California

Cyberculture agenda: “A Victory for Privacy and Transparency: HRW v. DEA… “Facebook, Twitter and Google pledge to increase hate speech moderation efforts in Germany…

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A Victory for Privacy and Transparency: HRW v. DEA EFF.org Updates by Mark Rumold In a victory for millions of people in the U.S. who have placed telephone calls to locations overseas, EFF and Human Rights Watch have confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s practice of collecting those records in bulk has stopped and that the … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: A new study shows “Slacktivism” might actually be helpful…

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New Study Shows Armchair Activists Actually Make a Difference – Social media “slacktivism” plays an important role in social movements. Upvoted by Gabrielle Canon In the wake of the devastating November terrorist attack that left 130 dead in Paris, Facebook photos around the world began appearing in the faded colors of the French flag: With just one click, … Read more

Journalism agenda: The best and worst journalism of 2015 by Columbia Journalism Review…

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The best and worst journalism of 2015 cjr.org It’s been a standout year for journalism—and a disappointing one. CJR discussed the most important media stories and trends of 2015, good and bad, compiled below. Turkish photographer Nilufer Demir’s September 2 images of drowned toddler Usability overtakes design  Nieman Journalism Lab by Libby Bawcombe Responsive design has … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: WhatsApp is blocking links to Telegram, its major rival…”How online activist groups are raising millions….

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WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links on Android for some reason The Next Web by Napier Lopez There’s something funky going on at WhatsApp HQ. Android users are noticing that the app is now blocking any links to rival chat app Telegram. The odd behavior was first spotted by Telegram users over on Reddit. Links to the app … Read more

Literati roundup: A new book on Participatory culture… “Sci-Fi’s Hugo Awards and the Battle for Pop Culture’s Soul….

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New book: Participatory Culture in a Networked Era by Henry Jenkins, Mimi Ito, and me!  apophenia In 2012, Henry Jenkins approached Mimi Ito and I with a crazy idea that he’d gotten from talking to the folks at Polity. Would we like to sit down and talk through our research and use that as the basis … Read more

Literati roundup: after all Google’s scan of millions of books has been declared legal…”Digital Islamic Humanities Project…

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Google’s audacious project that scanned millions of books has been declared legal The Next Web by Owen Williams Google Books, a project that involved scanning tens of millions of books to make them available online, was met with resistance from authors around the world. A group of authors sued Google in 2008 claiming that the project violated copyright and … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: “The Snowden Treaty

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The US’s Campaign Against Encryption Is Based on Blind Faith in Silicon Valley Stanford Center for Internet and Society by Center for Internet and Society Date published: September 22, 2015 “”The unanimous conclusion—the scientific consensus—in industry, in academia, and even among government experts is that there is a significant security risk associated with facilitating government access … Read more

Dear friends, Wired offers us how to be culturally literate in 2016… Meanwhile, “UC Berkeley issues first-ever university transparency report- Literati roundup…

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What You Need to Know to Be Culturally Literate in 2016 Wired Top Stories by Robert Capps Here’s a cheat sheet of everything you need to know to understand what’s happening in science, culture, security, business, and design. Feel free to take notes. UC Berkeley issues first-ever university transparency report Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow April writes, … Read more

Journalism agenda: #FreeRasool “Jake Hanrahan On His Detention In Turkey, And Why Mohammed Rasool Must Be Released

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  Journalists detained in Turkey for using encryption On 27 August, a British journalist and a cameraman working for Vice News, a news channel that broadcasts in-depth documentaries about current subjects, and their fixer were detained in Turkey while reporting in Diyarbakir, the main city of the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern region. At the beginning of … Read more

Literati roundup: “Five politics classics every activist should know about….

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Five politics classics every activist should know about open Democracy News Analysis – by Tom Butler-Bowdon And they’re not all what you think… 1. Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals (1971) The McCarthy era decimated the ranks of American radicals, yet it did not stop the disillusionment that America’s young felt in the 1960s about politicians and … Read more

Journalism agenda: 2015 Pulitzer Prize winners…

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2015 Pulitzer Prize winners kottke.org by Jason Kottke Anthony Doerr Wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for All the Light We Cannot See All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Elizabeth Kolbert won for General Nonfiction. Read more on writerswrite.com  Writerswrite.com’s Writer’s Blog / Big Pulitzer Prizes go … Read more

Anthropology roundup: “On Ethnographic Knowability…Neuroanthropology of ethics… Anthropologists Offer Insights and Solutions to the Ebola Crisis…

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On Ethnographic Knowability Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog by Carole McGranahan This entry is part 11 of 11 in the Fall 2014 Writer’s Workshop series. (Savage Minds is pleased to post this essay by guest author Catherine Besteman as part of our Writer’s Workshop series. Catherine is Francis F. … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: #YesAllWomen Hashtag campaign…

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  How the #YesAllWomen Hashtag Began  Mashable! by Pete Pachal In the wake of the Elliot Rodger shooting rampage, many women have turned to Twitter to share their experiences of harassment, fear and sexual assault under the hashtag#YesAllWomen. #YesAllWomen The Meta-Activism Project Elliott Rodger?s hatred of the women who rejected him inspired his rampage near UC Santa Barbara … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: ‘Newsweek’ Claims Bitcoin Creator…

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  ‘Newsweek’ Claims Bitcoin Creator Is 64 and Lives With His Mom Some have suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto, the man who developed the idea for Bitcoin, worked for a government agency; others have suggested that “he” was actually a group of people. One researcher posited that Nakamoto was “probably” a blogger named Nick Szabo; another report pointed to a connection … Read more

Cyberculture roundup: Google Announces New Search Algorithm…

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Google Announces New Search Algorithm One day before celebrating the company’s 15th birthday, Google went back to the place where it all started ? literally Google unveils search updates for mobile, new Page Rank algorithm, and Knowledge Graph comparisons This week, Google marks its 15-year anniversary and the team brought members of the media to the original Google House … Read more