Wikipedia hits 10 million total articles
That's how many Wikipedia has now, if you count all the articles in the 250-plus languages the encyclopedia is available in.
2008.03.31
2008.03.28
Dutch critic of Islam launches anti-Koran film
Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders posted on the Internet yesterday a film he said would be critical of the Koran, despite government concerns that it will offend Muslims and cause protests. The film was posted on his PVV party's Web site.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032702082.html
YouTube expects Turkey to restore access after removing videos
YouTube has removed several video clips that had prompted Turkish authorities to block access to the video-sharing Web site, a move the company believes will lead to a restoration of access soon. In a statement in Turkish sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, YouTube said the company "reviewed the videos that led to the most recent ban on access and removed them because of their content, which violate YouTube's content policy."
2008.03.25
LV: New database of research papers on EU
A new database of reports and research papers on the European Union and on Latvia in the EU has been launched on the political web portal www.politika.lv.
Financially supported by the European Commission’s Representation in Latvia, the scheme will enable readers to expand their knowledge of EU matters and, thereby, it is hoped, raise the quality of citizen participation in debates about the Union. As Iveta Šulca, head of the EC Representation in Latvia, explains, “Full public participation in discussions and decision-making requires sound and transparent information, and the new database will offer just that – and free of charge. The Lisbon Treaty provides instruments to make the EU more efficient and more democratic, but this cannot be achieved without an informed public discussion on current EU issues.”
The Representation also anticipates that the database will serve as a useful source of information for the media and anyone interested in European Union matters, including state officials, students and academics.
At present, the database offers around 200 papers, mostly in English, covering EU foreign policy, migration, integration of immigrants, free movement of workers, Latvia’s participation in the Union, energy, the future of the EU, human rights, EU enlargement, the environment, the Structural Funds and agriculture. It is intended that sources should include public, private and non-governmental studies, as well as papers and dissertations from Latvian universities. Universities and other higher education establishments are invited to use the new resource and to offer their own materials for the database.
EU Blogs Becoming Prominent Players in Elections
While the Internet continues to increase in users and impact, blogs are making themselves felt in the politics of the European Union and will be an increasingly important player, as seen across the Atlantic in recent U.S. Elections. In a period when analysts and critics bemoan the lack of fresh ideas and genuine dialog in the West, the European blogosphere promises to bring a mass of previously voiceless political enthusiasts into the arena. In the States, blogs were initially known as a bastion for the Right to bemoan a supposed lack of representation in the mainstream press. But the Left launched stunning growth in blogs, and are now well-represented. Now, in many blogs there are heated debates on the issues of the day that can go one for weeks and months.
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=2018
2008.03.24
China orders shutdown of 25 video entertainment Web sites
China has ordered more than two dozen video entertainment Web sites to shut down under new rules governing such sites. The new rules, which took effect Jan. 31, bans providers from broadcasting video that involves national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disrupts social stability, or promotes pornography. Providers are required to delete and report such content under the rules.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/portal/news/ci_8648127?nclick_check=1&_loopback=1
Online social networks: Everywhere and nowhere
So it is entirely conceivable that social networking, like web-mail, will never make oodles of money. That, however, in no way detracts from its enormous utility. Social networking has made explicit the connections between people, so that a thriving ecosystem of small programs can exploit this ⌠social graph■ to enable friends to interact via games, greetings, video clips and so on.
AOL to buy Bebo for $850m
AOL, part of the Time Warner media empire, is to acquire leading social networking website Bebo in an $850m (£417m) cash deal. Bebo, founded by British-born Michael Birch and his partner Xochi in 2005, claims to have around 40 million monthly users worldwide. The surprise deal marks a major push by AOL to grow its social media business, which consists of AIM, a cross between messaging and social networking, and personal communications network ICQ.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/13/bebo.digitalmedia
China blocks YouTube, Yahoo! over Tibet
China has closed down access to several of the world's most popular websites in an apparent attempt to censor international coverage of the violence that is unfolding in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3568040.ece
State of the news media online 2008
The audience for online news is growing, but news sites are not growing in advertising revenue as quickly as other types of Websites, according to the annual State of the News Media report.
Lots of good analysis in the Online section and elsewhere, including:
* A news organization and a news Web site are no longer final destinations. Now they must move toward also being stops along the way, gateways to other places, and a means to drill deeper, all ideas that connect to service rather than product. “The walled garden is over,” the editor of one of the most popular news sites in the country told us. A site restricted to its own content takes on the character of a cul de sac street with yellow “No Outlet” sign, reducing its value to the user. “Search has become the predominant … paradigm,” an influential market research report circulating throughout the industry reads. That means every page of a Web site — even one containing a single story — is its own front page. And each piece of content competes on its own with all other information on that topic linked to by blogs, “digged” by user news sites, sent in e-mails, or appearing in searches. As much as half of every Web page, designers advise, should be devoted to helping people find what they want on the rest of the site or the Web. That change is already occurring. A year ago, our study of news Web sites found that only three of 24 major Web sites from traditional news organizations offered links to outside content. Eleven of those sites now offer them. Some of this may simply be automated, which may be a service of limited value.
* The prospects for user-created content, once thought possibly central to the next era of journalism, for now appear more limited, even among “citizen” sites and blogs. News people report the most promising parts of citizen input currently are new ideas, sources, comments and to some extent pictures and video. But citizens posting news content has proven less valuable, with too little that is new or verifiable. (It may thrive at smaller outlets with fewer resources.) And the skepticism is not restricted to the traditional mainstream media or “MSM.” The array of citizen-produced news and blog sites is reaching a meaningful level. But a study of citizen media contained in this report finds most of these sites do not let outsiders do more than comment on the site’s own material, the same as most traditional news sites. Few allow the posting of news, information, community events or even letters to the editors. And blog sites are even more restricted. In short, rather than rejecting the “gatekeeper” role of traditional journalism, for now citizen journalists and bloggers appear for now to be recreating it in other places.
* The Web is becoming a more integral part of people’s lives. Eight in 10 Americans 17 and older now say the Internet is a critical source of information — up from 66% in 2006. According to the same survey, more Americans identified the Internet as a more important source of information than television (68%), radio (63%) and newspapers (63%).
* In 2007, the evidence suggests online access through mobile phones was still a niche activity. … As of March 2007, the latest period for which data are available, more than 60% of U.S. broadband users owned an Internet-enabled mobile device, but just 5% reported using the Internet there, according to research conducted by Media-Screen, a research firm.
* More media sites are taking the reader away from the “walled garden” – their own content – linking to once-taboo outside sources or even inviting in third-party content, allowing hunting-and-gathering consumers to act more directly on their preferences rather than being led to them.
http://stateofthemedia.com/2008/narrative_online_intro.php?cat=0&media=5
