Comments on: ok, sorry, THIS is really depressing

By: News Watcher

News Watcher — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:13:24 +0000

Google News does an extremely poor job of covering big stories. For example, when the Democrats took the House, the front page of Google News only had one small excerpt from some small-town newspaper and NO pictures of the victory! Meanwhile, pretty much every other news site had the victory covered in large pictures and many headlines.

Makes you wonder if the "algorithms" are republican moles...

By: Chris_B

Chris_B — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:19:41 +0000

Seth: I still want you on my dodgeball team at recess.

Why did the "freedom" folks (utopians, whatever) get it wrong about news? No vested interest to protect. What happened to the promise of the Internet and price transparancy/reductions? Same thing.

Ya know what really dissapoints me? Its not that the Left is bereft of Good Ideas & Agendas, its that no one is minding the shop. As long as this is the case alot of good causes are going to look like the oddball agendas of kooks and do-nohthings. And that my friends is a crying shame.

By: Shiralee

Shiralee — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:18:38 +0000

Surely any fool can see– whether he meant it or not — Kerry had a point. The US system means that if you stupidly forgot to have wealthy parents of super-smarts (to get scholarships etc), you’re stuffed and the military (or crime) are your only real ways *out*. US citizens seem determined to look anywhere but inwards for responsibility for the fact that you have an enormous 3rd world hidden inside your country… and large sections of the rest of the world fear, despise and resent you. It is not a problem that the Internet disseminates reportage… what is a problem is that so many of you seem ready to seize on what is reported as either symbolic of a lack of patriotism (WTF! since when is telling the truth unpatriotic..? oh yes! that’s right, in the *United States of Denial*) — or to blame in advance for losing the race (WTF! Have clear social justice policies and get people to vote for them rather than nationalist rhetoric, then you might win !!! Oh, and remembering the separation of church and state would help too).

BTW your heroic troops are just normal people doing what they’re told to — but that doesn’t change that what they’re being told to do makes them murderers and imperialist. Ours too. The future will hold us all responsible.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:53:44 +0000

This NY Times article about sums it up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/opinion/02thu1.html

By: Janet Hawtin

Janet Hawtin — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:42:04 +0000

yep its an interesting idea but who's idea of worthy/whuffie*.
as soon as some people lose voice in order to provide voice to the whuffie folk then we are shifting from distributed to a form of moderated and heading back to brokerage. this is a scale issue.
we know who we want to hear from at a certain scale, personally, perhaps organisationally, but at global scale how do you avoid whuffie being another form of traffic shaping v net neutrality.

Perhaps there is a scale or model where we can effectively whuffie but it is likely to need to be one where we speak/vote/connect transparently so that we can see really what the person speaks/votes/connects to. and what they say they think. if we have one space for our profile then it is trickier for people to astroturf, but that feels like a different kind of scary because then identity theft would be a real concern.

I followed the witty soldiers to the MS in China article:

'I don't think we should make corporations responsible for securing our freedoms.'
Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive director APC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6102180.stm

If whuffie sifts people into trust relationships
There would be schools of thought in a more formal sense?
We have not needed to declare our differences before.
Not as a tool for daily negotiation. Can we effect tolerant inclusive communities when we have to declare those differences. Would we be able to see the voices of people we differ from.
Perhpas I just need a coffee.
Cya.

*whuffie = see Doctorow's Magic Kingdom

By: Fact checker

Fact checker — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:08:01 +0000

The story has all but evaporated in the U.S. now that Kerry apologized and gone into seclusion where he can do no more harm.

It lasted 2 days (too long), but it's over. Poof.

By: John Eden

John Eden — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:25:56 +0000

Lessig -

What the &^%$ was Kerry thinking?! Is he intentionally trying to subsidize the fortunes of the GOP?

John

By: Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:23:19 +0000

Perhaps one could co-opt the Digg site into a meritocratic news filter?

Rather than rely on the salacious inclinations of the many, contrive a reputation metric to enable ranking of news stories according to 'importance to humanity' or something like that, eh?

Wikipedia is having to consider moving this way.

Sometimes 'the many' ain't good enough arbitration. You may need to assemble 'the worthy'.

Naturally, you need to be careful to ensure 'the worthy' don't deteriorate into 'the corrupt'. ;-)

By: michael d. morrison

michael d. morrison — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:57:57 +0000

the irrational media frenzy over a botched political joke is similar to the one a couple of weeks ago re the florida congressman enmeshed in a sex scandal with teenagers. anyone who watches the news on tv saw both TOO many times. overuse likely diminishes the import of this so-called news. really, there are many other things going on in the world today that rank these two in grave importance. attn media: give it a rest and give us a break!

michael d. morrison

By: John Dowdell

John Dowdell — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:21:26 +0000

Larry! Why are you giving Kerry's problems so much attention? You're not one of those super-secret Karl Rove moles too...!?!?