• Bloggers, mind control and the death of newspapers (the Internet imagined in 1965)

    Bloggers, mind control and the death of newspapers (the Internet imagined in 1965)

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    Calder invites us to have a giggle, but really it’s not a bad list at all, and compared with the (cough) ‘futurists’ who have come and gone since, Calder and the participants did a good job. Alvin Toffler was repackaging these ideas, particularly mass amateurisation, many years later. As are thousands of Web 2.0 consultants…

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  • A Martin Mills interview

    A Martin Mills interview

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    The Beggars Group office in a suburban street in Wandsworth doesn’t look much like a media corporation. There’s no chocolate ice sculpture in reception, and no giant video screens or inspirational slogans. It does look a lot like you’d expect a real independent record company to look, though: behind the receptionist’s desk is the kitchen…

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  • Web politics: The honeymoon is over

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    Parallel moves in Canada and the US may signal the end of the honeymoon for web-based political campaigning – or change it beyond recognition. Politicians are becoming increasingly familiar with sudden squalls of email filling up their inboxes, and policy makers with responses to public consultations arriving via a web intermediary. But not surprisingly many…

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  • Google Street View logs WiFi networks, MAC addresses

    Google Street View logs WiFi networks, MAC addresses

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    Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along. Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s "horrified" by the…

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  • Lizard People drop ACTA draft from Black Helicopter

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    Emerging briefly from their underground volcano lair, the shadowy A.C.T.A. organisation has released their latest list of demands. It’s another relentless march towards global New World Order governance. Actually, that’s how a few bloggers and even professional hacks have portrayed it. But what’s wrong with this picture? Read more at The Register… Read More

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  • How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

    How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

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    How did the music business end up with a triumph with the new Digital Economy Act? How did photographers, whose resources were one laptop and some old fashioned persuasion, carry an unlikely and famous victory? How did the digital rights campaigners fail so badly? Back in January, a senior music business figure explained to me…

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