Digital Britain? How About Digital Oakland?

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The Twitterverse is abuzz with the news of the "Digital Britain" report introduced by Stephen Andrew Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting or "Lord Carter" in the UK. The idea of the report is to lay a framework for future development of the digital media industry in Britain. But this is a terrible first start; it's just a PDF report! (You can get it here!)

When I think "digital media" I expect a video, podcast, and blog complete with a website of some kind. Not in this case. There's no real good website at all, just pages and a forum that has way down in the page an embed of a video from the first Digital Britain event, a stodgy affair featuring a bunch of older British white guys, rather than a diverse set of young people, the common theme in the industry.

That's the problem.

Digital industry policy should be formed with the most common consumers of it in the room, and the suited group in the video's not it; the grassroots bloggers, programmers, and vloggers are. It's no wonder Digital Britain's policy's appear to favor large old media telecommunications firms (an indefinite 3G license to original holders without competition for them is a terrible idea) almost at the expense of the little but innovative players in digital media. Moreover it seems to be some kind of rationale for the funneling of public dollars to a few big companies, like iTV.

The other problem with the report is that it focuses on Britain as if the rest of the World doesn't exist. In the matter of copywrites, the report explains a desire to essentially liberalize rules but how? What if the material doesn't come from the UK, as is often the case? I think the whole initiative's a good start but an example of what not to do; such efforts must be both "local" and international.

Local in that there should be a "Digital Oakland" where Oaklanders set their own digital media policy directives. Or Digital London, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and so on. In fact, Oakland's a terrific place to have a "Digital Oakland" conference. We've got our share of large firms, like search engine operator Ask.com, and a healthy group of members of the Twitterverse coupled with vloggers like myself, a government that's really behind the curve on this stuff (sorry but it is), and a large set of people who want to know more about how to access and use digital media for business and for life. Oakland's perfect.

Digital Oakland. I like the sound of it.

Iran Elections: Iran's Government tries to block the Internet

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For the third straight day, protests have rocked Iran from large cities like Tehran to small towns and villages. The very idea that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be reelected in a fixed vote count has stirred the passions of millions of Iranians and the World's watching this revolution in the making.

Twitter, again, has been the communications focus of the goings on in Iran, almost exclusively. The micro-blogging service's importance has become so great the U.S. State Department asked the San Francisco firm to avoid shutting down for maintenance, but it did, for just one hour and according to the Twitter blog, just enough time to increase capacity to handle the demands of this event. 

The amount of information communicated through Twitter has been of stagger proportions. While Kara Swisher may write that some say Twitter is "inane and half-baked",, the fact that Iranians can use their cell phones to tweet information and share photos has done more than the mainstream media in telling the World what's happening. And what's happening now is the Iran government's attempting to block all Internet information from "escaping" the country; they've targeted blogs, websites, and now email accounts. The security minders have used Twitter to ferret out the in-country communicators but without much success; the constant use of new tags combined with the Iran government's lack of expertise with Twitter, has made their effort a cat-and-mouse game.

Meanwhile the information continues:

redditgirl reports Gmail is accessible by proxy. Another tweet by someone reports on gunshot wounds being treated. Yet another reads that Yahoo main can be had via proxy. A whole new set of web proxies has developed to get around the Iranian Government. And at this point you're wondering just what the hell a proxy is? The simplest explaination is proxies a way of using another online IP identification to get around systems that block standard ones. This cyber organic process of evolution is a wonder to watch and to be a part of. People around the World, but especially in North America and Europe, have taken part in the formation of a way out for Iran protest information. Essentially, the World is working against the Iranian Government. Consider this "Cyber War Guide" to helping protestors:

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.

1. Do NOT publicize proxy IP’s over Twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DIRECT MESSAGE them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don’t re-tweet impetuously, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become ‘Iranians’ it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don’t blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don’t publicize their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don’t signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind…

This has been passed and copied from blog to website to blog, and now, it's news and away from the clutches of the Iranian Government. (When one starts to refer to a government in terms reserved for monster movies, you know it's got a problem. And on that note, the blog iRevolution has great tips on using the Internet to get information out and around "represssive environments.")

Fake Twitter Accounts

And on the matter of repressive environments comes a list from the blog Twitspan.org of "fake Twitter accounts" believed to be created by the Iranian Government. One is to block these accounts:

# http://twitter.com/Amir1982
# http://twitter.com/_SuperGreen_
# http://twitter.com/globalmeeting
# http://twitter.com/ghb78
# http://twitter.com/am12976
# http://twitter.com/iranianfree2k9
# http://twitter.com/FreeMediaNews
# http://www.twitter.com/jfcrow (unconfirmed)
# http://twitter.com/Karmuk (Retweeting same message over and over)
# http://twitter.com/chartingstocks (Writing fake articles on the Iranian Election Twitters)
# http://twitter.com/obamaspy
# http://twitter.com/IranisFree
# http://twitter.com/serv_

The Beauty of Flickr in all this mess

Twitter's also a kind of portal to other online social networking content platforms, like Flickr.

And what's happening on Flickr's a mess.

One of the most popular destinations has been the Flickr page owned by faramarz, who 's uploaded photos of protests and violence are both breathtaking and shocking.

 

  

 

What is amazing to see is the number  of Twitter accounts that have changed their identification photos to green in solidarity with Iran's protest movement.  I can't say I've ever seen anything like this and I have to totally disagree with those who's tried to downplay Twitter's impact and laugh at TIME Magazine CEO Ann Moore, who talked of "putting the digital genie back in the bottle" as if it can be controlled. What a howler!

I've said this to anyone regardless of their attention span: New Media is organic and not something one can "control" because it's nature - in technology and in application - is to spread out, seek new areas, and avoid being trapped. It's a pure reflection of and expression of the human desire for freedom. A fact that scares the hell out of control freaks everywhere.

We're witnessing the full-flowering of the potential of New Media as it has evolved to this point. The next level will be when we're able to see live streams of events via Twitter or a Twitter-like system.   Perhaps the cellphone-based Qik.com service holds the key as it improves in product quality.  Time will tell, and it seems sooner rather than later.

15th June 2009 millions protest in iran against election fraud in Iran

24خرداد 88، خیابان ولیعصر، اعتراض به نتیجه انتخابات Iran Police Beat Bystander

Police invasion on people tehran vanak Sq 13 June 2009

From persianlover2007 on YouTube - This is how Iranian government supports democracy, this happened after presidential election when people protest for cheating on their vote.

Rivals Both Claim Victory in Iran's Election

From the AP: Iran's Interior Ministry claimed hard-line incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was heading for a landslide victory in the country's presidential elections. But his pro-reform rival countered that he was the clear victor. (June 13)

Lakers Win! Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson gain redemption

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After a long time without a ring, a seven year drought that saw a number of unfortunate events for LA Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant, he and "the zen master" , his coach Phil Jackson, who had to wonder if he's ever see the winning side of an NBA Finals contest, won the NBA Championship in fine fashion, defeating the Orlando Magic in five games, winning the last one tonight 99-86.    It's the Lakers' 15th NBA title, Jackson's 10th, and Bryant's fourth, and certainly the sweetest.

 

Kobe gets his ring!  

First, hats off to the Magic, who made it thrilling with two overtime games and heroic play down the stretch from center Dwight Howard, but in the end, the Lakers will was too much for the Magic to overcome.

The Lakers, and indeed, Bryant and Jackson, wanted to erase all of the bad feelings from the total beat-down the Boston Celtics gave to them last year and from the equally abusive talk aimed at Bryant from former teammate Shaq O'Neal, who left the Lakers and almost immediately won a title with the Miami Heat, then rubbed it in Bryant's face, almost on an annual basis.

No more.

Bryant played with a scowl on his face and something to prove.  And he did.  That he's a complete player.  A mature person.  A father.  A community leader.  And a nice person.  That he did it with Phil Jackson as his coach comes as no surprise, but for a time it seemed Jackson was to be religated to the "used to" bin, as in, "he used to be a great coach."   Hey, let's give credit to Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchek for the acquisition of Pau Gasol who filled in the missing piece as "enforcer" and for adding Derek Fisher, who's clutch "threes" were the difference in two finals games, but Jackson put them all together then stepped back and let them play.

Fisher said it best about Jackson after the last game on ABC: "He let's players play."   Jackson doesn't try to control his players, he treats them as men and as talented athletes.  He gives them an open canvas on which to paint, and his players created a masterpiece of a win.  It's for that reason Jackson's the greatest coach in NBA history.

The zen master is back.

UPDATE: on his (verified) Twitter account twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ, Shaq O'Neal was active to be sure. After the Lakers won he posted this:

 

O'Neal also tweeted that he's not leaving the Phoenix Suns for Cleveland and Le Bron James.

Iran Elections: Iranian Culture to blame for a rigged outcome

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Iran held its national election process to select its next president on Friday, June 12th. With all the televised demonstrations and Internet buzz it was logical to believe Iran's current leader, the not-well-liked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , would be beaten by his progressive challenger Mr. Hossein Mousavi. Indeed, late on Friday in America, some reports were that Mousavi was on pace to upset Ahmadinejad considering the vote count. But by Saturday that was not to be; the Iranian Elections Commission annouced that Ahmadinejad was the winner with 62.6 percent of the popular vote compared to 33.75 percent for Mousavi.

 

Did he really win?   

The outcome upset many who believed it was rigged and caused violent street protests that are still going on as of this writing on Sunday (Twitter is the best place to keep up with the developments). The belief that Ahmadinejad's victory may have been engineered is one commmunicated in modern fashion by text message and the Internet, but has its roots in a set of very real considerations borne of Iranian culture:

1) Any unbiased reporting of the election process is improbable because Iran punishes investigative journalists, as happened to Roxana Saberi, the woman who was recently held in detention for over three months for being a "spy" when all the student reporter had done was write about real life in Iran and Islam including pro-American groups, whereas the government sends videos of constant pockets of anti-American demonstrations. She was released on May 10th, just one month before election day. In Iran, journalists are imprisoned, threatened, and alledgedly killed.

2) Researcher Muhammad Sahimi looked at the election data from Iran's Interior Ministry and determined that there's a perfect linear relationship between the votes that Ahmadinejad received and those that Mousavi got, such that Mousavi's votes are perfectly one-half of Ahmadinejad's for the data set analyzed and the correlation coefficient is .9995 - almost one, which means almost perfect. That's weird, folks. There should be a non-linear vote count - in other words, one for you, two for me; one for you, none for me; and so on.

3) Juan Cole, a Mid East observer of the Global American Institute, holds that Mousavi is a Azeri from the Azerbajan province, of which Tabriz is the capital, yet Ahmadinejad won that city with 57 percent of the vote. In other words, Mousavi failed to carry his home region's capital city which many are questioning given the common election rule that a campaigner generally wins the vote in their home region, even in a loss.   (Cole and Sahimi did not share information as of this writing and I'm not even sure they know of each other.) 

4) Given Mousavi's reportedly poor relations with top Iranian leaders, Cole charges that the country's electoral commission was told to falsify the vote count.

All of this gurantees that the election was "rigged" to some degree. But just by how much is known only to those who did the rigging. The fact this idea is now commonly accepted by many, perhaps millions, should be of concern to President Ahmadinejad, who can't say he has a true mandate to run Iran as he sees fit. He has to "open the government" if only to quell future massive uprisings. He can't matain the practices he established entering the election; his true enemy, the Internet, will prevent that.

Still no plea deal: Burress lawyer says gun case to be delayed until Septembe

Still no plea deal: Burress lawyer says gun case to be delayed until September

By Associated Press
4:40 PM EDT, June 12, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress will have to wait a while longer before he knows the legal consequences of accidentally shooting himself with an unlicensed pistol.

Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman said Burress will appear in court Monday for a brief hearing. Brafman said Burress and prosecutors have yet to agree on a plea deal and the case will be adjourned until September.

Burress shot himself in the thigh on Nov. 29 in a Manhattan nightclub. He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and faces up to 3½ years in prison. Burress has pleaded not guilty and is free on $100,000 bail.

Burress caught the game-winning touchdown for the Giants in the 2008 Super Bowl. He is a free agent after the team released him on April 3.

The Blog Report: Obama Inauguration Episode

David Letterman Kathy Griffin June 10th 2009

On Letterman's show, Kathy Griffin calls Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a "moron" and her husband "a tool" as Dave cringes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger answers Ellen DeGeneres

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Who's minding the Guv's tweets?

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the target of comedian Ellen DeGeneres Twitter and email-based campaign to stop his proposal to reduce the time animals are kept in shelters from six days to three days, answered DeGeneres on Twitter today:

1. @TheEllenShow We are eliminating funding but shelters determine time before euthanization.about 12 hours ago from web
   
       
2. @TheEllenShow We can only spend money we have and can't afford many programs, for example, health care for children.about 12 hours ago from web
   
       

Basically the Guv's claim is shelters themselves make the timing decision, but that's passing the buck, really. The bottom line is the reduced funding would almost certainly cause such a lowering of time, which is what outrages Ellen and many who've been informed of Schwarzenegger's proposal.

But what's got me really twinged is the popular pol's first tweet to Ellen that refers to cutting health care for kids! Kids. The focus of the tweet was kids. Why even mention kids?  Think about it.  That's going from the frying pan to the fire in one tweet; from defenseless animals to defenseless kids.  Is there a pattern here?

That's enough to start another Twitter campaign (follow me on Twitter!) so strong that "Tell Gov" becomes a trending topic yet again. The Guv bothered - heck, went out of his way - to mention cutting health care for kids. I mean take a look at this:

That's the actual screen shot of what appeared on the Guv's page at the time of this writing, in case someone out their thinks I'm writing fantasy.   Using "health care for children" as an example of programs the Governor claims the state can't afford was a bad idea.  I mean, is this really Arnold? It's certainly his official Twitter page!


I sometimes wonder who's writing the Guv's tweets, a staffer or Arnold himself? Something tells me Arnold would be less ham-handed in his tweets than what I've seen today. That's the kind of line I'd expect a young, conservative, childless, never-seen-much-of-urban-America intern to produce on Twitter, not Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is getting more and more interesting.

As of this writing, no response from Ellen, but I'm putting this in her replies box, so stay tuned!

BTW, I've been sick, real sick, so my output is low; hopefully I didn't get that dang you-know-what flu! Grrrr!!!