Note: The idea of semiotic democracy - the collaborative public definition of cultural signs (semeîon in Greek) - is gaining popularity, particularly as it applies the the Internet. Here's a passage on semiotic democracy from my case study on the citizen journalism web site OhmyNews. Please feel free to correct my interpretations. Citizen reporters take part in the semiotic process of creating meaning within a culture. They cease to be a passive audience for the culture products which reflect the
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Why do people want to be "on the Internet?" One of the main reasons is simple freedom. The Internet is a rare example of a true, modern, functional anarchy. There is no "Internet Inc." There are no official censors, no bosses, no board of directors, no stockholders.Today that paragraph, written in 1993, seems naive and ill-informed. There certainly are censors on the Internet. Look at China and Saudi Arabia. While there is no "Internet Inc." the Internet is most certainly
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Read over the presentations by the Summer Doctoral Program at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and decide which person's PhD research on the internet is most likely to change the world. Or just look for cool new ideas. Lecture and presentation notes are being posted to the ICTlogy blog.
I'm about to make a confession that I may come to regret. So far in this blog I've been writing about serious things like social technology and the future of politics. Well, I'm about to break with that tradition and write about something completely different... celebrity gossip! You may not know this about me (and hopefully you don't) but I love - I mean LOVE - celebrity gossip blogs. I read them every day and they bring me no end
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Mostly, I love what Java, XML, and their love child AJAX have done for the internet. They turn stade webpages into interactive mobile spaces. However sometimes these innocent, fun, web apps fall into the wrong hands. What I am referring to is Tiffany's new design-your-own-charm-bracelet-page, www.tiffany.com/charms, which allows you to drag and drop any number of charms (silver, gold, or platinum - your choice) onto a chain and then buy it. Here's my effort. I chose the platinum and gemstone
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Tonight I watched The Boys From Brazil, one of those classic films more famous for it's surprise ending (which everyone knows by now) than for being truly great. Once I accepted that is was hokey, though, I really enjoyed the twisty plot. However, there was one element that I didn't understand. There is a bone bracelet that appears throughout the film, and also in the closing shot, and I wondered "what the heck is this damned bone bracelet?" So I
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Special interests are the American boogeyman. They are used as political ammunition by both the right and left and everyone agrees that they are a danger to our democracy because the priorities of these "special interests", rather than the public well-being, set the political agenda in Washington. However, special interests are not the problem. Every citizen has their own special interests. (Mine, for example, include opposition of the Iraq war, support of green energy alternatives, an irrational revulsion towards plastic
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