericano de la comunicación, > que pone énfasis en comunicaciones y contextos socioculturales > diferentes; reflexiona en lo intercultural e interdisciplinar, > adecuando epistemologías, definiciones y metodologías de la > comunicación a la realidad social. Los planteamientos de la > comunicación en América Latina incluyen la diversidad de sujetos > múltiples, negociando identidades y significados ante la modernidad y > procesos de urbanización, mestizaje sociocultural, nuevas narrativas, > medios, lugares y espacios de la comunicación. > > > > Para dudas o preguntas antes de enviar la propuesta, se puede > escribir a Franklin Cornejo (fcu_75(a)yahoo.com) coordinador de > ESN-Hispanohablante y Comunicación Latinoamericana y a la > coordinadora de comunicación de ESN Francesca Musiani > (francesca.musiani(a)gmail.com) > > > > MORE INFORMATION AND UPDATES ABOUT THE ESN > > - Please take a look at our website ((http://iamcr.org/s-wg/cctmc/esn) > - Join the ESN Facebook group > (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44068562342) > - Or subscribe to the ESN listserv > (http://iamcr.org/mailman/listinfo/esn_iamcr.org) > > > > -- > Francesca Musiani > > Ingénieur de recherche ARMINES > Doctorante, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (associé au CNRS, UMR7185) > MINES ParisTech > 60, Boulevard Saint Michel > 75272 PARIS Cedex 06 France > > 33 (0)1 40 51 92 77 > 33 (0)6 45 31 90 53 > francesca.musiani(a)mines-paristech.fr > Site: www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/Perso/Musiani/ > Projet ADAM: adam.hypotheses.org > > Incoming Chair, Outreach & Partnerships Committee, Global Internet > Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) (http://giga-net.org/) > Communications coordinator, Emerging Scholars Network, IAMCR > (http://iamcr.org/s-wg/cctmc/esn) -- Francesca Musiani Ingénieur de recherche ARMINES Doctorante, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (associé au CNRS, UMR7185) MINES ParisTech 60, Boulevard Saint Michel 75272 PARIS Cedex 06 France 33 (0)1 40 51 92 77 33 (0)6 45 31 90 53 francesca.musiani(a)mines-paristech.fr Site: www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/Perso/Musiani/ Projet ADAM: adam.hypotheses.org Incoming Chair, Outreach & Partnerships Committee, Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) (http://giga-net.org/) Communications coordinator, Emerging Scholars Network, IAMCR (http://iamcr.org/s-wg/cctmc/esn)

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Released Neubot 0.4.8
by Simone Basso Feb. 14, 2012

Feb. 14, 2012

Released Neubot 0.4.8 http://www.neubot.org/neubot-0.4.8 Version 0.4.8 is the latest generally-available stable release of Neubot, distributed for Ubuntu >= 10.04, MacOSX >= 10.6, Windows >= XP SP3 and FreeBSD as well as in source format (.tar.gz and .zip). If you have already installed Neubot for Ubuntu, MacOSX or FreeBSD, it should update automatically, and we just kindly ask you to verify that this is the case. As a rule of thumb, if it has not updated after a couple of weeks, well... "Houston, we have a problem." Neubot for Windows, instead, needs manual intervention and you can find instructions here: http://www.neubot.org/install-windows#upgrade Instructions for installing from scratch are available here: http://www.neubot.org/download This release contains 95 patches. The diffstat says: 108 changed files with 3,155 additions and 261 deletions. Here are the most relevant changes: - Perform measurements using M-Lab servers in most cases. Neubot's master server was already redirecting non-Italian users to M-Lab servers in most cases (more on the corner cases later). While Italian users were still using the master server, installed at TopIX, the Turin and Piedmont distributed Internet exchange. The recent installation of Italian M-Lab servers at TopIX allows the Neubot project to use those servers for Italian users. That reduces the load on the master server, which means that the server can now perform more computation during the rendezvous. In this respect, there are plans to return name and prefix of the client's network to build filters for preventing automatic tests in certain networks, e.g. to avoid consuming bandwith when using a 3G Internet key with a small bandwidth cap. Of course, the master server is still used by people that (i) are running old versions (pre 0.4.6) and (ii) have not provided the permission to publish their Internet address. Support for those clients will cease with the release of Neubot 0.5.0, and the Neubot project urges everyone that is running an old client to upgrade to at least 0.4.6. Link to the relevant commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/6bdfc6f3 - Implement scalable server-side data collection. Historically, Neubot has saved results on a sqlite3 database, both on the user and on the server side. The problem with this approach is that the database can't be published without postprocessing, and that reduces the scalability of data collection. At the same time, the M-Lab project was already using a scalable data collection mechanism for other hosted projects. The general idea is that each result is a file on the server file system, and results are periodically harvested using rsync and then published on the web. Starting from this release Neubot employs a file-based backend on the server side, allowing the M-Lab project to perform scalable data collection and publishing. On the user side Neubot is still using the sqlite3 database, which simplifies the web user interface implementation. Link to the relevant commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/0876e7c7 - MacOSX, Ubuntu: Allow to automatically follow development Starting from this version of Neubot, it is possible for users to automatically follow development. Following the development you will be able to run release candidate versions and you'll help to test the code before the release. Instructions for MacOSX users here: http://www.neubot.org/macos-automatically-follow-development For Debian and Ubuntu here: http://www.neubot.org/ubuntu-automatically-follow-development Link to the relevant commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/01141beb - Improve geographic redirection table To redirect users to the closest M-Lab server, Neubot master server uses a redirection table. In general, this table maps countries and continents to one (or more) M-Lab servers. The master server code geolocates the client address and checks whether there are one or more servers in the client's country. If so, it checks thee redirection table, loads all the servers in the country, and returns one server at random. Otherwise, if there isn't a server in the country, the master server loads all the servers in the continent and returns the address of one of them at random. However, the previous incarnation of the redirection table was listing just one server per country or continent. The rationale of that design choice was to always redirect a set of users to the same server, for consistent performances. The idea was to avoid to redirect a user in Spain once to, say, a server in UK and another time to a server in Greece, with radically different latency and possibly affecting performances. Of course, the drawback of this choice was that available M-Lab servers were not used efficiently. The Neubot project was aware of that, and that was meant to be just a temporary arrangement, for starting Neubot deployment on M-Lab. To use more efficiently the available M-Lab servers, the improved redirection table lists all the available servers within a country. As a consequence, users that live in a country that hosts M-Lab servers now perform tests with one of those servers at random. For other users, the old approach is still in place, and they will always perform tests with the default server for their continent. Proper redirection for users that live in a country where there are no M-Lab servers will be implemented in the next Neubot releases. The plan is to delegate the redirection step to DONAR, a specialized DNS server, tightly integrated with M-Lab, that can automatically return the address of the closest M-Lab server. Link to the relevant commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/d704625e - Remove /api/configlables and rewrite /api/config API This change conceptually belongs to the code-rationalization dept., however it is mentioned explicitly because it affects the API between the Neubot and its web user interface. Link to the relevant commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/bd084f77 - Bug fixes Starting from Neubot 0.4.6 I've started collecting know bugs information at: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/wiki/errata Here is the list of bugs that have been fixed since the previous release, along with the link to the relevant commit: * [2012-01-24] In privacy policy v2.0, Measurement-Lab URI is incorrectly reported to be http://www.measurement-lab.net/about, but the correct URI is http://www.measurementlab.net/about. Fixed by this commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/57801743 * [2012-01-24] When a test starts, the results of the last test are not properly cleared in the right sidebar. As a result, if the test fails, you see in the right sidebar the name of the new test and the results of the old test. Reported by Alessio Palmero Aprosio, thanks! Fixed by this commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/593639f9 * [2012-01-24] Under Windows 7, Neubot uninstaller does not show up in the control panel. Should you want to uninstall Neubot, you must do that manually, invoking the uninstall.exe program at ``C:\Users\USER\Neubot``, where USER is your user name. Reported by Alessandro Longo, thanks! Fixed by this commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/3cc80abd * [2012-01-24] The update.html page does not load at a minimum the state.js javascript and, as a results, the right sidebar is not initialized. Fixed by this commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/342aef26 * [2012-01-25] The neubot-nox-0.4.6-1_all.deb file was missing in the releases directory. Spotted by my aunt (!), thanks! This is now fixed in the releases site. * [2012-01-25] The testing-only codepath for speedtest and bittorrent should nonetheless check the privacy settings. Noted while helping Tiziana to debug a Neubot problem with her laptop. Fixed by this commit: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commit/22d3ad5f - More code rationalizations, cleanups and regression tests. Full change log available here: https://raw.github.com/neubot/neubot/0.4.8/ChangeLog Diff since previous version here: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/compare/0.4.6...0.4.8 Commit history here: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/commits/0.4.8 SHA256sums here: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/wiki/sha256 Errata here: https://github.com/neubot/neubot/wiki/errata Data here: http://www.neubot.org/data Thank you, Simone <http://www.neubot.org/people#basso>

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NYT: "Big Savings for U.S. Students in Open-Source Book Program"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Feb. 13, 2012

Feb. 13, 2012

Briefly: Education Big Savings for U.S. Students in Open-Source Book Program By D.D. GUTTENPLAN Published: February 12, 2012 Students worried about the rising cost of college textbooks <http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/textbooks…> are about to get a break. Connexions, an initiative at Rice University <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/rice_un…> in Houston devoted to producing textbooks using open-source materials, will produce free textbooks for five of the most-attended subjects in American colleges. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/us/big-savings-for-us-students-in-open-so…

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