The 10 Coolest Open Source Products Of 2008

Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944). Golgotha, 1900. Art Institute of Chicago Announces Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth

Top 500 worst passwords

By David Pescovitz

From Mark Burnett’s 2005 book Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication, a table of the "Top 500 Worst Passwords Of All Time." (via Beschizza’s Twitter)

UPDATE:…………

Knowledge everywhere: the distributed memory of social media

By Alex Halavais

We know almost nothing about the college years of the 43rd president of the US. We know that George Bush attended Yale University, was a cheerleader, played rugby, and did not excel as a student. Compare that with what we will know about the 49th president. It is very likely she will have a Facebook profile. She may have had a blog. Chances are good that her emails to friends, colleagues, teachers, and lovers will all be preserved, not in a centralized archive, but in the distributed memory of the web. This way of experiencing and recording the world provides new means of learning and of creating and distributing knowledge, and successful knowledge-centric institutions must adapt to this explosion in second-hand experience.

Principles for a New Media Literacy

By Dan Gillmor on News

(This is an HTML reprint of an essay (PDF) of the same title, recently published as part of the Media Re:public project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. I’m posting it here with some links to source material that don’t appear in the PDF version.)

Media are becoming democratized. Digital media tools, increasingly cheap and ubiquitous, have spawned a massive amount of creation at all levels, most notably from the ranks of the grassroots in contrast to traditional, one-to-many publications and broadcasts. The networks that made this possible have provided vast access to what people have created — potentially a global audience for anyone’s creation……

Top 5 Facebook Predictions for 2009

By Nick O’Neill on 2009

Last week we posted out top Facebook stories of 2008. This week it’s time to look ahead to 2009 and consider what the year may hold for Facebook. After an extremely successful 2008, it will be hard for Facebook to do much better than they did this year. We think there is still a lot of opportunity for the company still and below are 5 ways that we think the company will continue to innovate in 2009.

Campaign: Bangladeshis microblog the elections to ensure transparency

By Kate Brodock on Transparency International

On 29 December 2008, Bangladesh held its 9th Parliamentary elections, but this time there was a new twist.

Global Voicesreported that Software company Somewhere In would offer to the citizens of Bangladesh a set of internet and mobile tools that allowed for quick and easy dissemination of election news. Their motives were simple: offer a public forum where people can get real-time information and, more importantly, hold the government accountable.  In part of its open statement to the government, Somewhere In states:

“tomorrow, any update from any blogger has the potential to reach the whole world.

this time, for the first time in your political history, bloggers are watching you.”