The White House switch to open source: Tim O’Reilly’s thoughts

Over the weekend, the White House new media team announced (via AP) that whitehouse.gov now runs on the open source content management system Drupal. Tim O’Reilly puts this news into context:

A huge roundup on cyberculture follows:

More about e-readers

Marco Arment posted a thoughtful reply to my off-the-cuff post about e-readers and I wanted to respond to a couple of things.

Most people won’t instantly jump to buy ebook readers after seeing them in TV commercials or liveblogged keynotes. They need to be experienced in person. (The ability to do this easily will give Barnes & Noble a huge advantage over Amazon.) And they’ll spread via good, old-fashioned, in-person referrals from friends and coworkers.

EFF launches Hall of Shame for copyright abusers

Hugh from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, “Today, EFF is launching our new ‘Takedown Hall of Shame’ project, which collects the worst and most shameful examples of bogus DMCA takedowns. We’ve got everything from the recent Ralph Lauren takedown to Michael Savage’s attempts to silence critics to a video NPR tried to remove just last week!”

European Internet sinking fast under 3-strikes proposals

Things look bad for the European Internet: “3 strikes” (the entertainment industry’s proposal for a law that requires ISPs to disconnect whole households if one member is accused — without evidence or trial — of three copyright infringements) is gaining currency. Efforts to make 3-strikes illegal are being thwarted by the European bureaucracy in the EC.

Amazon to Bring e-Books to PC Users, Thanks to Competition

Amazon is really gearing up for battle against Barnes and Noble?s Nook eReader and the other eReaders are threatening to stole Amazon?s success in the e-book market.  Aside from lowering the price of its Kindle International version to $259, Amazon just announced that it will soon be releasing the ? ?Kindle for PC? application.Kindle for PC app adds up to the two other official ways of storing, downloading and reading e-book purchases you made from the Amazon Kindle store. The other two are the iPhone Kindle app and of course the Kindle reader itself.

Nook is Coming: Barnes & Noble?s Kindle Killer

We recently covered Barnes & Noble?s e-reader which aims to take some wind out of Amazon Kindle?s sails.

Today is the official launch date, and some additional details about the device have surfaced. The Nook, as it?s called, will have a 6-inch monochrome E-Ink panel as the main display, a multitouch color LCD panel right below it, and a price tag of $259 ? exactly the same as Amazon?s Kindle.

Can a Nook Kill a Kindle?

Aside from being a self-confessed iPhone addict, another gadget that fascinates me is e-book reader. Well, I should be. After all, I am a librarian by education although I admit I?m not really fond of book reading. I?ve seen, touch and used the Amazon Kindle and was in fact pretty excited about the Kindle International version. In fact, I?ve been thinking whether I should order one but suddenly that has changed. Thanks to the just announced Barnes and Noble e-Book Reader ? the Nook.Now, why would I suddenly abandon my desire to own the Kindle because of the Nook? For the simple reason that the Nook outdates the Amazon Kindle.

Prepare to board

Average Internet User Now Spends 68 Hours Per Month Online

The Nielsen Company issued a report today on the top U.S. web brands and Internet usage in the U.S. As expected, Google is the #1 web brand based on unique audience.

Stats confirm social media drives traffic to news websites

Jumping on the social media bandwagon might not be such a bad move as statistics revealed by Huffington Post CEO, Eric Hippeau, show that Facebook referrals to the aggregation website were up 48% since its launch, and has accounted for 3.5 million visits.

UCLA STUDY: Search the Internet, Activate Your Brain

Internet geeks would love to believe that their online behaviors actually stimulate the brain for the better. It turns out this notion may be a reality, at least according to a FOXNews story that recently surfaced.

Trade in the Cyberstates 2009
Source: Tech America Foundation

After realizing modest gains in 2008, U.S. high-tech exports declined steeply in the first two quarters of 2009, according to the TechAmerica Foundation?s Trade in the Cyberstates 2009: A State-by-State Overview of High-Tech International Trade report, which details national and state trends in the international trade of high-tech goods. The report covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and includes for the first time a supplemental quarterly breakdown covering the first two quarters of the current year.

EU ? Europes growing army of bloggers and social networkers can generate new services and growth

EU ? Europe’s growing army of bloggers and social networkers can generate new services and growth: ?(Europa)
A study says that European interactive websites like video sharing sites and blogs are growing, generating revenue for both owners and contributors. Compared with the US, which hosts the most commonly used websites for content created by users (blogs, texts, videos, music, games and virtual objects), Europe has more contributors. For example, almost 4 in 5 Italian internet users read blogs compared to 60% in the US, 41% of Spanish users write blogs but only 26% in the US, almost 60% of Czech internet users upload photos and 48% of Polish internet users subscribe to RSS feeds, all ahead of the US (see annex). To help the emergence of European Flickrs and youtubes that turn this large European creativity into growth and jobs, the Commission?s report highlights the need for new and updated EU rules building a Single Market for content that can be made and shared online by anyone.

CNN.com revamps website

CNN.com has revamped its international website today with a greater focus on video and photography and less text clutter. The redesign comes as many news organisations, including the BBC, attempt to keep their homepages up-to-date with changing technologies, the advanced capabilities of the Internet and a general shift in the way people consume news today.

from:  ThankyouAndyWarhol.com

US Department of Defense adopts “open source guidelines”

John Scott’s been working with the US Department of Defense to develop a set of guidelines for using free/open source software in the US military: As a Marine friend says “Agility is the Capability” – open source software and methods is the enabler of this. The DoD CIO office (or ASD-NII) just has posted new open source software guidance for the whole Department of Defense! Only took about 18 months to get through, so worth it. Hopefully this puts the FUD to bed.

BBC News: Europe backs down on piracy plans

BBC NEWS | Technology | Europe backs down on piracy plans: ?Europe backs down on piracy plans?

Page last updated at 11:10 GMT, Friday, 23 October 2009 12:10 UK

The European Parliament has given the green light for member states to cut persistent file-sharers off from the net.

It has dropped an amendment to its Telcoms Package which would have made it hard for countries to cut off pirates without court authority.