Hypercrit

Michael Becker writes about journalism, new media and digital culture in general.

Month: November, 2006

Net Neutrality

I saw my first “political ad” against Net Neutrality. “Are you Google eyed over net neutrality?” the commercial asked. According to Bresnan Communications, Net Neutrality will raise our access costs, allowing the, so called, big time Silicon Valley tycoons to line their pockets with our hard earned dollars. I half expected the candidate’s voice at […]

Wikispy

Some U.S. intelligence agencies are using a system running on wiki software to gather information in a collaborative, real-time environment. The system gathers intelligence, at varying degrees of classification, from 16 different agencies.
Interestingly, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times:
Officials said they were not making the network available to members of Congress or other […]

Liminal Dictionary

From Ben Vershbow on the if:book blog: a dictionary in transition
James Gleick had a fascinating piece in the Times Sunday magazine on how the Oxford English Dictionary is reinventing itself in the digital age. The O.E.D. has always had to keep up with a rapidly evolving English language. It took over 60 years, and two major […]

Wikipedia Conflict of Interests

Wikipedia recently deleted an article on a little known psychological theory called “NPA personality theory” because the article was written the the scientist who proposed the theory. Dr. Anthony Benis has since posted the article to his Web site, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Publisher Protection

The New York Time reported today that the California Supreme Court determined Internet publishers could not be held accountable for defamatory comments posted to their sites. The decision says that plaintiffs may only sue the original source of the comment: the author, not Yahoo! or Google.